Inject Some Diversity to Your Southern California Vacation

09 Dec 2009 @ 8:52 AM

Inject Some Diversity to Your Southern California Vacation

I’d like to make a suggestion for a summer vacation travel destination where you can find a great deal of variety in the type of local attractions offered. Summer vacation travel means different things to different people, that’s for sure. It may include hitting a bunch of theme parks like Knott’s Berry Farm, or relaxing in the mountains. For others it is visiting the local museums or hiking or deep sea sport fishing.

One of the most well-known vacation attractions in Southern California is the resort area around Disneyland; this includes the Downtown Disney retail entertainment center with its wonderful Orange County restaurants, and California Adventure, on which Disney is spending around one billion dollars over the next few years.

If you haven’t been to Anaheim in several years, you’ll be amazed at the changes. The addition of Disney’s California Adventure alone has changed the whole atmosphere of the Resort, and with the billion-dollar upgrade now underway this will only continue into the future. You will observe an international blend of cultures in the visitors at the parks and at Downtown Disney. It is a great place for people watching—a veritable cultural melting pot.

There are not a lot of other places in the world where you’ll find such a complex melting pot of nationalities as in Southern California. There is a particularly strong presence from Pacific Rim countries, but Europe, Asia and Africa are likewise well represented (not so many folks from Antarctica).

You’ll find quite a number of ethnic communities scattered throughout Southern California, and worth a visit in your summer travel activities. In Los Angeles County the obvious targest would be Koreatown, west of downtown, Little Tokyo to the west and Chinatown just north of the central business district. Orange County is home to Little Saigon and Fourth Street in downtown Santa Ana.