Los Angeles
The heart of the City of Angels is a rather wild mix of metropolitan gloss and outright poverty. Here, as in many large cities, it is quite deserted on weekends. Homeless people sleep peacefully on the lawn in the park, here and there are groups of aimlessly wandering teenagers, tourists with cameras, and day laborers with large bags.
The contrasting downtown with its very colorful central market, Grand Central Market, where Mexican spices, vegetables, fruits, and various ethnic foods are sold, is ideal for a first introduction to the city. The building itself, where the market is located, was built in 1905, and the block where it stands perfectly conveys the spirit of that time. In old photographs from the early and mid-twentieth century, many central streets look almost the same as now.
The financial district in the very center of the city – on Spring Street – deserves special attention. This area, which concentrates the tallest buildings in Southern California, is often called 'Wall Street of the West Coast.' Incidentally, many buildings in the state are built to special designs. This is because California is in a seismically active zone. Los Angeles itself shakes from time to time, and all high-rise buildings in the city's business district are designed to withstand minor ground vibrations (and they are almost all minor).
The oldest surviving office building in Los Angeles is the Bradbury Building. Its design was commissioned by Lewis Bradbury and developed by architect George Wyman. The construction cost the businessman $500,000, but Bradbury never saw it in operation. He died a few months before its opening in 1893. The Bradbury Building is perhaps the most famous building in the historic part of the city. Now it houses the Internal Affairs Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, LAPD. Since many American films take place near Hollywood, this building can often be seen in 'police' movies.
If you like thrills, I recommend spending a day at the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. They say it has the scariest roller coasters in the USA. It is better to buy tickets for all theme parks online, where advantageous special offers appear from time to time.
Be sure to devote at least a couple of hours to a tour of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which personally seems notable to me for the Picasso installation and the famous painting 'This is Not a Pipe' by René Magritte. Another day I suggest spending at the Getty Museum, the largest art museum in the state, where one of the gems of the collection is Van Gogh's 'Irises'.
If you find yourself in the center, be sure to stop by MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), where the largest installation in the museum's history will be open until the end of May. MOCA is perhaps the best place to get an idea of contemporary American art while in California. Currently, five hundred paintings are exhibited there, selected for the exhibition in honor of the museum's thirtieth anniversary, including works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol.
A must on the tourist program is Hollywood. Local guides like to combine a walk through a film studio with a mini-tour of Los Angeles. If you choose such a combined tour, it will take at least six hours to see the sights. Before showing you the Chinese Theatre, where most movie premieres take place, and the Roosevelt Hotel, where the Oscars are awarded annually, you will be taken to Mulholland Drive. People with cameras can be found there from morning to evening, all thanks to the wonderful views. It is from there that you can take a picture of the famous 'Hollywood' sign, and a little further on, there is a beautiful view of the central part of the city. Having visited us last year, my friend, who travels a lot and enjoys it, said that this is one of the best panoramas he has ever seen.
Another popular walking route is Wilshire Boulevard, the 'Miracle Mile,' as it is called. Wilshire is one of the few pedestrian streets in Los Angeles, where many restaurants, cafes, and nightclubs are located. The rather colorful Asian quarters in the center – Little Tokyo and Chinatown – deserve at least a couple of hours. Everyone who walks along these streets expects to meet a star, not without reason. After sightseeing, you can have lunch on Sunset Boulevard or go for dinner at the Universal Studios theme park.
Beach Cities of Orange County
To the south of Los Angeles there is also much to see. On the way from Los Angeles to San Diego, be sure to stop in the beach cities. Most of the resorts here are located in Orange County, which is considered one of the most prosperous in all of America (the average family income, according to 2005 statistics, reached $203,000).
Although most settlements here developed about thirty years ago, when this part of the state became actively populated, the local towns are interesting not only for beach tourism. The closer to San Diego, the older the buildings and the more interesting the architecture. For example, the city of San Juan Capistrano is an excellent example of colonial style. The oldest building here is the San Juan Capistrano Mission, dating back to 1776.
The youngest city in Orange County, Irvine, is still actively being built up. As are many small towns of the 'second line,' which have no direct access to the ocean. One such settlement is Santa Ana, the county seat, which grew significantly with the advent of Disneyland.
Near San Juan Capistrano lies the beach town of Laguna Beach, where I particularly recommend the central cove, around which everything in the city happens. Near the beach, several dozen commercial galleries are open year-round, and from mid-summer they hold the Pageant of the Masters art festival, with an exhibition of paintings by local artists and workshops on painting and sculpture. It's better to buy tickets for the Pageant of the Masters in advance: sometimes they sell out by the weekend. On the local promenade along Pacific Coast Highway, impromptu concerts are held in the evenings. You can also have dinner there. My favorite places in Laguna are the Italian café Pomodoro Boccincino, where I especially like the Frutti di Mare seafood pasta, and the BJ's brewery right across from the main beach, where they serve creamy clam chowder.
Local Huntington Beach is considered one of the world's surf capitals. If you've just started surfing, you don't need to bring a board and wetsuit: everything you need can be rented for a reasonable price. For $75 per hour, you can find an instructor who will provide you with everything necessary for the lesson and help you get on the board.
If you travel further along the ocean from Los Angeles towards Mexico, you'll reach Dana Point. Like many other towns in this part of the south, it has its own small cove with a forest of bright white masts. From there, by purchasing a diving tour, you can go on a trip to Catalina Island, one of the best places for diving in North America. In the waters around the island, you can find sea lions, moray eels, and even small (about half a meter long) horn sharks. The season in Avalon Bay, the island's only town, begins in May and ends in October.
Near the main pier, you can take a trial diving lesson: it's not the most difficult place for diving, but it has a rich underwater world. The usual price for a two-hour dive with an instructor is $105, equipment rental included.
Another activity on Catalina is tours. There's absolutely no civilization, only a small airport and a movie theater. Cars are also almost invisible: most people drive golf carts, which can be rented for a few hours with a driver's license. There are bison on the island, which can be observed in the wild. Children will surely enjoy a glass-bottom boat tour ($28.25 for a child ticket, $37.75 for an adult). A sightseeing tour of the island is even cheaper – $13.25 for a child ticket and $17.50 for an adult.
In the peak season, hotel prices skyrocket, so I wouldn't recommend staying on Catalina for more than a day without a special need. But you don't have to book a hotel if you arrive on the earliest ferry and leave in the evening. However, there is another way to save money: near the pier there is a campground where you can rent a tent and stay outdoors. In midsummer, renting a tent for the weekend costs no more than $55, and a campsite costs an additional $16 per person.
But if you are not into diving, one day on the island is quite enough. The beach on Catalina is decent, but it's not worth traveling so far just for it. La Jolla, a northwestern district of San Diego, is one of the quietest and most well-equipped coves, much better suited for swimming and relaxing with children. And you can leave the beach at any time – you can reach the cove via Pacific Coast Highway by car.
San Francisco
It's best to start exploring the city at Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39: from there you can go on all city tours, you can also fish, try hot clam chowder in a bread bowl.
Closest to the pier is the famous prison museum Alcatraz, where Al Capone was incarcerated. They say that from there, while the prison was still operating before it was turned into a museum, no prisoner managed to escape. Right next to it is Russian Hill, which got its name during the Gold Rush. One of San Francisco's many hills became the final resting place for sailors and merchants from Fort Ross, a former Russian settlement in the suburb. Later the cemetery was moved, but the place kept its name. Nearby is the ever-fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge, the city's landmark.
After exploring the oceanfront part, head into the city to Lombard Street. San Francisco residents are proud of it as the most crooked and picturesque. In addition to many turns and curious buildings, you'll be amazed by the steepness of the road: the city generally has many hills, which makes driving difficult. To save time, you can take bus 91 from the pier to Lombard Street, which goes from the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Francisco Street. In about five minutes you'll be there. Where Lombard intersects with Fillmore, you can continue on foot.
After walking along Lombard, return to the bus stop and continue exploring the city.
Route number 22 will take you to Castro in 20 minutes, a neighborhood with many small cozy cafés, without which it's hard to imagine modern San Francisco. You'll soon know you're approaching Castro: the quarter can be identified by rainbow flags hung on every corner. The thing is, the area became famous worldwide thanks to Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and the first openly gay person to achieve significant success in politics. There have always been many curious visitors in Castro, but since the release of the film 'Harvey Milk', the flow of tourists to this district far from the central waterfront has surged with renewed vigor.
Set aside a day to visit at least one of the wine valleys around San Francisco – Sonoma or Napa. In early autumn, if you time it right, you can catch the harvest and even participate in winemaking. There, in the valleys, you'll find dozens of wineries where you can stop for dinner, take a tour of the wine cellars, and taste local beverages. Be sure to visit a couple of large, famous wineries and at least one small one to compare experiences. A small fee, usually around $15, is often enough to try five or six wines. All the famous wineries are equally impressive. However, due to the large flow of visitors, I feel like I'm on a conveyor belt there. On weekends, it's hard to get through after noon, but the wines are usually quite good. In small ones, on the contrary, the tasting turns into Russian roulette, but there is an opportunity to chat with the farm owner personally.
After the tasting, you'll likely have to wait at least an hour before you can legally get behind the wheel (state law allows a certain level of alcohol in the driver's blood).
Recently I visited a less famous valley in the south of the state, Temecula. In a town where cabernet grows under every lamppost and a third of the buildings are tasting rooms, it's quite difficult to stay alert. Since almost everyone there is positively tipsy by lunchtime, at every intersection a traffic light is installed above the stop sign for good measure. I haven't seen anything like this on such a mass scale anywhere in the area. But it seems to help: we didn't see a single accident the whole day.
San Diego
San Diego is the last major city on the coast, at the border with Mexico. To me, San Diego seems much nicer than Los Angeles. There are many pedestrians, the streets are lined with greenery, terraces in the very center are filled with tourists, the beach has a constant bustle, and right near the bay, planes come in for landing picturesquely. Nearby are several amusement parks. Wild Animal Park, where giraffes and hippos roam freely, and the San Diego Zoo with its famous pandas are definitely worth including in your itinerary.
You can complement your impression of the city by visiting the historic center, Old Town San Diego. There you'll find several colonial-style houses, each recreating the lifestyle of the first Spanish conquerors. You should definitely visit Old Town, but I don't recommend eating or buying souvenirs there. Driving just a few miles away from the historic part of town, you'll find the same gifts and food at a fairer price.
One of the best viewpoints in San Diego is Point Loma. There aren't many buildings on the historic part of the Point Loma peninsula, but all of them recall the colonial past of the USA. Alongside several structures from the conquest era, there is a famous lighthouse that operated in the port since 1855, and a monument to the first European who landed on the shore of modern California. At the landing site of the navigator at the southern tip of the Point Loma peninsula, the Cabrillo Memorial Complex was built, which has been operating since the early 20th century. The few structures that have survived here since the mid-16th century are among the oldest in the area. But of course, tourists are attracted not only by the history of the peninsula: from the height of the monument to conquistador Cabrillo, a wonderful panorama of San Diego Bay opens up.
Ski Resorts
For winter sports, Northern California, the Lake Tahoe area, is best. The most famous resort here is Heavenly. This valley has almost a hundred trails of varying difficulty. Heavenly also attracts young people from around the world with its nightlife: several dozen bars and clubs are open here.
A fairly popular type of accommodation here is casino hotels, built like hotels in Las Vegas.
In addition, apartments are rented at all ski resorts. Local one-bedroom housing is analogous to our two-room apartment with a spacious kitchen and one bathroom. The most budget-friendly option suitable for two people is a studio with a kitchen that flows into the single room and a shower. Such housing sells out quickly, but if you reserve in advance, you can find options within $800 per week.
Another way to save on accommodation is to look for a cabin, Spartan-style housing, outwardly somewhat reminiscent of a forest ranger's house. Each such miniature house is equipped with a fireplace or a potbelly stove, almost always a TV and a refrigerator, and is essentially no worse than an ordinary hotel room.
Another popular budget option is a chalet with three bedrooms. Typically, such houses can have up to ten sleeping places, so this option is great for a large group. Such housing usually costs $1,200 or more per week, but if you count the price per sleeping place, it comes out much cheaper.
If you are planning a trip to Heavenly for just a couple of days, it's best to ski on weekdays. On weekends, full buses of skiers and snowboarders come to Tahoe from San Francisco, which is only 250 kilometers from the resort.
In the south of the state, the best place for skiing is Mammoth Mountain. This is the only place in Southern California where snowdrifts reach the middle of the window of a one-story house. They say that two years ago, when there was especially heavy precipitation, the snow here lasted until July 4, and at the height of winter it was hard to open the door in the morning – it was snowing and snowing. People come here to ski until March, renting either a house for a large group, similar to the one rented in Heavenly, or a cabin. Even in the smallest two-person cabin, thrifty skiers and snowboarders can count on one extra place: there is always a couch opposite the TV. In Mammoth Mountain, condos and cabins are rarely cheaper than $1,050 per week, and a seven-day rental of a two-bedroom house (suitable for six people) will cost at least $1,400.
Also read related material: CALIFORNIA MELTING POT
Alexandra ZAKHAROVA.
Photo by the author.