Catalog 2010

EXPLORE

California
The Golden State Specialists

www.explorecalifornia.org

Contents

Welcome to

Explore California!

Intro Bottles
Snow Boarding

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unshine: California has possibly

the brightest, warmest, and
most invigorating sunshine in
the world. And you can see the same
in the smiles of the Californios all over
the state. And after talking with any
of our happy residents, you will learn
what makes them enjoy California
so muchthe fantastic diversity
of experiences. We here at Explore
California love to share our state and
its world-famous sunshine with all
of you. Come and join usweve got
an experience tailored for everyone.
From the mountain to the desert
to the sea, from environmental
expeditions to luxurious vacations, we
can create a life-changing experience
for you that you will never forget. So,
come and Explore California with us.

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Desert to Sea

FROM

Desert

Desert to Sea

TO

SEA

No state has the extremes of California. From the highest mountain in the lower 48 states
(Mount Whitney) to the lowest point in North America (Death Valley), California has always
done its best to be all things to all people. For those with a penchant to enjoy the waves,
California boasts some of the best surf in the world. Like to backpack? The Golden State has
thousands of miles of backcountry trails. You a skier? Californias Sierra Nevada range is by
far the best range for snow sports. But most people travel to California for either the surf or
the desert so lets take a look at what Explore California has to offer in these two extremes.

Tour Info
Duration: 2 Weeks
Cost per person:
$5000 (based upon
double occupancy)
Departure Dates: March
10, June 15, September 24.
Included: All meals
and lodging.
Not included: Travel
insurance, travel to and
from departure city.

Explore California has been working in California surf boards, and beach volleyball. Youll be basking
for years, showing people from all over the world the sun just around feet away from some of the best
the true beauty and complexity that makes Cali- waves in America. The next stop is Mammoth Lakes,
fornia. We are so proud of our state, its history, its where the snow pack stays beautiful all year long and
people, and its landscapesthats why we started the skiing and snowboarding is amazing. The next
this company. And to best show off our marvelous morning well get moving down to San Franciso
state, weve developed two packagesone sporting, Bay and the Alameda Yacht Club. Youll have the
one relaxingto show you around our California. chance to sail the bay in a 55ft catamaran or on a
personal windsurfing board. The next day brings
Explore CaliforniaSporting
more winter funa cross-country skiing excurThis week-long package is entirely developed with sion from Big Bend to Paradise, CA. Its a 20 mile
the sporting enthusiast in mind. We will start out in experience through the trees and hills of Northern
the Southern California desert in Palm Desert, CA California and the Tahoe National Forest; a relaxing
where youll experience all the exotic nature of the and invigorating day to be sure. Finally, its on to Cressands, riding ATVs through the desert (on dedicated cent Cityhome of the California Mountain Biking
trials of course), looking at the most amazing vistas Championships. Youll have the opportunity to ride
in America. The next day its out to Manhattan Beach, the same trails the pros doon bikes well provide.
where youll enjoy the sand and surf on water craft, Its an amazing packagewell over 1900 miles of

Californiawhere youll see the

state from every angle (including
some unexpected ones.
Explore CaliforniaRelaxing
Californios have a reputation for
being a little more laid back then the
rest of the nationand that perception is not far wrong. We work hard
and we play hard, but when we relax,
we really know how to relax. This package was designed to really show you
how we relax in California. The first
day is a quiet and peaceful day in San
Diego, voted the most beautiful weather
in America by Weather Magazine. On
this first day, well go on a small tour of
the gardens of Balboa Park, then relax
with native teas from Mexico at the
Coronado Resort and Spa. The next
day, well travel to Palm Springs and
enjoy a native Hota experiencehot
rock treatments, sweat lodge, and
a refreshing pool of real hot springs
to relieve all of your stress. A quiet
evening of chamber music and scented
candles finishes the day. The following
day is an exciting onea chance to rub
elbows with the California elite. Youll

Contents

FACT FILE
Palm Desert is home
to a unique non-profit
conservation effort
called The Living
Desert www.livingdesert.org.
The grounds are open for
visitors and are home to
a huge variety of plant
and animal species.
Joshua Trees are a variety
of Yucca named by Mormon
settlers crossing the Mojave
Desert in the mid-19th century.
Fact: The Mojave Desert
is believed to support
between 1,750 and 2,000
unique plant species.
April is chief wildflower time
in California. Look for lupine,
poppies and owlsclovers.
Fact: Californias coastline
is 840 miles long but the
tidal shoreline (including
bays and inlets) is a
whopping 3427 miles long.
California tide pools
are home to such fanciful
creatures as periwinkle
snails, fingernail limpets,
buckshot barnacles and
sunburst anemones.

The Big Sur coastline.

Joshua Tree National Park

have a full day at the Beverly Hills

Day Spa for as many treatments
are you want. You can have a
massage one table over from
a starlet or share a sauna with
your favorite soap star. Next,
its off to Santa Barbara and the
Bocarata Resort and spa and
swimming with the dolphins.
Your final day will be in beautiful Montereywhere tall
trees meet the surf, and the
pace of life slows to a crawl.
Truly, this package offers
all of the relaxation anyone
could ever want.
As with all of our tours and
packages, Explore California
is dedicated to making your
California experience truly
enjoyable, and that means
making it completely adaptable
to your needs. When booking
the Sporting and Relaxtion
packages, you will be asked
to complete a detailed questionnaire about your skill level,
any existing health problems
and any special requests.

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Taste of California

Taste of California
Californias third and most bountiful resource, following sunshine
and would-be starlets, has to be its cuisine. Taste of California is a five
day, fournight tour of the best flavors and foodstuffs this side of the
Mississippi. Youll travel from Napa, including a stop at the renowned
French Laundry, then on to the oyster shoals of Hog Island, and visit
the aromatically bracing Gilroy, garlic capital of the world. To top it
all off, a visit to the vast Alemany Farmers Market in San Francisco,
where you can collect everything from globe artichokes, blushing
apples, blood oranges, to homemade candied apple sausages and
clover and sage honey, to recreate the taste of California at home.
A Brief History of Californias Roots
Almost as eagerly as the prospectors, farmers plowed
west following the Gold Rush of the 1850s. They
found the temperate climate and rich soil well suited
for a wide variety of crops, most famously, citrus.
So-called citrus barons were crowned in the early
1900s, but it all started with two small trees from
Brazil that the US Department of Agriculture sent to
a Ms. Eliza Tibbets, who volunteered as a test grower.
These two trees led to widespread irrigation projects
and even the founding of such dubious institutions
as the Citrus Experiment Station.
To bacchanalians delight, grapes flourished in the
coastal areas. Vintners set up stakes and carved out
Californias famous wine trails in areas such as Napa

Tour Info
Duration: 2 Weeks
Cost per person:
$5000 (based upon
double occupancy)
Departure Dates: March
10, June 15, September 24.
Included: All meals
and lodging.
Not included: Travel
insurance, travel to and
from departure city.

Valley and Paso Robles in the central coast. Currently,

California produces 90% of American wines, falling
only behind France, Italy and Spain in production.
Other less famous crops were established, artichokes, garlic, avocados, strawberries, apples, and
for almost every food, there is a festival. Indio leads
with its bellwether Date Festival in February and
Carpentaria brings up the rear with the Avocado
Festival in October.
The Tour
This five-day, four-night package starts in
San Francisco. Lodgings are conveniently located
nearby the famous Ghirardelli Square and Fishermans Wharf. Take a cable car to Chinatown and walk
though the Chinatown Gateway. Enjoy dim sum, a
traditional variety of delicate dishes, such as fluffy
pork dumplings and egg tart, alongside the ritual
tea. In the evening, catch a ferry around the bay and
take in spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The next day includes travel to Central Napa, a
short hours drive from the bay. The next two nights
lodgings are provided at a world-class winery, where
you can survey the estate from your private balcony.
The package includes two tickets to a guided winery
tour, by bus or by bicycle. On the second day, have
a massage, facial, or other service from any one of
the world-class spas. After relaxing, enjoy a four-star
mealno less than nine coursesat the French

Laundry, called the most impetuous restaurant in

the world by critic Buck LeSabre. Try the oysters
and pearls, a silky sabayon of pearl tapioca with
oysters and sevruga caviar.
From Napa, its a hop, skip and a jump to Gilroy,
youll know it when you smell it, California. The
Garlic Festival is held in July, but this town sports
year-round treats such as garlic ice cream, garlic gator
on a stick, and a local favorite, the Gilroy Martini.
Burn off the burn with a round of golf on any one of
the three courses and enjoy shopping in the quaint
downtown.
One night in Gilroy and youre back to San Francisco. Visit one of the areas 15 Farmers Markets,
most famously, the Alemany Farmers Market, established in 1943.
Pack a picnic with your edibles and drive an hour
north to visit the Hog Island Oyster Company. Take
a tour of the sustainable aquaculture harvesting
techniques. Enjoy the pristine Marshall beaches
and pick up some oysters to go from the farm. Or
stay and shuck them or grill them at Hog Islands
bayside picnic area.
Spend the waning hours wandering the beach, or
you can return to San Francisco to pickup some last
minute gifts for the foodies in your fold, such as a
loaf of San Francisco sourdough or a special bottle
of brew from the Anchor Steam Brewing Company.

TA S T E O F

CALIFORNIA

Fact File
Fact: California is the number
one dairy state. Moo!
www.california-wine.org
T he California Wine
Institute. An excellent
source of information.
Dim Sum is translated
as to touch your heart.
Fact: Californias leading
export crop is almonds.
E. & J. Gallo winery, the
worlds largest and located
in California, produces 75
million cases of wine a year.
The navel orange was
the first citrus to be
planted in California.
www.beachcalifornia.
com/california-foodwine-festivals.html
An alphabetical listing
of 25 California food
and wine festivals

Wineries offer a glimpse into Californias rural past.

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Nature Watch

Nature Watch
Its had to believe, but California boasts the most unique species in
the continental United States. There are also some of the most wellpreserved fossils found in California, so you could say that this Golden
State has the most interesting mix of animals past, present, and future.
Here at Explore California, weve got some great packages to highlight
the natural world of our great state. From coastal expeditions to
view the largest creature to ever live, the blue whale, to forest
hiking trips to see some of the most beatiful insects ever, Explore
California has something for any Ranger Rick or Regina out there.
In an effort to highlight some of the nature packages
that we offer, there are three that stand out for us
here as our most popular. The first takes you from
the southwestern deserts of the Mohave to the busy
downtown of Los Angelesour Fossil Tour.
The Fossil Tour
California is a hotbed of Paleozoic creatures, mostly
due to the fact that the immense range of elevations
and seismic activity has caused much of the states
ancient rock formations to be exposed. The Mohave
Desert was once a large inland sea, and the creatures
who lived, and died, here have been preserved in the
rocks around the current sandy soil. Our Fossil tour
starts here, with three days of geology lessons and

Tour Info
Duration: 2 Weeks
Cost per person:
$5000 (based upon
double occupancy)
Departure Dates: March
10, June 15, September 24.
Included: All meals
and lodging.
Not included: Travel
insurance, travel to and
from departure city.

NATURE
WATCH

working on an actual dig. Any fossils found would

be yours to keep, compliments of Explore California
and the state of Californias Long-Dead Creatures
act. After that, its two days in Los Angeles, exploring the still-bubbling La Brea Tar Pits. Prehistoric
creatures fell into the petroleum here in what is
now downtown Los Angeles millennium ago, and
historians and geologists are still pulling out new
species everyday.
Coastal Experience
For our coastal experience patrons, we not only show
you the marvels of the deep, but the playfulness of
our most popular denizens. For the first day, a San
Francisco Bay tour, highlighted by a chance to kayak
with some of the playful California Sea Lions that
fill the docks at Pier 38. From here, its just down
the coast to Monterrey, where our guests will visit
the world-famous Aquarium, and see the wonderful sea otter in their natural habitat. Currently, the
California population numbers around 2,000 and
is found from Half Moon Bay to Morro Bay, so its
important to visit them quickly. The last stop is the
Channel Islands of Ventura Countya fascinating
area where the coastal islands have been isolated for
centuries and species have developed separated from
the rest of the state. Here well visit the Santa Cruz
fo, the smallest member of the fox family at less
than 2lbs! And on the way to and from the islands.

Arial acrobaticsa pelican dives for fish.

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Snowboard California

Snowboard California

FACT FILE
Tour Info
Duration: 2 Weeks
Cost per person:
$5000 (based upon
double occupancy)
Departure Dates: March
10, June 15, September 24.
Included: All meals
and lodging.
Not included: Travel
insurance, travel to and
from departure city.

10

Nothing says extreme winter experience like surfing down a mountain without a care
in the world. While snowboarding may not have been invented in California, with our
experience surfing the waves and skating through the neighborhoods, you could say we
perfected it. Whether you want to slide down a bunny slope or shred a McTwist on the halfpipe, weve got more than 30 mountain resorts to show you. And if you would rather watch
than participate, California is also the home to the ever-exciting X-Games; the pinnacle
of extreme sports. So whether youre a slope-styler or a boardercross racer, come out
to California and well hook you up.

Ski Resort, the towering Sierra Nevada Mountains

provide the perfect combination of sunny weather,
cool temperatures and fantastic snowfall to entice
any snowman or snowwoman to enjoy their stay.

California is uniquely positioned for winter sports.

With the wind Jet Stream moving from west to east
across the United States, a coastal mountain range,
and the mighty Sierra Nevada range on the eastern
border, California receives a lot of moisture in the Types of Snowboarding
winter and where the mountains rise from the valley All of the various types of snowboarding are popular
floora consistent and persistent blanket of snow in California: freeride, freestyle, and freecarve or
for everyone to enjoy. Since California has the tallest race. Freeride snowboarding is the most common
peak in the lower 48 (Mount Whitney), we often have type of snowboardingit consists of just gliding
the best skiing and snowboarding in the nation. All down any hill or mountain. It can be as simple as a
along the length of California, from Bear Mountain bunny hill for beginners and as complex and beauand Baldy Mountain in the south to Squaw Valley tiful as aerial flips from snow hills and twists or
(home of the 1960 Winter Olympics) to Mt. Shasta the long, deep, slow turns of alpine snowboarding.

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that
Most riders will learn the basics of freeride before we regularly
attempting any other style and 90% of riders will put together Surf/Turf/Snow
stay with freeride as their primary type of ride. Free- packages where on spring days we present you
style riders make use of manmade features, like with a surfing morning in Orange County, a mounjumps, rails, halfpipes and any other object that tain bike expedition on Saddleback Mountain, and
riders can use to perform any number of amazing finally a night skiing session n Mt. Baldyall the
feats of daring-do. One of the first tricks that any features and experiences of California in one day.
rider will learn is the jib or grind where a rider will
slide on an object not made or covered with snow. Ski Packages
The last type of riding is the freecarve style. Much Besides the aforementioned Surf/Turf/Snow
like skiing, freecarve is most likely seen in race or package, we at Explore California have dozens of
slalom experiences. More often seen in European both a la carte and all-in-one packages available
resorts, it is still extremely popular in California and for you to stretch your snowboarding legs. We
can be done at any of the incredible resorts found can put you on any mountain you would like to
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
carve downeven those without resorts. We have
several fully adventure skiing packages where we
Snow Resorts
put you in the wilderness of Donner Lake and you
Some of the most important snow resorts in the world have to cross-country ski and snowboard you way
are found in California. Squaw Valley was the host of back to civilization. Nothing says living like blasting
the 1960 Olympic Games and is commonly considered down Donner Pass to Lake Tahoe with the ghosts
one of the finest snow resorts. Mammoth Moun- of history and your own fear behind you. So join
tain holds some of the most challenging runs in the usexperience everything the Pacific coast has
worldincluding the only quad-diamond run. Mt. to offer and Explore Snowboarding in California.
Baldy is so connected to the southern California lifestyle

www.explorecalifornia.org

Snowboarding was
developed in the 1960s
and the 1970s by
renowned extreme sports
and snowboard expert
Francis Wilkinson.
In 1998 , snowboarding
became an official
Winter Olympic Sport.
Words such as dude, gnarly,
and Shred the Gnar are some
examples of words used in
the snowboarding culture.
Shaun White is one of the
most famous professional
snowboarders. He is the
subject of two documentaries
and multiple video games.
www.usasa.org The official
site of the USA Snowboard
Association. Great information
on competitions, rankings
and regional events
and snow conditions.

0800 1234 5678 11