Best Places to Visit in California

Good stuff. A few to add -

Wine country - rent a bike, split a flight, and do the Sonoma (or Napa) wine circuit without getting wasted in two drops.

Lake Tahoe - Skiing, hiking, climbing, and casinos?? Okay!! Let's not forget the beautiful views...

American River Rafting - So cool, and so non-quintessential California

Sausalito - Golden Gate views from the OTHER side

Yosemite - Half Dome, El Cap, and any outdoorperson's playground

Malibu - Beaches, climbing, a five-star lifestyle...

Union Square - Quintessential San Francisco

I have plenty more personal favorites, but these are the ones that probably have the greatest level of mass appeal.

@StephSF: Good job representing for NorCal (only Fisherman's Wharf? Misterhrcpins clearly hasn't been here except as a tourist).

I would add:

the Redwoods up north

And pretty much the entire highway 1 stretch except as you get close to the Oregon border. I did it as a trip once, stopping whereever we felt like it and it was fantastic.

Great so far, here are some more:

Carmel by the Sea--17-mile drive with the seals and all that is just great and its such an arts center.

Santa Cruz--you got love those crazy banana slugs.

Monterey--Cannery Row, the Aquirium, Steinbeck Country

Stinson Beach--Definitely the place to go for a hike.

And down south Big Bear--great for hiking and outdoors stuff.

Hey guys here's some more:

Santa Monica: With the pier and outdoor mall, and the great sea view.

Huntington Beach: May favorite beach in the world.

Carpenteria: A quieter beach where I used to spend summers.

Santa Barbara: The greatest college beach town ever (sorry Santa Cruz).

And Hearst Castle if you're into opulance and history of California.

Anyway, those are my two cents.

Good ones! Also a fan of the Eastern Sierra (Bishop Highball Bouldering, Owens River climbing, Mount Whitney, or just the drive down 395). It is so NOT California, but it's such a unique, old west part of the country with high alpine glacier lakes and stunning views.

Has anyone been to Shasta or Lassen Volcanic National Park? I hear it is similar to the eastern Sierra and really unique in its one right.

Likewise for Pinnacles National Monument - anyone ever been there? Again, heard great things although it is supposedly HOT in the summer!

Nightowl - good call on the Carmel/Monterey/Santa Cruz additions. I had my first Monterey/Carmel experience last weekend and biked down 17-mile drive. So good.

I am consistently astounded at how much cool stuff this state has to offer...

There are also a host of fantastic museums and historical sites outside of Heart Castle (which I personally find a bit touristy myself).

Consider for example in the Los Angeles area:

1. The LA County Museum: A great four story chronological collection of artworks located right next to the LaBrea tar pits so people can drop the kiddies off with auntie or grandma while the grownups peruse the permanent collection or explore the rotating exposition.

2. The Norton Simon near Pasadena. A great museum. Very peaceful. Perfect for looking at artworks.

3. The Getty by the Sea: Great location and a wonderful faux Roman Villa archytectural style--though I have been disappointed with many of their showings.

4. The MoMa here in SF on Van Ness: Always as great collection. Never anything you have seen a million times--Often challenging our notions of what "art" is.

5. Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley: It is the MoMa of the film world--you can see movies there you won't ever see anywhere else. Things you never knew existed.

6. The Rodins on the Stanford Campus: They are bit spread out but the campus itself is beautiful.

7. the deYoung: A solid classic collection. Kind of like a poor man's LA County.

And that is just some of them. There are lots of smaller museums and similar places as well. Like the Oakland history museum. Or the Natural History museum in San Jose.