Along Highway 101
The Italian Graziano family is one of the oldest grape-growing families in Mendocino County and specializes in ‘Cal-Ital’ wines – including Primitivo,…
Must-see attractions in Northern California
Napa
Showcasing all things culinary (produce stalls, kitchen shops and everywhere something to taste), Oxbow is foodie central with an emphasis on seasonal…
Along Highway 101
Sample standout (and organic!) Pinot Gris, Valdiguié and Pinot Noir from a stunning hilltop tasting room tucked into the forest.
San Francisco
Crafty kids find ways to persuade parents to brave traffic and chilly fog to reach SF Zoo – but everyone ends up enjoying the well-kept habitats,…
Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park
Lake Tahoe
The largest, and arguably most luxurious of the state parks at Lake Tahoe, Ed Z’Berg Sugar Pine State Park (formerly known as Sugar Pine State Park), sits…
South Lake Tahoe & Stateline
Three 1920s-era estates – Baldwin, Pope and Valhalla – sprawl across this 150-acre site on the southwest shore of Lake Tahoe. Free, self-guided tours wind…
San Francisco
The Legion of Honor, or more formally known as the “California Palace of the Legion of Honor”, is a part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It is…
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Carmel's strikingly beautiful mission is an oasis of solemnity with flowering gardens and a thick-walled basilica filled with Spanish Colonial art and…
Sausalito
Bohemia still thrives along the shoreline of Richardson Bay, where free spirits inhabit hundreds of quirky homes that bob in the waves among the seabirds…
Oakland
Every museum has an educational mission, and this one is dedicated to California. You'll find rotating exhibitions on artistic and scientific themes, and…
Along Highway 101
A cult favorite, supercool Kaz is about blends: whatever is in the organic vineyards goes into the wine – and they’re blended at crush, not during…
Angel Island Immigration Station
Marin County
Nicknamed the 'Ellis Island of the West,' Angel Island's early-20th-century US Immigration Station is a 1.5-mile walk or bike ride from the ferry dock…
The Peninsula
Definitely the most interesting tech visitor center in the area. You'll be met by an army of Geniuses in red shirts offering information from how to use…
Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park
West of I-5
The walls here basically talk – they’re papered inside with 150-year-old donation ledgers from the once-thriving Chinese community, the immigrants who…
Laws Railroad Museum & Historic Site
Eastern Sierra
This railroad and Old West museum recreates the village of Laws, an important stop on the route of the Slim Princess, a narrow-gauge train that hauled…
Redding & Around
Resembling a beached cruise ship, the shimmering-white 2004 Sundial Bridge spans the river and is one of Redding’s marquee attractions, providing an…
Sonoma
This is the largest plaza in California, and the veritable center for politics, love and community in the Sonoma Valley. Smack in the center of the plaza,…
Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
Eastern Sierra
To visit some of the earth's oldest living things, budget a half-day for the thrilling drive up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. These otherworldly…
Along Highway 101
Among the best community museums in this half of the state. It puts the lives of early settlers in excellent historical context – much drawn from old…
El Dorado County Historical Museum
Gold Country
On the El Dorado County Fairgrounds west of downtown (exit north on Placerville Dr from Hwy 50), is this complex of restored buildings, mining equipment…
Wat Dhammararam Buddhist Temple
San Joaquin Valley
With elaborate grounds, brightly painted statues and a 50ft reclining Buddha, this is a vibrant home to the area's Cambodian population. The celebration…
Sacramento
This modern museum is home to the California Hall of Fame and so the only place to simultaneously encounter César Chávez, Mark Zuckerberg and Amelia…
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite's most distinctive natural monument, Half Dome is 87 million years old and has a 93% vertical grade – the sheerest cliff in North America…
Yosemite National Park
At nearly 3600ft from base to summit, El Capitan ranks as one of the world’s largest granite monoliths. Its sheer face makes it a world-class destination…
Yosemite National Park
This ‘honey, hit the brakes!’ viewpoint, midway between the May Lake turnoff and Tenaya Lake, is a lunar landscape of glaciated granite with a stunning…
North Coast & Redwoods
Along Hwy 101, 53,000-acre Humboldt Redwoods State Park protects some of the world's oldest redwoods and has three-quarters of the world's tallest 100…
Mt Shasta Region
You'll come across views of Mt Shasta either peaking over a ridge or completely dominating the landscape, from the Oregon border and even into the east…
Sequoia National Park
A scenic subalpine valley at 7500ft, Mineral King is Sequoia’s backpacking mecca and a good place to find solitude. Gorgeous and gigantic, its glacially…
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
North Coast & Redwoods
The northernmost park, Jedediah Smith is 9 miles northeast of Crescent City (via Hwy 101 north to Hwy 199 east). The redwood stands are so thick that few…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
The city's oldest building and its namesake, whitewashed adobe Misión San Francisco de Asís was founded in 1776 and rebuilt from 1782. Today the modest…
Salt Point State Park
Stunning 6000-acre Salt Point State Park has sandstone cliffs that drop dramatically into the kelp-strewn sea and hiking trails that crisscross windswept…
San Francisco
'Homeward into the sunset/Still unwearied we go/Till the northern hills are misty/With the amber of afterglow.' Poet George Sterling's poem 'City by the…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
That upended blue-steel box miraculously balancing on one corner atop the Contemporary Jewish Museum is appropriate for an institution that upends…
North Coast & Redwoods
This park is the southernmost of a patchwork of state and federally administered lands under the umbrella of Redwood National & State Parks. After picking…
Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park
North Coast & Redwoods
Marked by steep canyons and dense woods north of Klamath, this park contains 15 miles of hiking trails and several old logging roads that are a mountain…
North Coast & Redwoods
The mouth of the Klamath River is a dramatic sight. Marine, riparian, forest and meadow ecological zones all converge and the birding is exceptional. For…
Yosemite National Park
At the southwestern end of the valley, Bridalveil Fall tumbles 620ft. The Ahwahneechee people call it Pohono (Spirit of the Puffing Wind), as gusts often…
San Francisco
You’ve seen the eight switchbacks of Lombard St's 900 block in a thousand photographs. The tourist board has dubbed it ‘the world’s crookedest street,’…
Sequoia National Park
This 3-sq-mile grove protects the park’s most gargantuan tree specimens. Among them is the world’s biggest, the General Sherman tree, rocketing 275ft into…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
This triple-decker, brick-walled US military fortress was completed in 1861, with 126 cannons, to protect the bay against certain invasion during the…
