Fodor's 99 California : The Complete Guide With Coastal Drives, National Parks, Cities, and the Wine Country (Fodor's Gold Guides) - Softcover

Fodor's

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679001484 ISBN 13: 9780679001485

Publisher: Fodor's, 1998

Synopsis

Experienced and first-time travelers alike rely on Fodor's Gold Guides for rich, reliable coverage the world over. Updated each year and containing a full-color, foldout Rand McNally map, a Fodor's Gold Guide is an essential tool for any kind of traveler. Smart travel tips and important contact info make planning your trip a breeze, and detailed coverage of sights, accommodations, and restaurants give you the info you need to make your experience enriching and hassle-free. If you only have room for one guide, this is the one for you.
Great tours, from neighborhood walks in San Francisco and San Diego to drives along the coast and in the mountains
Beaches, the redwoods, Lake Tahoe, Monterey, Palm Springs, Death Valley, Santa Barbara, and Yosemite
Where to bike, canoe, fish, golf, hike, ski, and surf, plus tips on whale-watching and adventure cruises
Balloon rides, panning for gold, and other good times
The best nightlife -- from the "in" to the far out
Where to stay and eat, no matter what your budget
Beachside resorts and hilltop ranches, Gold Rush inns and sleek hotels, simple motels and rustic campgrounds
California cuisine in Beverly Hills, seafood in coastal La Jolla, dim sum in San Francisco's Chinatown, and "grub" at a North Coast loggers' cookhouse
Fresh, thorough, practical -- off and on the beaten path
Costs, hours, descriptions, and tips by the thousands
81 pages of maps, 15 vacation itineraries, and more
Smart travel tips
Festivals
Complete index

About this title

From the Publisher

We've compiled a helpful list of guidebooks that complement Fodor's California '99. To learn more about them, just enter the title in the keyword search box.

• California's Best Bed & Breakfasts: Delightful places to stay and great things to do when you get there, $15.50.
  
• Citypack Los Angeles: A full-color pocket-size guidebook and a full-size color map, all in one sturdy, plastic sleeve, $12.
  
• Citypack San Francisco: A full-color pocket-size guidebook and a full-size color map, all in one sturdy, plastic sleeve, $12.
  
• Compass: Coastal California (1st Edition): A stunning, full-color guide to the character, culture, and history of California Coast, $19.95.
  
• Compass: Hollywood (2nd Edition): A stunning, full-color guide to the character, culture, and history of Hollywood, $16.95.
  
• Compass: San Francisco (4th Edition): A stunning, full-color guide to the character, culture, and history of San Francisco, $18.95.
  
• Compass: Wine Country (2nd Edition): A stunning, full-color guide to the character, culture, and history of California's Wine Country, $19.95.
  
• Flashmaps San Francisco (2nd Edition): The ultimate street & information finder, $8.95.
  
• Fodor's Gay Guide to Los Angeles and Southern California (1st Edition): A candid guide to the city and region focusing on gay-friendly restaurants, hotels, and bars, $11.
  
• Fodor's Gay Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area (1st Edition): A candid guide to the city and region focusing on gay-friendly restaurants, hotels, and bars, $11.
  
• Fodor's Cityguide San Francisco (1st Edition): The ultimate sourcebook for residents, $18.
  
• Los Angeles '99: The complete guide to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, the beaches, the valleys, and Disneyland, $14.50.
  
• San Diego '99: The complete guide with beaches, resorts, Tijuana trips, and best bets for families, $14.
  
• San Francisco '99: The complete guide with great dining, wine, country getaways, and Bay Area side trips, $14.50.
  
• Mobil 99; California and the West: America's favorite domestic series, famous for its encyclopedic listings, $15.95.
  
• Mobil 99; Southern California: America's favorite domestic series, famous for its encyclopedic listings, $12.
  
• Pocket San Francisco '99: Compact guide to the best of the city -- perfect for short visits, $9.
  
• Sunday in San Francisco: 1,638 Relaxing, uplifting, caloric, historic, hip and romantic weekend things for locals and tourists to do in the Bay Area, $14.00
  
• Where Should We Take the Kids?: California: Fresh, most-fun-for-the-money, anything-but-boring getaways for you and your children, complete with family-friendly places to stay and eat, $18.
  
• Golf Digest's Places to Play in the Southwest (1st Edition): The resuts of the latest player ratings of 850 public and resort courses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, $12.
  
• Fodor's upCLOSE California: For independent travelers who want to travel well and spend less, $17.
  
• Fodor's upCLOSE Los Angeles: For independent travelers who want to travel well and spend less, $13.50.
  
• Fodor's upCLOSE San Francisco: For independent travelers who want to travel well and spend less, $13.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

This partial excerpt, from the Pleasures and Pastimes section, gives you a taste of what California has to offer and the sights and scenes that make it a great place to visit.
Beaches

With 1,264 miles of coastline, California is well supplied with beaches. You can walk, lie, and sun on them, watch seabirds and hunt for shells, dig clams, or spot seals and sea otters at play. From December through March you can witness the migrations of the gray whales. What you can't always do at these beaches is swim. From San Francisco northward the water is too cold for all but the hardiest souls. Even along the southern half of the coast some beaches are too dangerous for swimming because of the undertow. Look for signs and postings and take them seriously.
Access to beaches in California is generally excellent. The state park system includes many fine beaches, and ocean-side communities maintain public beaches. Through the work of the California Coastal Commission, many stretches of private property that would otherwise seal off a beach from outsiders have public-access paths.
Dining

California's name has come to signify a certain type of healthful, sophisticated cuisine made from local ingredients, creatively combined and served in often stunning presentations. San Francisco and Los Angeles contain top-notch restaurants -- an expensive meal at one of these gourmet shrines is often the high point of a trip to California. The Wine Country north of San Francisco is also known for superb restaurants, as is the city of Santa Barbara. In coastal areas, most menus usually include some seafood, fresh off the boat. Don't neglect the state's many ethnic eateries -- among them Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Scandinavian, Italian, French, Belgian, Vietnamese, English, Thai, and German.
Golf

Golf is a year-round sport in California. Pebble Beach and the Palm Springs desert resorts have the most famous links, but there are championship courses all over the state.
Hot-Air Ballooning

Large, colorful balloons drift across the valleys of the Wine Country, where the air drafts are particularly friendly to this pastime, as well as in San Diego, the Palm Springs area, and the Gold Country. Hot-air ballooning is not cheap, however: a ride costs in excess of $100.
Parks
National Parks

There are eight national parks in California: Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Lassen Volcanic, Redwood, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, and the Channel Islands. National monuments include Cabrillo, in San Diego, and Muir Woods, north of San Francisco.
California has three national recreation areas: Golden Gate, with 87,000 acres both north and south of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; the Santa Monica Mountains, with 150,000 acres from Griffith Park in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County; and Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity, with 240,000 acres, including four major lakes, in the far north. The Point Reyes National Seashore is on a peninsula north of San Francisco.
State Parks

California's state park system includes more than 200 sites; many are recreational and scenic, others historic or scientific. Among the most popular are Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, reached by ferry from San Francisco or Tiburon; Anza-Borrego Desert, 600,000 acres northeast of San Diego; Humboldt Redwoods, with its tall trees; Empire Mine, one of the richest mines in the Mother Lode, in Grass Valley; Hearst Castle at San Simeon; and Leo Carrillo Beach, north of Malibu, with lively tidal pools and numerous secret coves. Most state parks are open year-round.
Skiing

Snow skiing in the Lake Tahoe area and elsewhere is generally limited to the period between Thanksgiving and late April, though in years of heavy snowfall skiers can hit some trails as late as July. Other ski options include Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park in the Far North; Mammoth Lake and the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California; and Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park.
Water Sports

Swimming and surfing, scuba diving, and skin diving in the Pacific Ocean are year-round pleasures in the southern part of the state, although these become seasonal sports on the coast from San Francisco northward. Sailboats are available for rent in many places along the coast and inland. River rafting -- white-water and otherwise -- canoeing, and kayaking are popular, especially in the northern part of the state.
Wine Tasting

You can visit wineries in many parts of the state, not only in the Wine Country of the Sonoma and Napa valleys. Vintners associations in the Gold Country, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and other wine-growing areas provide brochures with lists of wineries that have tastings. Wineries and good wine stores will package your purchases for safe travel or shipping.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fodor's
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0679001484
• ISBN 13: 9780679001485
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 589