USA Travel Guide

California has its fair share of big name national parks – Kings Canyon, Sequoia and Yosemite National Park among them. However, there are some lesser-known state parks that offer just as much outdoor adventure (and they’re often less crowded about it). Up in the San Francisco Bay, for instance, where you might expect miles and miles of uppity wine land, you can visit the strikingly beautiful Mount Diablo State Park. In fact, let’s go now!

Mount Diablo State Park is a 20,000-acre public reservation established around, you guessed it, Mount Diablo. The unmistakable “double pyramid” of Mount Diablo is a common sight to Northwestern Californians. If you’re traveling in, though, the mountain range is more than just a Bob Ross painting on your horizon. It’s a choice destination for a little outdoor fun.

A $10 per vehicle fee gets you into Mount Diablo State Park, and from there the options are many. Don’t be ashamed if you, like most visitors, head straight to the summit. A breathtaking view of Mount Hamilton, the Sierra Nevada, San Francisco and even the Golden Gate Bridge await you from the staggering 4,000 foot-high perch. While you’re there, take the chance to visit the Summit Museum, a daily attraction known as much for its impressive stone architecture as its exhibits.

Now that you’ve got that out of your system (and who can blame you), make time for other things to do in Mount Diablo State Park:

• Mary Bowerman Trail – a gentle trail located near the summit, incredible views the whole way round
• Rock City – don’t you have to go for the name alone? Features large rock formations and small caves
• Diablo Valley Overlook – another great vantage on the Golden Gate, spanned by that famous bridge
• Deer Flat – a more challenging 1.6-mile hike that holds the promise of wildlife sightings
• Fossil Ridge – like fossils? If yes, check out Fossil Ridge

The California State Parks Department knows more about Mount Diablo State Park than I ever will, so you can get some finishing information on their Web site. I’m just here to give you that spark!

Well, that and great hotel recommendations. The nearest major city to Mount Diablo is San Francisco, but we actually prefer to stay a little closer in the affluent city of Pleasanton.

Have fun exploring Mount Diablo State Park, one of America’s Parks.

Feels like Spring Break snuck up fast this year, but that’s not gonna stop the USA Travel Guide team from rolling out a few top picks for 2010. College students, vacationing families (and anyone else), welcome to Spring Break 2010.

First to the docket: Santa Monica Beach in splendorous Santa Monica, California. It’s the quintessential American beach in a lot of ways. There’s boardwalk entertainment nearby, there’s always a chance to spy a celeb, and most importantly, it’s the very same beach where they filmed “Baywatch”. This beach changed our expectation of beaches forever.

Too much? Alright, let’s just look at all there is to do:

• Santa Monica Beach – the main attraction. Santa Monica Beach is a sizzling scene come Spring Break, with miles of tanned bodies writhing to the same beat. The busier it gets, the crazier the party, so why not add yourself to the mix.
• Nightlife – a lot of people keep the party going late into the night, but you shouldn’t let your close proximity to the L.A. club scene go to waste. Head back to your room, throw on your best, and hit the town.
• Montana Avenue – Spring Break in Santa Monica means sensational shopping. Montana Avenue is the beach scene’s Beverly Hills, sure, but the real star of this stretch is the “dressed down” celebs.
• Santa Monica Pier – the “World Famous” Santa Monica Pier is a must-do for dining and cool afternoon entertainment. Visit Pacific Park, an admission-free amusement park (you pay by the rid featuring a heart-pounding over-the-water rollercoaster.

And don’t forget, Spring Break in Santa Monica can quickly become Spring Break in Los Angeles, Redondo Beach or Malibu. If you’re willing to drive, even San Diego or Enseñada, Mexico are within reach. Make Spring Break 2010 in California one to remember.

Have fun and stay safe for Spring Break 2010!

If you’re anything like me, you didn’t much care about the La Brea Tar Pits until Arnold Schwarzenegger took a face plant into them in Last Action Hero. Turns out there’s, like, a whole museum and stuff. Do something different the next time you cruise L.A.’s Miracle Mile and visit the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park.

Compared to the massive dinosaur skeletons you’ll see at the flagship facility, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Page Museum has a relatively modern collection. The oldest of its finds, a chunk of wood, dates back only 40,000 years, and all of its once-mobile specimens date back only 10,000-40,000 years. This is as much a warning as it is a fact: at the Tar Pits, you will not see dinosaurs!

What you will see is an exhaustive collection of remarkably preserved and perilously restored bird, mammal and plant fossils fished from the inky depths of La Brea. Well, they dig them out of the ground like a normal excavation, but the process in these asphalt-strewn pits is not without considerable challenge. It’s something you’ll learn a lot about at the museum.

At the park you’ve got the pits themselves, many of which you can explore free of charge and at your leisure, and then you’ve got the Page Museum, which does carry a small free but benefits you by adding some context to all the holes in the ground. Inside the museum you’ll see the very best specimens from an enormous collection of over 3 million bones and fossils.

Fossils on display, bits and whole skeletons, include the remains of Harlan’s ground sloths, American bison, American mastodons, Columbian mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, dire wolves, California condors, mountain lions, prehistoric skunks, mice, rabbits, several kinds of bear, and the partial skull of one human.

Until recently you could watch a live excavation at Pit 91 during the summer months, but the dig has gone on temporary hiatus with no set schedule to restart. It’s definitely a missed feature for you summertime visitors.

The Page Museum is located at 5801 Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park in Los Angeles. Make it to the museum, you won’t have any trouble finding the Pits. The Page Museum is open daily except for select holidays, offers daily tours as park of the Hancock Park guided tour, and charges an adult admission of $7. Learn more.

Hotels in Los Angeles, CA
If you’re traveling in, stay well and for not too much money at either of today’s recommendations:

• Holiday Inn Express – Century City Hotel – This surprisingly chic HI Express is never overpriced and is located just 5 miles from the pits. Stay “green” with their hybrid car package.
• Holiday Inn LAX Airport Hotel – Stay simple in Los Angeles at this airport hotel which was recently renovated up to a more than modern standard. The hotel is 100% smoke-free and offers an airport shuttle.

Have fun visiting the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California.

One day USA Travel Guide may get to Napa Valley, what with all its pomp and prestige, but until then we’re perfectly happy sipping our way through the lesser-knowns. A couple months back we visited the Livermore Valley outside of San Francisco. Today we’re heading even farther afield to the Santa Ynez wine region just north of Santa Barbara, California. Join us for a Back-Country Wine Tour out of Santa Barbara.

The Cloud Climbers Jeep Tours Company knows Santa Barbara and the wine region better than anyone, having run comprehensive tours of the area for over 10 years. In fact, the company much resembles the wineries on their tours: family run and inspired by the beauty and bounty of Southern California.

The company offers several tour options, from excursions deep into the Santa Ynez Mountains to hunting trips, but today we’re all about that beloved beverage that my wife assures me “tastes like burning”: wine. Whatever your poison – red, white, varietals – the wineries of Santa Ynez have the perfect pour, and the Back-Country Wine Tour is your chance to sample from the best.

You’re morning starts when you climb aboard a cushy 4-7 passenger jeep in Santa Barbara. It’s about an hour drive up to the wine region (near Solvang), but the splendid scenery and your driver’s friendly narration will have the time passed before long. You’ll know when you made it. The lush vineyards stretch for miles in every direction, rolling along with the attractive contours of the wine country.

Don’t go all Avatar on us now, there’s wine to taste. The Back-Country Wine Tour includes visits to four wineries for tastings, wine discussions and conversation. The Santa Ynez Wine Country has over 20 excellent wineries, and your scheduled four aren’t necessarily set in stone. I can’t predict just where you’ll be headed, so if you’d like a little prep, I recommend you read up on the Santa Barbara wineries.

After four stops and a gourmet deli lunch (sandwiches, but, you know, good sandwiches), it’s finally time to head back home. On the return trip, your driver will give you a taste of Cloud Climbers’ gamier tours with a couple canyon trails.

All in all, it’s a good a use of six and a half hours as any you’ll find in Santa Barbara. If you’re a wine lover in Southern California looking for something new, treat yourself to the Back-Country Wine Tour of Santa Barbara by Cloud Climbers Jeep Tours.

Info: $120 per adult/semi-private tour, or $550 for a private jeep for four. Includes live narrated tour, tastings at 4 wineries, a logo wine glass and gourmet lunch at one of the wineries. Tours depart from Santa Barbara at 10:00 a.m. Learn more.

Hotel: We love staying in Santa Barbara as much as we love exploring its top attractions. Stay at one of our favorite Santa Barbara hotels with the Holiday Inn Santa Barbara – Goleta Hotel.

Have fun!

Now here’s one you don’t see often: a Valentine’s Day package that doesn’t so much pamper you with lovey-dovey crap as it does get you off your butt for a little cardio. I’m not sure I see the Valentine’s connection myself, but even with no package at all, Valentine’s Day in Redondo Beach, California is a good idea.

Valentine’s Day Packages in Redondo Beach, CA
We’ve mentioned our fair share of Southern California beach hotels over the past 16 months – Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Laguna, Dana Point – but for that well-honed blend of peace and personality, we really do like Redondo Beach and the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach Hotel.

Days are all about the beach, all about luxuriating in the warm South Cali sun and letting the resonant hum of the surf melt away your stress. Nights are whatever you want to make them. Hit up a vibrant dance scene, or keep it laid back with a meal and a beachfront stroll. You might even let the Crowne Plaza decide for you with a couple of Valentine’s Day Packages:

Valentine Bikes at the Beach
Like I said, unusual. This package includes a half-day bike rental so you two can celebrate your love in heart-healthy style. Might we recommend that South Bay Bicycle Trail. Package also includes:

• Deluxe accommodations
• Full American breakfast for two
• ½ day bicycle rental
  

Crowne Royal Spa Package
Don’t want to spend Valentine’s Day working on your gluts? Can’t blame you. The hotel also has a more luxurious package:

• Deluxe ocean-view accommodations
• Two full-session (50 minute) spa treatments of your choice:
  • European Facial
  • Body Massage
• OR One couple’s massage
• Buffet breakfast for two

View all Redondo Beach hotel packages at the Crowne.

With the day less than a week away, our Valentine’s Day coverage is dwindling down, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a great option in your area. Head to our Valentine’s Day Getaways and Packages portal for all of our stories.

If you’ve never been to a fringe festival, well, then you’re either in for the time of your life or a wicked bad case of attendee’s remorse. You will either be blown away or thoroughly stupefied. Actually, you’ll probably be a little of both.

The Fresno Rogue Performing Arts Festivals in Fresno, California takes this Europe-inspired tradition, slaps on a new name, and delivers it to all lovers of off-the-mainstream entertainment. What’s a fringe festival? Simply, it’s a non-professional, typically non-juried art and theatre festival dedicated to alternative entertainment. Fringe festivals skim the outskirts looking for one-of-a-kind acts. The outliers, if you will.

The Fresno Rogue Festival (because “Fresno Fringe Festival” was too alliterative for those fussy Fresno folk) truly operates on every level: they’ve got main stages, auxiliary café venues, art galleries, and even Bring-Your-Own-Venue venues. For these brave do-it-yourselfers, the festival doesn’t even provide the space. BYO Venue acts must arrange their own space, act as box office, set prices, and manage everything themselves. That’s pretty rogue.

What can you expect to see at the festival? Plenty of stuff you won’t see anywhere else! Off-off-off-Broadway type theatre, avante garde dance, experimental film, multi-discipline performance art, puppetry, storytelling and just about anything else the participants can dream up. There’s no jury, no glad-handing – the Rogue is the very essence of “just be yourself”.

If at this point you’re thinking, “Hey, I don’t want to get ripped off watching 30 minutes of leotarded albinos doing interpretive dance to Iron & Wine’s The Creek Drank the Cradle!”, then maybe the Fresno Rogue Festival isn’t for you. Festival organizers stand behind the quality of their performers, and the growing attendance since 2002 backs them up, but fringe festivals are as much a state of mind as a set of shows. Get yourself in the Rogue spirit, and you will absolutely have a good time.

The 2010 Fresno Rogue Performing Arts Festival will take place from March 4 – 13, 2010. The festival is free to attend, and you pay per show (the performers keep 80-100%, depending on venue). For more information, check the Web site.

Need a hotel in Fresno? The Holiday Inn Fresno Hotel Downtown offers a convenient location to several common performance venues, free weekend parking, free Internet, and approachable rates. Have fun!

I was surprised to find that Disneyland doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. At least, not enough to put it on the official calendar. It inspires the romantic memories of so many couples, many of them now families, that a little Valentine’s promotion really seems a perfect fit.

Well, if they won’t do it, USA Travel Guide will! Relive the magic and romance, or discover it for the first time, with a Valentine’s Day vacation to Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.

Disneyland Specials and Deals
I could rattle off some of our favorite attractions, but what one person finds romantic another person might find reprehensible. Besides, Disney’s “1955 Experience” is all the roadmap you need. Really, we’re here to suggest the right hotel near Disneyland to celebrate your Valentine’s Day affordably.

Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort
Located just minutes from Disneyland, California Adventure and Downtown Disney, the Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort is a good choice to experience the park for less. The rooms are cozy (try the junior suites) and the free parking and Internet help you avoid the incidental costs. The hotel is also honoring an excellent Disneyland vacation package:

3 Days for $154 Park Hopper®
Basically what it sounds like – ask for this package when making your reservations and you’ll get a 3-day Park Hopper® admission for only $154, about $40 bucks off the top. The package also includes Magic Morning admission and straight-to-gate entrance.

View the flyer. | View more Disneyland specials.

Earn cheap tickets through your stay at Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort and make it a romantic escape to Disneyland this Valentine’s Day.

Have fun!

Find more of our coverage on the Valentine’s Day Getaways and Packages Portal.

If the wilds of central Texas don’t inspire your desire, what about the mountains of Southern California? It’s the peak of ski season in Big Bear Lake, CA, and Valentine’s Day sounds like the perfect excuse to grab your alpines, and your loved one, and hit the slopes.

Valentine’s Day Specials in Big Bear Lake, California
Big Bear Lake, California is really an all-seasons destination, but you can bet that mid-February, it’s all about the skiing. Avid skiers and snowboards drive in from all over California and Nevada to cut some powder at the Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski resorts. Only 3 hours out of Los Angeles, it’s always worth that drive. Learn about Big Bear Lake ski resorts.

Big Bear Vacation at Northwoods Resort
With ski slopes come ski resorts, and for your Valentine’s Day getaway, we like the Northwoods Resort. The Adirondack-inspired lodge hotel has great dining, charming décor and affordable rates, not to mention one rather unusual feature: the outdoor pool is open year-round. Heated, of course, you can take a dip even with snow falling all around. Kind of cool. The package is kind of cool, too:

All-Inclusive Romance Package
This package has midweek and weekend rates, so if you can’t make Valentine’s Day proper, don’t stress.

• Deluxe king room
• Complimentary bottle of house champagne
• Chocolate-covered strawberries
• Fruit and cheese tray
• Breakfast for two ($25.00 value)
• Optional fee: Upgrade to junior suite

This package actually runs through April 15, 2010, so again, no rush!

Learn more about a Big Bear romantic getaway at Northwoods Resort.

Ski vacations in Big Bear Lake not your thing? We have plenty more Valentine’s Day getaway ideas. Check’em out at the Valentine’s Day Getaways and Packages Portal.

We usually play up San Diego as a top family destination (which it is), but you couples have just as much to love. A sunset walk on the beach, dinner at some restaurant you saw on the Food Network, a balcony room overlooking the bay – you can put together the perfect night pretty easily.

(And remember, you can find more Valentine’s Day hotels here.)

Valentine’s Day Packages in San Diego, California
Whether rekindling the fire or lighting one anew, make your Valentine’s Day in San Diego, California all the spark-ier with these hotels and packages.

Holiday Inn San Diego Hotel on the Bay
There’s lots to love about this hotel, but the thing I can’t stress enough is the sublime location. It’s situated on North Harbor Drive right on the Bay – from a high-level balcony you can see forever. Just seconds to the coast, minutes to the Midway Museum and the Gaslamp Quarter, effortless from the Airport, really just perfect. Plus, they have a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse on-site, if you’re willing to have a manly Valentine’s Day dinner (I’d get reservations early).

Romantic Escape Package
A few classics plus one of those balconies we we’re just talking about:

• Accommodations with furnished balcony
• One bottle of sparkling white wine
• One bouquet of flowers
• One box of chocolates

Learn about this Valentine’s Day package here.

Doubletree Hotel San Diego Downtown
Another high-rise hotel, the Doubletree is located downtown, convenient to many of the most famous San Diego attractions and several stellar restaurants. The refined, upscale sensibility of Doubletree is perfect for Valentine’s Day, and a nice package to go with only makes it sweeter.

Sweet Romance Getaway
This is a year-round package, but we’ll try not to hold that against it:

• Deluxe accommodations
• Sparkling wine
• Full breakfast in the morning
• Early check-in, late check-out (by request only)

Learn about this Valentine’s Day package here.

San Diego not really convenient for you? Don’t worry! Our coverage continues to grow. View all of our stories at the Valentine’s Day Getaways and Packages portal.

As a favorite of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), the Fairplex in Pomona, California should be a regular on any Californian car lovers’ schedule. Just last November, the Fairplex hosted the Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, and already the hot rods are rolling back in for the granddaddy of all roadster shows.

The 61^st Grand National Roadster Show comes to the Pomona Fairplex on January 29-31, 2010. The longest-running indoor car show in the world, the Grand National brings out the best classic and contemporary hot rods from all over the country. Award-winners, rarities, customs, even celebrity-owned rides populate the enormous show floors. As many as 500 pristine roadsters will compete while on full-time public display from open to close Friday, Saturday and Sunday. See past winners.

Five hundred not enough? Seriously? In that case, forget Friday and plan to show up Saturday or Sunday. Or better yet, drive in.

On the second and third day of the show, the Grand National Roadster Show hosts up to an additional 800 hot rods driven in by roadster enthusiasts from all over. The roads, sidewalks and alleyways will be packed with snapping cameras and glimmering paint. The Drive In is a more casual affair. There’s nothing to win but the admiration of your fellow classic car lovers.

General admission can’t really sell out, but Drive In registration is limited and going fast at this point. If you want to present at the Drive In, here’s the application (it has to be a roadster, obviously).

It’s all about the cars at the Grand National Roadster Show, but that’s no excuse not to have a little sideline fun. The show stage in Building 10 will host live music almost all day, everyday, and there’s additional music planned for the outdoor center courtyard on Saturday and Sunday. You might also meet Lorenzo Lamas, so be sure to bring your “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus” posters and score an autograph.

The show is about the same from one day to the next, so we recommend visiting for a single day and, even better, making that day Sunday. You’ll get the main show, the music, the Drive In and, on Sunday only, the awards ceremony. The ceremony begins on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. and ends with the annual announcement of “America’s Most Beautiful Roadster”. Don’t miss it.

The 61^st Annual Grand National Roadster Show will be held at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, California, January 29-31, 2010. Admission is $20; Learn more.

Browsing hotels near Pomona Fairplex? We like the Radisson Suites Hotel Covina. Clean, spacious rooms, a great on-site steakhouse, and location less than five miles from the Fairplex. Affordable, too.

Have fun at the 61^st Annual Grand National Roadster Show.