Weekend Getaways and Day Trips in California

Californians love to travel, and we love to visit each other. In fact, more Californians visit our top tourist destinations than people from any other place. To help you make the most of a short time off, we've compiled a selection of California weekend getaways (three hours driving or less) from our biggest cities. If you're looking for something special or are willing to travel farther from home, browse all California weekend getaways, A to Z.

Our California weekend getaway pages are set up to make your job easy. We tell you where to stay, when to go, give you a short list of the best things to do and often include the best place in town for Sunday brunch. It's all designed to make your California weekend getaway as carefree as possible.

Weekend Getaways in California

Choose the city or area you will start your California weekend getaway from:

• Getaways from Bakersfield
• Getaways from Fresno
• Getaways from Lake Tahoe and Reno
• Getaways from Los Angeles
• Getaways from Orange County
• Getaways from Sacramento - Stockton - Merced
• Getaways from San Bernardino - Riverside - Moreno Valley
• Getaways from San Diego
• Getaways from San Francisco - Oakland
• Getaways from San Jose - Fremont

If you're short on cash but long on need for a getaway, even if it's only for a weekend, read about how to plan an inexpensive California weekend getaway.

Day Trips

If your free time is limited, try a day trip instead. Day trips are less than 2 hours away, places you can go to and get back from in one day, but many of them are also fun California weekend getaways. Just click on the link below for the city you're day-tripping from:

• Los Angeles Day Trips

• San Diego Day Trips

• San Francisco Day Trips