#point-lobos

#point-lobos

"Golfers are embracing experiences across the spectrum: beginner-friendly courses are rising, championship venues remain bucket-list staples, and scenic destinations with dramatic views are drawing crowds."

We are grateful for the quick action, dedication, and support from our partners that allowed this young animal to be rescued in the wee hours of the morning, giving Irving a second chance.

Laguna Beach takes its history and cultural heritage seriously—from the earliest Western settlers who set up artist studios, to our Indigenous peoples who made this special place home thousands of years ago.

Driving the Avenue of the Giants is a unique and beautiful experience. As it winds through Humboldt-Redwoods State Park, you will encounter many spectacular groves of redwoods and hiking trail options.

Erik rides more than you. He has been pedaling the country and living off of his bike for the last three years, learning to take life as it comes.

The ferry goes from the Balboa Peninsula, home to the Balboa Fun Zone and the Newport Beach Balboa Pier, to the south side of Balboa Island, the idyllic coastal community filled with beach cottages and shops that sell saltwater taffy, watercolors of seascapes and the frozen bananas made famous by 'Arrested Development.'

The Milestone Mo-Tel, an elegant, whitewashed structure modeled on an old Spanish mission, marked the beginning of a new form of accommodation and an entire travel movement.

"Pismo Beach represents the soul of the classic California beach town, and Pacific Point Resort serves as a front-row seat to its natural wonders," says Heather Stege, chief operating officer of Peregrine Hospitality, the hotel's owner and operator. "We designed the property to celebrate the local wildlife as a central part of the guest journey, ensuring the Pacific is always the main attraction."

"Not only are acts like that illegal, but it's really harming a very important, like, a biodiversity hotspot that we have right out here," Brent Fish, an aquarist with Birch Aquarium, stated.

When you walk in, you're going to smell the wood burning fireplace. You're going to see all of the antique furniture. Our goal is to have people who come to Pelican Inn feel like they stepped into 16th century England.

With more than eight miles of coastline and consistently strong breaks, it's long been a magnet for surfers from around the world. However, the city's appeal goes beyond the water-it also has a walkable downtown, a charming namesake pier, and plentiful waterfront bars and restaurants.

Get up early to drive into the hills and park in the main lot, which opens 30 minutes before sunrise. This will leave you with enough time to make your way to the peak through the wildflower-scattered trails and watch the sunrise over the Bay.

We've documented sightings of glass squids to better understand the remarkable transformations they undergo from hatchlings to adults. This new observation, captured in ultra high-resolution 4K, allowed us to zoom in on a juvenile likely no bigger than a baby carrot and reveal more details than we have been able to see before.

For 2025, there was good news and bad news: overall, these areas were visited 323 million times over the course of the year. That's the good news; the bad news is that this figure was down ever so slightly - specifically, 2.7% - from a record-setting 2024.

These oysters once existed in the millions here but were decimated by dredging, pollution and shoreline hardening. Now they're on the upswing, thanks to organizations like the Wild Oyster Project, which is working to build a "swimmable, edible Bay using the power of oysters."

For travelers looking to get to know the many-varied charms of the Golden State, discovering it through the best beaches in California is never a bad idea. The state's coastline spans a vast 3,427 miles after all. Among its 420 public beautiful beaches are plentiful opportunities to swim, lay out, look at tide pools, surf to your heart's content, or watch the sunset.

Out of an abundance of caution, access is being paused to give wildlife space and allow for ongoing monitoring. The investigation involves scientists from UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis, along with California State Parks, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Department of Public Health, the California Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and NOAA Fisheries.

The address issue has long been contentious in artsy Carmel-by-the-Sea, where residents once threatened to secede from California if they were forced to number their homes. They argued that the lack of addresses - along with other quirks, such as having no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas, leading many to walk at night with flashlights - added to the vaunted "village character."

For decades, whale watching has been a seasonal ritual along the Sonoma Coast, drawing locals to wind-swept bluffs, binoculars in hand. Now the pastime has earned national notice: Travel + Leisure has declared Sonoma County the best place in the country to see whales. In a story published Feb. 3, the magazine said there is no better place in the United States for whale watching than the stretch of coastline from Bodega Bay to Gualala and no better time than now.

Everyone is not happy. Where to park? For all the flora it offers and 360-degree views it commands of the Pacific Ocean and Farallon Islands and the fjord-like valley carved by the estero, or tidal estuary, which serves as the border dividing Marin and Sonoma counties the preserve does have a few flaws, the most glaring of which is this: No dedicated parking lot.

Global travel booking website Skyscanner has named its top five destinations for solo travel this winter, and a Northern California favorite the Sonoma Coast made the list. The Sonoma Coast invites a different kind of stillness, the guide notes, praising the rugged shoreline as an antidote to crowded itineraries and overplanned escapes. The roundup also includes Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, Tangier Island in Virginia, Olympic National Park in Washington and Red River Gorge in Kentucky.