Ventura
Ventura in California is about 60-70 miles north of Los Angeles on the Pacific Coast Highway, US-101, depending where you start from. It should be an hour or so's drive, but that depends on the time of day. There's a lot of traffic into LA in the mornings, and out again in the afternoons, which can slow you up.
Ventura has miles of beautiful sandy beaches, lots of good eating in fine-dining restaurants, some outstanding hotels and inns, access to the Channel Islands National Park, an old Mission, an enjoyable museum with an excellent collection of Native American items – it's an almost perfect vacation destination, or place to overnight if driving the Pacific Coast Highway. What's not to like?
The Museum of Ventura County
Using the Pacific Coast Highway, Ventura is about 70 miles (113kms) from downtown Los Angeles, and about 380 miles (612kms) from San Francisco
Channel Islands National Park
The harbour at Ventura is where you can take a boat to go across to the beautiful and unusual Channel Islands National Park. First go to the Park Headquarters and Visitor Center at 1901 Spinnaker Drive in Ventura, and check out the different islands, what they have to offer, and what ranger-led activities are on offer. You'll need to check the boat schedules as they do vary according to the season, days of the week, which islands they go to, and so on.
Mission San Bueneventura
This beautiful mission was the 9th and last of the California missions to be established by the Blessed Junipero Serra, and is still an active Catholic church today. It was founded in 1782 although the present buildings date from 1815 after the original structures were affected by several earthquakes and a tidal wave. The mission is only small so a visit won't take long, but it's charming and definitely worth seeing.
The Museum of Ventura County
The museum has quite a varied collection, and puts on exhibitions featuring contemporary as well as past artists and photographers. They also have a good collection of artefacts from the local Native American people, the Chumash Indians, as well as other Native American people from the area.
Whale Watching
See the Whale Watching in California page.
WHERE TO STAY
Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach
The historic Pierpont Inn
Read about the Ventura free public trolley
and check out our page on Ventura Bars.
Further Information
Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau
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The Best PCH Guide
We've read lots of guides to the Pacific Coast, and easily the best one is the Moon Handbook. You can read our review here, or buy it through the Amazon link below.
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Our PCH Hotels Guide
To help you in choosing your Pacific Coast Highway hotel, guesthouse, inn, bed-and-breakfast, resort, motel or other accommodations, we've prepared our Pacific Coast Highway Hotels Guide. In it we do mini-reviews of accommodations along the Highway, from Seattle to San Diego, through Washington, Oregon, and California.
In all there are over 200 hotels listed, complete with 8 pages of color maps showing the towns where our recommended hotels can be found. There are both alphabetical and geographical indexes, helping you plan your journey.
We also include color photos of all the hotels that are our Personal Favorites. Here's the link to read more about our ebook guide to Pacific Coast Highway hotels.
KINDLE EDITION
The 2018 edition of our Hotels Guide is available for the Kindle, with maps and photos in color, if you have a color reader. You can buy it in the US Kindle Store and in the UK Kindle Store and around the world.
PAPERBACK EDITION
If
you want a paperback edition of the 2016 guide with only black and white photos and black-and-white maps, it costs $6.99 at the US Amazon Book Store and £4.99 in the UK Amazon Store.
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