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A California Holiday has attractions for the whole family. The Disneyland Amusement Center in Anaheim is one of the most polular destinations for kids of ALL ages, and the San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan areas offer many tourist attractions. San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, and Ghirardelli Square are popular for shopping and dining; tourists also frequent the city's unique cable cars, splendid museums, Opera House, and Golden Gate Bridge.

California contains over a thousand miles of beaches ranging from flat, sandy expanses to rocky shores. While, the beaches are diverse and beautiful along the California Coast, there are hundreds of miles of oceanfront bathing, swimming and surfing beaches with a warm climate tourists can enjoy all year long

The state's mild, sunny climate and varied scenery of seacoast, mountains, and desert, and some of the largest and most beautiful national parks in the US lure many visitors.

 

Average Annual Temperatures

 

Like its topography, California's climate is varied and tends toward extremes. Generally there are two seasons—a long, dry summer, with low humidity and cool evenings, and a mild, rainy winter—except in the high mountains, where four seasons prevail and snow lasts from November to April. The one climatic constant for the state is summer drought.

California has four main climatic regions. Mild summers and winters prevail in central coastal areas, where temperatures are more equable than virtually anywhere else in the US; in the area between San Francisco and Monterey, for example, the difference between average summer and winter temperatures is seldom more than 10°F (6°C). During the summer there are heavy fogs in San Francisco and all along the coast. Mountainous regions are characterized by milder summers and colder winters, with markedly low temperatures at high elevations. The Central Valley has hot summers and cool winters, while the Imperial Valley is marked by very hot, dry summers, with temperatures frequently exceeding 100°F (38°C).

Summer:
Average daytime temperatures are 66°F (18°C) in San Francisco, and 84°F (29°C) in Los Angeles in July

Winter:
Average daytime temperatures are 56 °F (13°C) in San Francisco, and 68 °F (20°C) in Los Angeles in January

 

Location

Situated on the Pacific coast of the southwestern US, California is the nation's 3rd-largest state (after Alaska and Texas).

The total area of California is 158,706 sq mi (411,048 sq km), of which land takes up 156,299 sq mi (404,814 sq km) and inland water 2,407 sq mi (6,234 sq km). California extends about 350 mi (560 km) E-W; its maximum N-S extension is 780 mi (1,260 km).

California is the only state in the US with an extensive seacoast, high mountains, and deserts. The extreme diversity of the state's landforms is best illustrated by the fact that Mt. Whitney (14,494 ft/4,419 m), the highest point in the contiguous US, is situated no more than 80 mi (129 km) from the lowest point in the entire country, Death Valley (282 ft/86 m, below sea level). The mean elevation of the state is about 2,900 ft (885 m).

California's principal geographic regions are the Sierra Nevada in the east, the Coast Ranges in the west, the Central Valley between them, and the Mojave and Colorado deserts in the southeast. The mountain-walled Central Valley, more than 400 mi (640 km) long and about 50 mi (80 km) wide, is probably the state's most unusual topographic feature.

The entire eastern third of the state is part of the western Great Plains, a high plateau that rises gradually to the foothills of the Rockies.