Travel Distances

California is big – real big. If you were to drive the length of the state along Interstate 5, it would take you about 15 hours to get from Oregon to Mexico (provided you don't hit traffic!). At the end of your road trip, you'd have driven nearly 800 miles (1287 km).

Downtown San Diego is lies just under 20 miles (32 km) north of the Mexican border and about 130 miles (210 km) south of Los Angeles. From Los Angeles, it's 385 miles (620 km) north to San Francisco and from there, it's another 90 miles (145 km) northeast to Sacramento. You'd put about 190 miles (305 km) on your car driving from San Francisco to Yosemite and about 600 miles (965 km) driving from Los Angeles to Mount Shasta in Northern California. Needless to say, this is road trip heaven.

Major Cities

Vibrant and cutting edge, chaotic yet undeniably beautiful, California's biggest cities have a unique way of combining culture, nature and the 21st century, offering visitors unforgettable urban experiences.

For many visitors, Los Angeles embodies the very essence of California: Hollywood, Beverly Hills, beautiful people, sunny weather, automobiles and beaches galore. It lives up to every expectation. But there's more: Latino culture, rocking bars, fabulous food, fascinating modern architecture and one of the country's hottest art scenes. California's biggest city is a must-see.

With its eternally perfect ocean breeze, San Diego boasts one of the country's most blissful climates – and San Diegans know it. With its beautiful waterfront and miles of coastline, you'll have no problem enjoying it right along with them. Less than an hour from the US-Mexico border, San Diego is infused with Mexican culture that gives it a unique twist. The city's historic Gaslamp Quarter, the epicenter of San Diego's nightlife, is one of the city's highlights.

San Francisco – the Golden Gate Bridge, the fog, the beautiful wooden houses, the parks – there's no denying this is one of the world's most beautiful cities. It's easy to walk (if you don't mind the hills) and exceptionally friendly. From the restaurants of North Beach and China Town to the coffee shops of the Mission District, exploring this city of neighborhoods could fill weeks on end.

Immediately south of San Francisco, the city of San Jose is actually California's third largest city. It's the heart of the Silicon Valley, where technology reigns supreme. Northeast of San Francisco lies Sacramento, the state's capital and its seventh largest city. In terms of population, it's right behind Long Beach (just south of Los Angeles) and the city of Fresno, the cultural and economic heart of California's Central Valley.

Orientation

The third largest state in the United States, California covers an area of 160,000 sq miles (414,398 sq km), stretching from the Oregon state border in the north to the Mexican border in the south. By comparison, it's slightly bigger than Germany, but smaller than France.

California possesses a spectacular array of landscapes, from the moody, foggy redwood forests of the North Coast, to the granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada, to the surreal desert landscapes of Southern California. Each of the state's 12 regions – San Francisco Bay Area, Central Coast, Central Valley, Deserts, Gold Country, High Sierra, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, North Coast, Orange County, San Diego and Shasta Cascade offer their own character, and to travel from one to another can give you the impression you've traveled into a different country entirely. That's the beauty of California.

Culture

The nation's fastest growing state has long had the reputation of being a little wacky, the far-out "left coast," where movie stars throw wild parties (or become governors) and vegetarian liberals conjure up radical ideas in backyard hot tubs. While the stereotype is, for the most part, overblown, there's some truth to it – and Californians are the first to agree. This is, after all, the state where weird things happen. (Visit San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, attend Humboldt County's Kinetic Sculpture Race or stroll Los Angeles' Venice Beach, and you'll see what we mean!)

But there's much more to California culture than its strangeness. One of the state's greatest attributes is its diversity. California's immigrant populations lend a flare to the state that you won't find anywhere else. Here, 39% of the population speaks a language other than English at home, meaning California has more foreign language speakers than any other state in the country. On city streets from San Francisco to Los Angeles, you'll hear Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Tagalog, Russian, Italian and more.

One result of this incredible diversity is California's vast array of cultural sights and activities. You can explore Chinese American history in California's Gold Country , delve into Mexican music at San Jose's Mexican Heritage Plaza or wander the streets of San Diego's Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District . Asian-American culture livens up the San Francisco Bay Area, where you'll find the world's largest Chinese New Year celebrations, Asian art museums and outstanding Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese restaurants. Mexican radio stations echo through the air, from San Diego to the San Joaquin Valley and beyond. In one day, you can drive from the technological heartland of Silicon Valley, where laptops and Bluetooth are de rigueur, to the Portuguese enclaves of the Central Valley, where bloodless bullfights are held every summer.

California also has incredibly rich African American culture, which you can tap into by visiting sites that run the cultural gamut from the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, to Oakland's Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck revolutionized cooking in the United States, using fusion techniques and the freshest ingredients to kick off the culinary movement known as "California Cuisine". Thanks to Waters' legacy and the state's burgeoning immigrant population (primarily Mexican and Asian), California has become one of the world's most exciting places to eat.