We start our driving vacation by checking out some designer wheels in California.  On the third Sunday in June, Rodeo Drive is closed off from Wilshire Blvd to Santa Monica Blvd for the Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance.  The Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance is a fashionable exhibit of lavishness automobiles set against the backdrop of world class Rodeo Drive designer boutiques and palm trees.

While attending this free annual event you are sure to spot a few celebrities, as well as your own reflection in the gleaming turquoise bonnet of an antique Chevrolet.  The event has also been named one of Frommer’s “300 Unmissable Events & Festivals Around the World.”

Once you’ve toured Beverly Hills and taken a “stars’ homes” tour, make sure to take in these this California highlights:

San Diego Zoo

Since opening in 1915, the San Diego Zoo has been one of the world’s largest zoos. Its more than 4,000 species are only part of the story now, however—the zoo is also one of the most progressive, with extensive conservation and species-preservation policies, and a pioneering “cageless” exhibit effort. Still, the vast number of animals—many seen rarely in zoos or in the wild—is the draw. Be sure to visit Polar Bear Plunge and Ituri Forest.

Rodeo Drive

Los Angeles is one of the best places in the world to people-watch, and you might as well choose the most famous street in Beverly Hills to do so. The latest and most expensive fashions line the windows of shops, and there are gawkers a-plenty walking past them. Buy an exorbitant handbag or scarf, or just kick back with a drink and watch the scene.

Whether you are touring “City of Angels,” or venturing into the Hollywood Hills here are some must see sights of Los Angeles & Hollywood to make your California vacation more memorable.

Visit the Griffith Park Observatory, where you can see the stars, planets, and the Hollywood sign. Also see the statue of James Dean in the location where a scene from Rebel Without a Cause was filmed.

Visit the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and see the mausoleums and gravesite of the famous stars from the black and white era of motion pictures. Famous celebrities like Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Cecil B. DeMille, and Jayne Mansfield have made this their final resting place.

Enjoy a meal at Café Aroma (Studio City). Originally a charming home, it was transformed into a full-service café with several outdoor dining areas in a tranquil backyard setting. Serving all-day breakfast, a must for a hip L.A. hangout, Aroma is popular with celebrities stopping in from nearby studios. All the home-cooked dishes are prepared with the finest local ingredients. Aroma also offers gourmet coffee and fresh-baked cakes, pastries, and sweets.

Runyon Canyon Park (Hollywood) is a 160-acre park in Los Angeles with many hiking trails. The highest point in the park, at an elevation of 1,320 feet (402 meters), has some of the most spectacular views of the city, including the Hollywood sign, Griffith Park Observatory, the downtown skyline, and west to Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean. Because of its proximity to residential areas of Hollywood and Hollywood Hills, celebrity sightings are not uncommon.

Paradise Cove (Malibu) is a private beach that makes for a fine walk with superb views of the “diamond necklace” coastline, stretching from Malibu down to the South Bay area of Los Angeles and even Catalina Island. Stand on the old pier that flanks the south end of the beach and take in the idyllic ocean view. The spectacular sunsets are priceless. The Cove’s owner requires visitors to pay $25 to park at his beach, but the ticket is validated when you eat at the Paradise Cove Restaurant.

Join the fun as part of a TV studio audience. You’ll have the chance to spend some time in the studio with the stars and see what really goes on behind the scenes during the filming of a television show. Tickets are free, and taping schedules vary.

No matter how many times you see celebrity-studded movie premieres at Grauman’s Chinese on Entertainment Tonight, it’s still a pleasure to take in those coral-red pagoda walls and copper turrets rising like an opium hallucination above Hollywood Boulevard.

Opened in 1927, the world’s most famous cinema was the brainchild of silent-era impresario Sid Grauman, the creator of the enormously successful Egyptian Theater nearby who next dreamed of an Oriental fantasy that would dazzle the generations.  Working with megastar partners Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Grauman spent $2 million importing luxurious artifacts from China, including bronze temple bells, stone Heaven Dogs and a thirty-foot-high stone dragon.

The opening ceremony was the most sought-after social event in Hollywood history, with thousands of sightseers packing the boulevard as stars arrived to see Cecil B DeMille’s King of Kings; a riot even broke out and the LA police had to be brought in.  But the theater’s signature attraction – the footprints, handprints and signatures of Hollywood stars from Cary Grant to Rita Hayworth – was invented by “pure accident,” Grauman once confessed.  He was visiting the construction site when he accidentally stepped in the concrete; his partner, silent film goddess Pickford happened to be with him at the time, and he suggested she do the same, quickly followed by Fairbanks.

After the success of opening night, every star in Hollywood wanted to make his or her mark – and not just with palm or feet.  In the decades since, John Wayne left his fist mark, Groucho Marx impressed his cigar, Gene Autrey’s singing horse left its hooves, Betty Grable – an imprint of her shapely legs and Star Wars robot R2D2 left its tread pattern.  Marilyn Monroe even left a rhinestone stud to dot the “I” in her name, but it was (unsurprisingly) pilfered by a souvenir-hunter.

The famous HOLLYWOOD sign has a less glamorous origin than most people think: It was built as a real estate publicity stunt.  In 1923, a development company wanted to promote a housing project in the then-empty district known as Hollywood by erecting its name in fifty-foot-high white letters, each of which blazed with hundreds of electric bulbs: HOLLYWOODLAND.  (Nobody is quite certain why the area was first called “Hollywood” in the 1800s, but it was probably after the holly trees that grew there when it was farmland).

The extravagant PR creation was only expected to remain for about 18 months, but it happened to coincide with the surge of film studios arriving in this corner of Los Angeles, making the name Hollywood recognized around the world.  The giant sign soon became an American cultural icon, so associated with the cinema industry that in 1932 a rejected starlet named Peg Entwistle committed suicide by climbing the maintenance stairs behind the letter “H” and throwing herself off.

Still, over the years, the sign would pay its own dues as it battled the weather, vandalism and neglect.  In 1949, after a drunken caretaker drove his truck into the letter H and knocked it down, a restoration effort began.  City officials ordered that the last four letters, LAND, be removed, so it would promote the neighborhood rather than the old real estate development.  But without steady funds, the sign continued to deteriorate until the first O cracked in half and the third O collapsed, leaving only HuLLYWO D by the 1960s – a rather sorry sight.  Finally, in the 1970s, it was none other than Playboy magnate Hugh Heffner who galvanized California celebrities, including movie stars and the rocker Alice Cooper, to finance a completely new version of the sign.  In 1978, the slightly shorter letters (45 feet) were unveiled and, after a touch of cosmetic surgery during a 2005 spruce-up, they are still going strong today.

From the Hollywood nightlife to the San Diego Zoo, Southern California can entertain even the least enthusiastic! So grab your sun block and your red carpet attire, we’re going back to California!

Go behind the scenes with us as we visit some of the must see sights of Southern California, such as the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles!  The sign sure is famous, but together we’ll uncover the less-than-famous story of how it came to be.  Also on our list of vacation stops is Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.  This sight has been the cornerstone of Hollywood for over 75 years.

If relaxation and family time are on your trip agenda then visiting the San Diego Zoo should be priority.  We’ll learn all about one of the world’s largest zoos and the more than 4,000 species that live there!

Lastly, if your laid back vacation means people watching and window shopping, then the most famous street in Beverly Hills is where we’ll take you.  So kick back, unwind, and take a stroll down Rodeo Drive!

California, the Golden State, is known for the famous Golden Gate Bridge in the heart of San Francisco.  On a day without fog, the bridge is a remarkable sight:

When vacationing in the Napa area make sure to take a trip to Sonoma.  Here are some of the area’s must-see sights to make your California vacation more memorable:

Sonoma Square
Visit Old Sonoma Square, site of the Bear Flag Revolt and the last of the 21 missions built in California.

Cheese Factory
Be sure to stop at the cheese factory, where you can sample some of the world’s finest cheese.

Sonoma State Historic Park
Visit Sonoma State Historic Park in the center of charming old Sonoma. In the center of a large, tree-covered park is the old city hall. The historic buildings of the state park border the city park, inviting visitors to rest and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. There is a $2 state park fee.

If you are looking for a relaxing California vacation, consider taking the Napa Valley Wine Train featuring beautiful scenery and spectacular food.

Few cities have been so entirely linked to a literary figure as Monterey is with John Steinbeck.  The Nobel Prize-winning author set three of his most popular novels here, including the whimsical Cannery Row, which he wrote after moving back from New York to California in 1944.  The title setting for the book was a colorful waterfront lane officially called Ocean View Avenue, whose inhabitants had long included Spanish, Japanese and Italian fishermen.  In the early 1900s, a boom in demand for canned sardines led to dozens of canneries sprouting up: Constructed from corrugated iron and worked by rough immigrant laborers, they became famous for their unpleasant odors, eccentric characters and less-than-hygienic conditions.  Steinbeck added even more color with eccentric characters such as the marine biologist Ed Ricketts, who became “Doc” in the novel.  Ironically, not long after the book’s release, the cannery industry collapsed from over-fishing.  But tourism came to Monterey’s rescue: In 1958, Ocean View Avenue was officially renamed Cannery Row after the bestselling book, and many of the rusting canneries were saved and restored, starting with the Sardine Factory Restaurant in the 1960s.   Today, the waterfront is one of the most beloved attractions in California.  Steinbeck’s character Doc would no doubt have approved that the ocean offshore is now a marine reserve – and also that, if he so chose, he would have little difficulty in finding the ingredients for his beloved Beer Milkshake in the Monterey waterfront bars.