WEEKEND GETAWAYS | COASTAL CALIFORNIA
Four weekend ideas to get you in the summertime mood
Explore the sights and serenity of coastal California. Stretching more than 800 miles, the state's coastline offers a wide array of excursions, whether you're seeking peace or adventure.
Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, but the summer vacation season has just begun. Start soothing your travel itch with these four quick getaways from Times staff writers.
Coastal camping at Leo Carrillo State Park
The campground at Leo Carrillo State Park is a scenic retreat, where a family can hike the Santa Monica Mountains, explore tide pools or simply hang out around the fire pit. It’s also perfect for folks whose idea of "roughing it" includes access to flush toilets and a well-inflated air mattress.
Pescadero a beacon for fans of small-town life
The 48 miles between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz are largely undeveloped, a glorious pastiche of green farm fields that march in rows down to the sea and wild golden meadows that yield to rock-bound coves and curling beaches. Although only 50 miles south of San Francisco, this stretch of San Mateo County feels remote and unchanged, particularly the secluded hamlet of Pescadero two miles east of California 1.
Chillin' at Crystal Cove
Crystal Cove will change your idea of Southern California beaches. It's not the wide, groomed strands of Venice or Redondo or Balboa Island. The cove is intimate, tucked below a 40-foot bluff, invisible from the nearby highway. The golden sand slopes slowly into the Pacific. The water is so clear that you can watch orange garibaldi dart around offshore, each wave like a pane of glass.
Shell Beach: Cushy on the Central Coast
From Ventura to Santa Cruz, wide, sandy beaches give way to breathtaking cliffs, secluded coves curve into the craggy embrace of boulders and promontories, and the receding tide reveals a shining moonscape of tide pools and fields of seaweed.
 The French built this place before the Americans took it over. There are a couple of big lakes next door. |
 A list of getaway destinations to help you tap the West's cache of sights. |
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