Welcome to my travel blog
January 8, 2008 — Donna Wares
Southern California is the heart and the home of the California Dream, and part of experiencing it lies in exploring all that we expect from it: the broad, warm beaches, the cachet of the Hollywood studios, the glitz of Rodeo Drive, the crack of bat and ball at one of the best classic ballparks in America, Dodger Stadium.
But it’s the unexpected that really makes SoCal so cool. There’s no other place like it in the world. Within two hours’ drive, just about any landscape or adventure or culture you can imagine is, quite literally, in reach—if you take a bit of time to explore.
Which is where Great Escapes: Southern California comes in.
My new book is a collection of exceptional Southern California road trips, from San Diego to the Gaviota Coast, from Catalina Island to the Mojave Desert. Weekend getaways. Nature hideaways. One-day wonders, too. You’ll find places to relax and reinvigorate your creative spirit, even if—especially if—you don’t have time to take a two-week vacation.
Great Escapes: Southern California is divided into five (somewhat arbitrary) sections: Surf, Summits, Sand, Sidewalks, and Splashes. Each section features a different set of getaways offering a broad range of experiences for different times of year, with one important common feature: All the destinations are a reasonably short distance (within two hours or so) from Los Angeles. The book skews toward wild spaces where you can escape the daily grind, even for a few hours, though there are numerous urban retreats and sanctuaries in some unexpected places.
Highlights include great California books to take on the road, as well as travel tips and first-person passages from Pico Iyer, Judith Freeman, Trina Turk, T. Jefferson Parker, Robert Smaus, D.J. Waldie, Veronique de Turenne, Val Cohen and other terrific guides who graciously shared their expertise.
My book is being released in May by Countryman Press/Norton Publishing and already is available for pre-orders online. I’m launching this blog as an online companion where I can post travel news and tidbits, upcoming events, occasional excerpts and a SoCal Road Trip calendar for 2008.
Thanks for dropping by. And stay tuned.
