Los Angeles: Hollywood, Griffith Observatory and the Pacific beaches
A huge city with no real centre: the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory, Santa Monica beach and the Venice canals, provided you choose your neighbourhoods well.
San Francisco: the Golden Gate, Alcatraz and hills beside the bay
A city of hills set beside a bay, with an orange bridge, a prison on an island, sea lions on a dock and fog in the middle of summer.
Big Sur: 145 km of cliffs between the mountains and the Pacific
The most beautiful stretch of Highway One: a road clinging to the cliffs, a postcard bridge, a waterfall that drops onto a beach and redwoods beside the ocean.
Highway One: the Californian coast road, from San Francisco to Los Angeles
More than 1,000 km along the Pacific: cliffs, beaches, elephant seals, smart little towns and, in the middle, the bends of Big Sur.
Yosemite: a valley of granite, waterfalls and great hikes
A glacial valley lined with cliffs nearly 1,000 metres high, some of the tallest waterfalls in the world, and trails that climb all the way to the top of them.
Route 66: from Chicago to Santa Monica, America's legendary road
The most famous road in the United States, from Chicago to Santa Monica: 3,940 km, eight states, neon-lit motels and villages that have stayed in the 1950s.
Joshua Tree: giant boulders and Joshua trees between two deserts
Enormous granite boulders, thousands of Joshua trees with twisted branches and cacti as far as the eye can see, two and a half hours from Los Angeles.
Death Valley: salt, dunes and the lowest point in North America
A vast desert of salt flats, dunes and hills in every colour. Superb from October to April, dangerous at the height of summer.
Sequoia: at the foot of the biggest trees in the world
A forest of giant sequoias at an altitude of 2,000 metres, including General Sherman, the biggest tree in the world, and a granite dome you climb by a staircase.
Kings Canyon: General Grant and a canyon deeper than the Grand Canyon
Sequoia's neighbour, in two parts: the sequoias of Grant Grove, open all year, and a granite canyon at the end of a road that only opens in the warmer months.
Lake Tahoe: the blue jewel between California and Nevada
A large mountain lake of deep blue, at an altitude of 1,900 metres, between California and Nevada. Beaches, coves and trails in summer, and skiing in winter.
Redwood: walking among the tallest trees in the world
The tallest trees in the world, on the north coast of California: redwoods more than 100 metres high in the fog, giant ferns and wild beaches.
Lassen Volcanic: the planet's four types of volcano in a single park
A volcano that is still hot in northern California, surrounded by bubbling mud pots, steam vents and mountain lakes. A small Yellowstone without the crowds.
Pinnacles: towers of volcanic rock where California condors soar
The remains of an old volcano in central California: rock spires, talus caves to walk through by torchlight and condors soaring overhead.
Channel Islands: the Californian Galápagos, a world apart
Five wild islands off the coast of Southern California, with no roads or hotels, but with cliffs, sea caves and a fox found nowhere else.