Destinations

Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the Beaches

Along the Pacific shore, Malibu, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey and Palos Verde are high-class residential beach communities. Venice Beach, on the other hand, is known for bikini clad roller bladers, muscle-bound weight lifters and an odd assortment of slightly off-beat characters. Long Beach is a thriving seaport with a vibrant commercial district and oil wells. Laguna Beach houses a large artist's community.
Hollywood is the historic home of the old movie studios, and Beverly Hills is still the home of the movie stars. Here you can drive along the western terminus of historic Route 66 on Santa Monica Boulevard. You can stroll along famous Hollywood Boulevard and the Sunset Strip. In nearby Burbank, you can visit many modern movie and television studios. In Anaheim, you can see the original Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.
Downtown Los Angeles is certainly a commercial district, but it is no more the urban center of the city than many other neighborhoods. Near the downtown area are ethnic neighborhoods with large Asian populations called, Korea Town, China Town and Japan Town. Nearby are several predominately Afro-American neighborhoods and many predominately Hispanic-American neighborhoods.

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San Francisco, California - Overview

San Francisco is on the coast of California about 400 miles north of Los Angeles. It is situated along the shore of a large bay sheltered behind the California Coastal Mountains. The city is renown for its steep streets with panoramic views of beautiful San Francisco Bay and the surrounding mountains. It has a very moderate climate with warm summers and chilly winters but without extremes. Constant breezes off of the Pacific Ocean keep the summers from becoming too hot and also prevent freezing winter weather. Take a sweater, as the evening breezes can be quite brisk all year round!