Tourist attractions in California include Hollywood movie studio tour, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Disneyland, SeaWorld San Diego, and Alcatraz prison island in San Francisco.
For many tourists coming to California, a Hollywood movie studio touris one of the top highlights, as the state is perhaps best known for its film industry.
Of the Hollywood movie studios, several have organized opportunities to visit the studio facilities.
Warner Bros. Studios (vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com), for example, offers 2 hour 15 minute tours to its facilities, in groups of 12 people.
Their tours include visits to the studio stages, filming locations, and workshops where film costumes and other props are manufactured.
Paramount Studios (www.paramountstudiotour.com) also organizes guided tours, with the duration for standard tour being 2 hours, and for a VIP tour, 4 1/2 hours.
Universal Studios (universalstudioshollywood.com/studio-tour/) studio tour, meanwhile, is perhaps the most popular of the studio visits, as Universal also features an adjacent, entire theme park related to their films and TV productions.
Highlights of the Universal theme park include themed roller coasters such “Revenge of the Mummy,” “Jurassic Park,” and “The Simpsons“.
Los Angeles Rodeo Drive, located in the district of Beverly Hills, is one of the world’s most famous shopping streets, featuring a variety of boutiques for the best-known fashion designers and brands.
All in all, Rodeo Drive’s commercial areas contain streets from Wilshire Boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard.
Some of the best known Rodeo Drive shops are:
- Giorgio Armani, Bottega Veneta, Bijan, Brioni, BVLGARI,
- Burberry, Brooks Brothers, Cartier, Chanel, Christian Dior,
- Coach, David Yurman, DeBeers, Dolce & Gabbana,
- Ermenegildo Zegna, Escada, Etro, Fendi, Gucci, Guess,
- Gianfranco Ferré, Harry Winston, Hermès, Hugo Boss,
- Jimmy Choo, Lacoste, La Perla, Louis Vuitton, Max Azria,
- Michael Kors, Miu Miu, Prada, Ralph Lauren,
- Salvatore Ferragamo, Tiffany & Co., Valentino,
- Van Cleef & Arpels, Versace, and Yves Saint-Laurent.
Tourist attractions in California also feature Disneyland(disneyland.disney.go.com) amusement park, located within Greater Los Angeles, in Anaheim.
Of the many Disneyland theme parks around the world, the California version is the original one…
…made, in fact, with inspiration taken from Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardensamusement park, after Walt Disney had seen the place during his holiday in Denmark.
Most famous amusement rides and attractions in the park include:
- Sleeping Beauty’s Castle,
- Space Mountain roller coaster,
- Tarzan’s wood house, and
- Indiana Jones adventure.
SeaWorld San Diego (seaworldparks.com/seaworld-sandiego), on the other hand, in addition to Disneyworld, is another of California’s famous theme parks, prodiving a marine zoo park experience.
In addition to the animals on display — killer whales, dolphins, whales, penguins, and many other species — and the animal shows, the theme park also has a variety of amusement park rides.
Of these, the most popular include…
- “Journey to Atlantis” water roller coaster, and
- “Lights, Camera, Imagination 4-D,” where the movie special effects are partly produced with help from killer whales.
Of tourist attractions in California, Alcatraz prison island(www.nps.gov/alca) is one of the world’s most famous historic prisons, and centrally located in San Francisco.
The island, which is located, in fact, immediately in front of San Francisco harbor, operated as a prison until 1963, during which time it gained a nickname, “The Rock”…
…due to the fact that an escape from Alcatraz was considered nearly impossible, thanks to the surrounding powerful water flows and shark infested waters.
During its long history, the prison held a number of famous prisoners, best known of which were:
- Al Capone,
- George “Machine gun” Kelly, and
- Robert Stroud (Bird Man of Alcatraz).
Today, Alcatraz island is a museum and a tourist attraction, and you can visit it by ferries that depart from Pier 33, a pier located next to the Fisherman’s Wharf.
The prison has also become famous from a number of high-profile Hollywood movies, such as “The Rock” (1996), starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery.