California Country Guide

‘The Golden State' of California, the most populous state in the USA, has it all: snow-capped mountains, vast deserts, lush forests and long stretches of golden beach.

The ruggedly beautiful coastline curves northward of Los Angeles to San Francisco along the famous Big Sur coastal highway, one of the most scenic drives in the country. The San Francisco Bay Area is proudly presided over by San Francisco, the cosmopolitan city whose cable cars and Golden Gate Bridge are instantly recognisable.

California's best-known wine country extends north of San Francisco into the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, but excellent wine regions also flourish near Santa Barbara and San Diego.

Northern California is the land of giant sequoias and redwoods, waterfalls, whitewater rivers, forests, icy lakes and towering mountains. The California Gold Rush, which began in the Sierras in 1848, forever changed the state and brought new wealth as fortune hunters migrated en masse.

Los Angeles, the ‘City of Angels' is the second-largest city in the USA and lives up to its reputation as ‘the entertainment capital of the world', with all the dreams being made in Hollywood.

Orange County is home to one of the world's most famous attractions - Disneyland Resort - as well as 67km (42 miles) of beaches and the charming rural communities of the Santa Ana Mountains.

The Desert region, in the southeast, features expansive landscapes, brilliant skies, traces of pioneer history and glittering resort cities. From Death Valley, the lowest place in North America at 86m (282ft) below sea level, one can travel in the same day to California's Mt Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental United States, at 4,418m (14,494ft) elevation. 

Despite the regular occurrence of earthquakes, mud slides and wildfires, California's cultural mix is still enamoured with this golden state built on dreams and opportunity.