Lake Tahoe

The Yosemite National Park is located in the Sierra Nevada in California, about 300 km east of San Francisco. You go there for the Yosemite Valley with its steep rock faces, high waterfalls, and the giant sequoias in the south of the park.Above the valley, El Capitan rises about 914 m, and the Yosemite Falls plunge 739 m in total over three tiers. Near the south entrance, the Mariposa Grove hosts over 500 mature giant sequoias; a shuttle connects the parking lot and the grove. The park has existed since 1890 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984.Admission costs 35 US dollars per car for 7 days. Visitors not residing in the USA pay an additional 100 US dollars per person from age 16, unless they have the America the Beautiful annual pass (250 US dollars). An entry reservation is not required in 2026. Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road are usually closed from November until the end of May or early June.

San Francisco lies in Northern California at the northern tip of a peninsula between the Pacific and San Francisco Bay. The city, founded in 1776 with around 874,000 residents, is known for its steep hills, the Cable Cars, and the Golden Gate Bridge.Opened in 1937, the 2.7-kilometer-long Golden Gate Bridge connects the city with Marin County. The Cable Cars, a National Historic Landmark since 1964, operate on three lines, the two Powell lines running from Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf. Chinatown is considered North America's oldest Chinatown. Ferries to the former prison island Alcatraz depart from Pier 33; day tickets for adults cost 47.95 dollars and can be booked up to 90 days in advance.BART, Caltrain, light rail, and buses serve the city and region. Expect fog and cool winds from the Golden Gate: In summer, San Francisco is one of the coolest major cities in the USA; a jacket is advisable even in July.

California stretches along the Pacific coast between Oregon and Mexico, and with around 39.4 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state in the USA. You come here for its approximately 1,350 kilometers of coastline, for metropolises like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, and for high mountains, deserts, and redwood forests that lie close to each other.In the east, the Sierra Nevada stretches through the state. Its highest peak is Mount Whitney at 4,421 meters, the highest mountain in the USA outside Alaska. Just over 100 kilometers away lies Death Valley: Badwater Basin is located around 85 meters below sea level, and in 1913, 56.7 °C was measured here. On the coast, Highway 1 in Big Sur follows the steep cliffs above the Pacific for 114 kilometers.California has nine National Parks. In Sequoia National Park stands the General Sherman Tree; Redwood National Park in the north protects almost half of the remaining coast redwoods; and Joshua Tree is located at the transition of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. Approximately 90 percent of US wine comes from California.

Nevada is located east of California, between Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. The state is primarily known as the home of Las Vegas, but you'll also find desert mountains, red sandstone canyons, and one side of Lake Tahoe here.With an average of around 180 millimeters of precipitation per year, Nevada is the driest state in the USA. Most of it belongs to the Great Basin, the south to the Mojave Desert, and over 80 percent of its area is federally administered. Its highest peak is Boundary Peak at 4,007 meters. Carson City is the capital, Reno is the center of the north, and about one-third of Lake Tahoe's water area lies in Nevada.To the east, the Great Basin National Park protects bristlecone pines, which are up to 5,000 years old, as well as the Lehman Caves. Around Las Vegas are the Hoover Dam from 1936, the Valley of Fire, Nevada's oldest State Park, and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. A part of Death Valley also belongs to Nevada.

Big Sur is the approximately 115-kilometer stretch of California coastline between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains drop directly into the Pacific. You come here for Highway 1, which winds in curves over steep cliffs, concrete arch bridges, and redwood canyons, counting among the most famous coastal roads in the world.There are no cities. The area has only around 2,000 year-round residents and a few small clusters of lodges, restaurants, gas stations, and campgrounds, one of which is Big Sur Village in the Big Sur River Valley, a good 40 kilometers south of Carmel. This is precisely its charm: no supermarkets, no chains, but instead viewpoints, hiking trails through redwoods, and beaches where the fog hangs among the rocks in the morning.Don't plan Big Sur as a two-hour drive-through. If you want to see Bixby Creek Bridge, Pfeiffer Beach, and McWay Falls in one day and hike between them, you'll need time, and an overnight stay in the valley makes the journey significantly more relaxed.