7-Nights Postcards Of California: San Francisco, Yosemite, Highway 1 to Los Angeles & More

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is a city with a great deal to offer. The diversity of attractions and sights is enormous. California's wine country has beautiful landscapes, the pacific ocean with all of its life and beauty, and architecture of the missions built by the Spanish in the 18th and 19th century. Come spend some time here and enjoy the beauty of Santa Barbara. Shopping, dining, sightseeing and theatrical entertainment are just the beginning. Spend some time at one of Santa Barbara's world famous beaches, take a tour tasting wine made by on of the distinguished wineries, or take in a performance by the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera. Santa Barbara offers lots of great restaurants that will please anyone's appetite ranging from Seafood to Cajun. And the shopping is unlimited. There are lots of great places to shop, including outlets, collector's shops, specialty shops, antique shops, boutiques, high-end shops, and low-end shops.

Carmel

Carmel, California, is the kind of place where a person might hand you a poem in the street. It's where at dawn you can get a strong cup of coffee in hand and take a long walk down the beach. You can learn anything you want about dogs, have an authentic Ayurvedic massage and watch the setting sun go flat as a disc on the ocean horizon, then turn around and observe waterfowl leaving skims of silver wake on the Carmel River before daylight disappears.

At night you can stay up late singing to a crowd at Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch piano bar, catch a new play in a small theater, cuddle around a beach campfire and stroll back to your hotel along sleepy streets under the stars. You can spend a lot of money in glitzy boutique stores or spend very little at Point Lobos State Nature Reserve.

A place of romance, beauty and culture, Carmel was developed in the early 20th century by artists, poets and visionaries, and its residents have retained its friendly, small-town, sophisticated character. You might even be inspired to write your own verse—and share it back.

Carmel is located at the southern end of Monterey Peninsula, just a few miles/kilometers south of Monterey. The town's refreshingly calm atmosphere results, in part, from strict zoning laws that ban neon, traffic lights and other trappings of urban development. The town also seems to have banned empty parking spaces: Expect to spend some time searching for one.

The residential district has no sidewalks or streetlights, and there is no mail delivery. Homes are known by their names rather than addresses. Carmel received a lot of press in the mid-1980s when Clint Eastwood was its mayor.

Monterey, CA

The historic town of Monterey lies on a peninsula at the southern end of beautiful Monterey Bay on the Pacific Ocean about 85 miles south of San Francisco. Formerly the Mexican capital of California and a whaling and fishingport, Monterey is now mainly a tourist town. Sights include the Old Customhouse (1827) and the First (California) Theatre (1844) located in Monterey State Historic Park. Founded in 1770 by the Spanish, it was capital of Alta California and Mexican California until it came under American control in 1846 during the Mexican War.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park embraces a spectacular tract of mountain-and-valley scenery in the Sierra Nevada, which was set aside as a national park in 1890. The park harbors a grand collection of waterfalls, meadows, and forests that include groves of giant sequoias, the world's largest living things. Highlights of the park include Yosemite Valley, and its high cliffs and waterfalls; Wawona's history center and historic hotel; the Mariposa Grove, which contains hundreds of ancient giant sequoias; Glacier Point's (summer-fall) spectacular view of Yosemite Valley and the high country; Tuolumne Meadows (summer-fall), a large subalpine meadow surrounded by mountain peaks; and Hetch Hetchy, a reservoir in a valley considered a twin of Yosemite Valley.

Los Angeles

Much of Los Angeles lies in a fairly flat basin, surrounded by mountains and ocean. Although the Santa Monica Mountains, one of the most unheralded of the city’s remaining natural treasures, splits LA between the familiar sights of La-La Land to the south and the charmless suburbs to the north, the metropolis is easily traversed. Places for visitors to explore include Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, the central strip of Wilshire Boulevard with faded Art Deco "Miracle Mile" zone and good museums, and the beach towns of Santa Monica and Venice, where visitors can stroll along the former’s remodeled pier and Third Street Promenade outdoor mall, or visit the latter’s famed Muscle Beach and oceanside Boardwalk. Lengthier trips to LA may include the old-fashioned charm of Old Pasadena, home of ever-popular Rose Parade and Bowl, Downtown, site of much city heritage and setting for what skyscrapers the area does have, the South Bay, the place to find the region’s second biggest city of Long Beach, and Malibu, where visitors can try to get a glimpse of movie stars and assorted celebrities.

San Francisco

Blessed with a viable fog-cooled and sun-kissed climate and a dramatic landscape, the San Francisco Bay Area is a visual feast where neither water nor hills are ever too far away. Add to this the cultural medley: Within every neighborhood, from Santa Cruz to Oakland to Mill Valley, a diversity of tastes and interest is thriving. See it in the cuisine, the bookstores, the arts, and the recreational opportunities. To embrace all San Francisco has to offer get out and explore. Walk the streets, drive across the Bay Bridge, go south down the peninsula to Silicon Valley and cruise along the San Mateo coast. Find great sights, museums, art, culture, and family fun attractions. There is a plethora of attractions and activities to satisfy the desires of every one who visits.