14 best california travel guides

Product features

Find Your Getaway

With coverage by region, plan for day trips and weekend getaways across the Golden State.

Get Inspired

Find the right escape to suit your mood with curated best of lists.

Prepare for Adventure

Get all the necessary planning tools at your fingertips with driving directions, travel maps, nearby eats, and more.

Product features

Trip 12: Northern Redwood Coast.

Ditch the cell phone and hug a tree, dude. California’s towering giants grow along much of the coast, from Big Sur north to the Oregon border. It’s possible to cruise past the trees – or even drive right through them at old-fashioned tourist traps – but nothing compares to the awe you’ll feel while walking underneath these ancient ones.

Trip 21: Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

In what conservationist John Muir called a temple, everything looks bigger, whether you’re getting splashed by thunderous waterfalls, staring up at granite domes or walking in giant sequoia groves. For sublime views, perch at Glacier Point under a full moon or along high-elevation Tioga Rd.

Trip 32: Palm Springs & Joshua Tree Oases

Whimsical-looking Joshua trees defi ne this park, where the Colorado and Mojave Deserts converge. This is one of California’s top places to go rock climbing, but even kids can scramble around the larger-than-life boulders. Hikers seek out fan-palm oases fed by springs and streams.

Hit the Road!

California’s road trips will take you from the breezy, wildlife-rich Pacific Coast, to the towering redwoods of Big Sur and the north, to off -the-beaten-track deserts and Gold Rush towns, to big-name national parks such as Yosemite and Death Valley, and through the vine-strewn valleys of celebrated wine countries, starting with Sonoma and Napa. From backcountry lanes to beachside highways, we’ve got something for you. And if you’ve only got time for one trip, make it one of our nine Classic Trips, which take you to the very best of California.

See Below For More California Titles From Lonely Planet.

Product features

HELPFUL PLANNING ADVICE

Find what you need faster with color-coded category icons and easier-to-read two-column text.

GORGEOUS COLOR PHOTOS

Beautiful photos packed throughout will fuel your wanderlust.

ITINERARIES AND MAPS

Itineraries, maps, travel tips, and neighborhood guides will acquaint you with California and help you maximize your time.

IN-DEPTH FEATURES AND EXPLANATIONS

Learn about history, culture, and more with in-depth spotlight features

Product features

Fully Redesigned

Packed with color coded icons and beautiful images to help you easily plan your next adventure.

Comprehensive

Itineraries, maps, travel tips, and other special features to acquaint you with the destination and provide honest recommendations to help maximize your time.

More Color Photos

The new Experience chapter provides the perfect mix of photos and the best of the best lists to fuel your wanderlust.

Travel Inspiration Overload

Visit fodors.com to continue your exploration.

Ready for more?

Complete your holiday planning with other guides from our series.

Connect with other travelers.

Visit the Fodor's forums to get real time advice & recommendations from other travelers like you.

Product features

HELPFUL PLANNING ADVICE

Find what you need faster with color-coded category icons and easier-to-read two-column text.

GORGEOUS COLOR PHOTOS

Beautiful photos packed throughout will fuel your wanderlust.

ITINERARIES AND MAPS

Itineraries, maps, travel tips, and neighborhood guides will acquaint you with Southern California and help you maximize your time.

IN-DEPTH FEATURES AND EXPLANATIONS

Learn about history, culture, and more with in-depth spotlight features

Product features

HELPFUL PLANNING ADVICE

Find what you need faster with color-coded category icons and easier-to-read two-column text.

GORGEOUS COLOR PHOTOS

Beautiful photos packed throughout will fuel your wanderlust.

ITINERARIES AND MAPS

Itineraries, maps, travel tips, and neighborhood guides will acquaint you with Northern California and help you maximize your time.

IN-DEPTH FEATURES AND EXPLANATIONS

Learn about history, culture, and more with in-depth spotlight features

Product features

3 Yosemite National Park

Everything is monumental at Yosemite National Park: thunderous waterfalls tumble over sheer cliff s, granite domes tower overhead and the world’s biggest trees cluster in mighty groves of giant sequoias. Conservationist John Muir considered Yosemite a great temple, and awe is the natural reaction to these vast wildflower-strewn meadows and steep valleys carved over millennia by glaciers, avalanches and earthquakes. To achieve maximum wonder, stop at Glacier Point under a full moon or drive the high country’s Tioga Rd on a cloudless summer day.

12 Gold Country

‘Go west, young man!’ was the rallying cry of tens of thousands of pioneers who arrived here during California’s gold rush, starting in 1848. Today, the Sierra Nevada foothills are a stronghold of Golden State history, with thrilling, mostly true tales of banditry, bordellos and bloodlust. Wind past sleepy townships and abandoned mines on Hwy 49 to discover swimming holes, white-water rafting, downhill mountain-biking bomber runs and saloon wine-tasting rooms supplied by the state’s oldest grapevines. Eureka! You’ve found your California adventure.

20 Surfing

Even if you never set foot on a board – but, like, you should totally check out this gnarly break, brah – surfing (p46 ) defines Californian pop culture, from street slang to movies and laid-back fashion. Pros ride world-class breaks off Malibu, Huntington Beach (aka ‘Surf City USA’), La Jolla and Santa Barbara, while newbies get schooled at ‘surfari’ camps along the coast from San Diego north to Santa Cruz.

Welcome to California

From misty Northern California redwood forests to sun-kissed Southern California beaches, the enchanted Golden State makes Disneyland seem normal.

See Below For More California Titles From Lonely Planet.

Product features

Food (pictured: Fish Tacos)

Finding the most-killer fish tacos in San Diego alone could take days or even weeks. San Francisco and Los Angeles are both culinary capitals, where citizens passionately argue about the best sushi bar or food truck. LA is also a melting pot of multicultural cooking, from Thai Town to the tamale shops of East LA.

Beaches (pictured: Malibu)

Sunny beach towns from Santa Cruz south to San Diego, each with its own idiosyncratic personality, give you perfect excuses to go play outside.

Culture (pictured: Santa Cruz)

From the mid-19th-century gold rush to the dot-com bubble, California has survived extreme booms and busts, often getting by on its wits.

Welcome to the Coast

From towering redwoods in foggy Northern California to the perfect sun-kissed surf beaches of Southern California, this slice of Pacific Coast is a knockout beauty.

See Below For More California Titles From Lonely Planet.

Product features

HELPFUL PLANNING ADVICE

Find what you need faster with color-coded category icons and easier-to-read two-column text.

GORGEOUS COLOR PHOTOS

Beautiful photos packed throughout will fuel your wanderlust.

ITINERARIES AND MAPS

Itineraries, maps, travel tips, and neighborhood guides will acquaint you with Napa and help you maximize your time.

IN-DEPTH FEATURES AND EXPLANATIONS

Learn about history, culture, and more with in-depth spotlight features

Product features

Find Your Perfect Campgrounds

Choose from the best campsites, RV parks, and roadside stopovers for families, dog-lovers, those with accessibility needs, and more with thorough details and ratings.

Camp Like an Expert

Tom Stienstra, California's favorite outdoorsman, has over 30 years of local camping experience. There's no one better to give you the best insider tips and recommendations for the best CA camping experience.

Prepare for Adventure

Moon gives you all the planning essentials in one book, including easy-to-follow directions, maps, helpful safety and equipment tips, and background information on each site and landscape.

Product features

Valley of the Giants

The actual hike is only mildly difficult, it’s the getting there that is exceedingly tricky. So why the hell do people do it? Because the five-hundred-year-old Douglas firs are so lovely and otherworldly, they bring an immediate sense of calm. It’s the nature-viewing equivalent of taking a chill pill.

Powell's City of Books

The largest independent bookstore in the world, Portland’s pride and joy has given us fifty years of famous author readings, an entire block of new and used options, and the ability to bang out all of your holiday shopping in a single location.

Northeast Portland

Show off your flexibility with pre-brunch vinyasa at Woodlawn Yoga. Once you’re limbered up, lumber down the street and fill ’er up at P’s & Q’s Market and deli.

Petersen Rock Garden

Post-brunch, steal away for one of the weirder roadside attractions this state has to offer. And we mean that in the absolute best way. Built by Danish immigrant Rasmus Petersen from 1935 until his death in 1952, the slowly decaying Petersen Rock Garden has been a popular roadside attraction for many years.

Kayak Tillamook

As the sun goes down and the croaking frogs come out, row up to floating water lilies and around beaver dams. This one is real special, so save it for someone who deserves it.

Wine Country

Yes, wine country is about chilling out max, relaxing all cool, and shooting back some pinot outside of the school. While it’s close enough to Portland to pop over for an afternoon, the best way to take advantage of wine country is to make it more than a day trip.