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As you begin to plan your trip, you should take into consideration the amount of time you have available, your budget and your interests. You can then use this Guide to help design anything from a laid-back weekend getaway to a month-long adventure trek from Mt. Whitney (the highest mountain in the contiguous 48 states) to Death Valley (282 feet below sea level and the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere) – two California locales that are amazingly only 136 miles apart.

Since California is such a vast state (158,693 square miles), planning California vacations can be somewhat challenging, and you’ll notice that the Guide is divided into 11 geographic Areas for your reference and convenience. Given unlimited time and resources you could visit all the state has to offer, but you may instead need to prioritize and choose amongst the various areas for your visit. When you select an Area from the list on the left, you’ll be provided a general overview and information about the attractions that await you there. Once you’ve decided where you plan to visit, the Guide’s comprehensive lodging, dining and activities listings for each Area can help you work out the details. This is a great way to design perfect California vacations for you and all your traveling companions – even your family dog, if you so choose!

While most visitors to the state rent a car and secure hotel or B&B reservations at their planned destination(s), some travelers prefer to rent motorhomes/recreational vehicles (RVs) to fill both their transportation and lodging needs.

When you consider the abundance of fresh and artisan foodstuffs available in the state (produce, seafood, cheese, wine, etc.) coupled with the melting pot of cooking techniques that have found a home here, it’s easy to understand why many vacationers make visiting this Guide’s “Places to Eat” section a priority. Our purpose here is to whet your appetite a bit, and many more specific California restaurant recommendations can be found in the Guide’s articles and directories for each geographic area. For a romantic dinner where a spectacular view is all the entertainment you require, consider the Marine Room or Top o’ the Cove in La Jolla, the historic Yamashiro restaurant in Los Angeles, Eladio’s at Santa Barbara’s Harbor View Inn or, in San Francisco, Top of the Mark at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel or Harry Denton’s Starlight Room in the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

No discussion of California restaurants would be complete without mentioning some of its world-famous chefs. A few of the better known ones are Thomas Keller (The French Laundry and Per Se in Napa Valley’s Yountville), Alice Waters (Chez Panisse in Berkeley), Gary Danko (Gary Danko in San Francisco), Wolfgang Puck (Spago in Los Angeles) and Trey Foshee (Georges at the Cove in La Jolla). If your trip won’t be complete unless you dine at one of these restaurants, please be advised that reservations should be made several weeks in advance (and consider months in advance during high season). If you’re staying in San Francisco, you can even check out up-and-coming chefs at the California Culinary Academy, where lunch and dinner are served Tuesday through Friday.

Some favorite California restaurants geared toward pleasing the whole family are chains with locations throughout the state. In southern California, Original Tommy’s has been serving its signature chili-topped burgers for over 60 years. Now with around 30 locations, the original restaurant on the corner of Beverly and Rampart Boulevards in Los Angeles still serves over 15,000 customers each and every week. They must be doing something right! In northern California, both Hobee’s and California Pizza Kitchen’s multiple locations consistently please both parents and kids.

While many California restaurants offer entertainment along with your meal, the most unusual “entertainment” offering may be at Opaque (in the Hyatt on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles), where you’ll dine in a pitch-black room serviced by blind waiters. (While Opaque is the first American restaurant to offer “dining in the dark”, a few European establishments have done it for years). Service is limited to weekend dinners, and for around $100 per person you’ll not only enjoy a lovely meal but you’ll quite likely leave with a better understanding of your senses, their limits and how they help you perceive the world around you.