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Yes, LA. I'd argue it's better than SF in terms of weekend/day-trips.
Palm Springs, Big Bear, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Catalina Island, Joshua Tree National Park, Channel Islands National Park, Mojave National Preserve, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Los Padres National Forest, Solvang, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, Tijuana. And just a little bit further and you have Sequoia National Forest, Death Valley National Park, Ensenada, Las Vegas.
The variety of deserts and beaches is LA's obvious prizewinner. But the one that sets LA over SF in variety are the national park islands: Catalina and the Channel Islands.
Miami could be the winner if only travel to Cuba were easier. Otherwise it matches LA and SF because of the Bahamas and because where else that’s not Hawaii can you visit a tropical rainforest?
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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To me, Yosemite is the crown jewel national park of CA—edge SF, with Death Valley equidistant and more Parks overall closer to LA (though Redwoods are in SF’s backyard...Sequoia and Joshua Tree > Lassen).
Tahoe is vastly superior to “local” SoCal skiing (Mammoth, 5+ hours, is almost equidistant to SF and LA);
Napa/Sonoma, including Lake Berryessa, is superior to Temecula, Santa Barbara wine country and Valle de Guadalupe (Mexico)
Carmel/Monterrey and Santa Barbara are a draw.
LA wins on beaches (Santa Cruz the best NoCal can offer).
LA wins on desert.
LA wins on proximity to more bigger cities—San Diego, Vegas, Phoenix ( > Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento, even though the smaller Bay Area cities are closer to one another ).
Solvang, Laguna Beach, Catalina Island, Julian v Half Moon Bay, Sausalito/Tiburon/San Anselmo, Berkeley, Inverness, Santa Cruz, Clear Lake.... close.
Last edited by elchevere; 05-27-2020 at 07:46 AM..
This tells you why the West is so much stronger than other places in terms of weekend trips.
Maybe that was tongue-in-cheek, but the Jersey Shore is vast and little of it is what the reality show was like. Plus, you're saying the West which is a large area--the eastern seaboard is also quite large and small pockets of the Jersey Shore are not representative of it at all.
Tahoe is good but not great skiing. If I go skiing, I'm going for the cream of the crop, I'm going for Utah, home to the world's greatest and driest snow. That heavy, wet hard pack snow of Tahoe ain't cutting it for me. It's Utah or nothing. Why drive six hours back and forth every winter weekend to Tahoe when you can just take a two hour plane ride to SLC or Denver for a once a year, weeklong skiing getaway?
Eh, I've never met a skier who would pass on a full season of skiing in New England just to do a one week trip out west. And the best of New England is inferior to even Tahoe so I can't imagine the attitude is any different out there. Of course I love skiing Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, etc. But I would never sit the whole winter out just to get one week in at Alta. The reality for most people is that you'll ski what you have close to you as much as you can and try to swing that big trip out to Utah as gravy if possible. Of course there's very little that beats the snow in the Rockies, but skiing is also about an excuse to escape the city for the weekend and get outdoors in the winter. I don't know many skiers who would pass on that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucky Clover
You can argue New England has some equally breathtaking scenery.
New England is beautiful, but it's different and I have zero issue conceding that California has more of what I would call "breathtaking" natural scenery. It's simply more dramatic. New England has an old world charm that makes it appealing. There are a few pockets in New England that I think are stunning - Acadia, Katahdin, the Presidentials in NH, Franconia Notch, Cape Cod National Seashore, Lake Champlain, etc. But California has spots that exceed each of those. There's coastline that's more rugged and dramatic than Acadia or the National Seashore, there are mountains that dwarf the peaks of ME, NH, and VT both in terms of size and prominence. Tahoe > Champlain in terms of beauty and and recreational opportunities. In terms of pure natural beauty and recreational opportunities, San Francisco easily beats Boston (or New York).
I think New England wins on the built environment front. San Francisco has some all time greats - I love Monterey (and Carmel-by-the-Sea) and obviously Napa Valley and Sonoma are world class. But there's more variety to pick from if you live in a place like Boston. For big cities, New York and Montreal are very easy, but very different weekend trips. Portland, Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Burlington are each unique and beautiful smaller cities for a weekend getaway. And the list of charming smaller towns is endless - from Block Island to Bar Harbor, there are no shortage of stunning, and fun coastal villages and towns to explore. And from Killington to the Carrabassett Valley, there's no shortage of gorgeous mountain villages and towns to enjoy.
For a total outdoor nut, they'd like choose Northern California without hesitation. But New England is more my speed for weekend destinations because of the variety. Even if it's not quite as dramatically beautiful as the Bay Area.
New England is beautiful, but it's different and I have zero issue conceding that California has more of what I would call "breathtaking" natural scenery. It's simply more dramatic. New England has an old world charm that makes it appealing. There are a few pockets in New England that I think are stunning - Acadia, Katahdin, the Presidentials in NH, Franconia Notch, Cape Cod National Seashore, Lake Champlain, etc. But California has spots that exceed each of those. There's coastline that's more rugged and dramatic than Acadia or the National Seashore, there are mountains that dwarf the peaks of ME, NH, and VT both in terms of size and prominence. Tahoe > Champlain in terms of beauty and and recreational opportunities. In terms of pure natural beauty and recreational opportunities, San Francisco easily beats Boston (or New York).
I think New England wins on the built environment front. San Francisco has some all time greats - I love Monterey (and Carmel-by-the-Sea) and obviously Napa Valley and Sonoma are world class. But there's more variety to pick from if you live in a place like Boston. For big cities, New York and Montreal are very easy, but very different weekend trips. Portland, Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Burlington are each unique and beautiful smaller cities for a weekend getaway. And the list of charming smaller towns is endless - from Block Island to Bar Harbor, there are no shortage of stunning, and fun coastal villages and towns to explore. And from Killington to the Carrabassett Valley, there's no shortage of gorgeous mountain villages and towns to enjoy.
For a total outdoor nut, they'd like choose Northern California without hesitation. But New England is more my speed for weekend destinations because of the variety. Even if it's not quite as dramatically beautiful as the Bay Area.
Yes, the West is more breathtaking and dramatic. Yet there are many of us who actually prefer the scenery and climate of the Northeast: vast luscious mountain ranges with expansive deciduous forests, scenery that makes dramatic shifts with all four distinct seasons, autumn colors that exhibit exuberant reds, oranges and yellows, thunderstorms, lightning bugs, etc.
For me, the West makes for fun week-long vacation trips to view dramatic scenery and experience the different culture and built environments. But, I would not want to live in it long-term, nor have that day trip potential over mine in Philadelphia.
Anyway, I am still confused about the topic of the thread. Are we just talking outdoorsy day trips, or are we talking all day trips?
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11
This tells you why the West is so much stronger than other places in terms of weekend trips.
Don't just cherry pick one location that I listed.
This was the original post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by the resident09
Anywhere in the mid-Atlantic could.
Chesapeake Bay, Va Beach, Ocean City/ DE beaches, Jersey shore, Shenandoah valley, Blue Ridge mountains, PA Amish country, Virginia wine vineyards, Chincoteague and Assateague pony islands, Sugarloaf Mountain Maryland, Deep Creek lake Maryland, the Poconos, Luray Caverns Virginia, Harve de Grace. And that’s not even getting started on the big cities and small towns yet.
Oh man, I actually sorta agree with the poster that mentioned Miami, if you could potentially take a ferry express that was 4-5 hrs. or so from there to Havana. That would be amazing. Too bad Castro and all that happened. I also wish there was a regularly scheduled ferry running between San Juan, PR and Santo Domingo, as well as some of the outlying islands. That would make San Juan a strong contender for sure.
Cleveland within 5 hrs. on cities front, has:
Buffalo, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville and it's Bourbon Country, Niagara on the Lake/Ithaca and their wineries, Pittsburgh, Outlying DC suburbs, Grand Rapids, Dayton and it's flight heritage, Harrisburg/PA Dutch Country/Hershey, etc.
on the nature front, aside from being nicknamed the forest city, and being plopped between a Great Lake and a hill/waterfall/gorge filled national park, has within 5 hrs. Niagara Falls, the Finger Lakes, Gorges etc. of Upstate NY, whitewater rafting/mountains/skiing of Western PA, access to the Appalachian Trail in 4 different states including it's HQ in Harpers Ferry, and 4 of 5 Great Lakes.
Of course there's very little that beats the snow in the Rockies, but skiing is also about an excuse to escape the city for the weekend and get outdoors in the winter. I don't know many skiers who would pass on that.
You can do that without skiing. You can simply take a winter walk through the snowy mountains. Even the Southern Appalachians are tall enough to get plenty of winter snow.
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