Like all of Sonoma County, Kenwood is considered part of the Wine Country. Viticulturally, it lies in the Sonoma Valley AVA. The Kenwood area is known for vineyards and wineries, restaurants, and a European-style resort. An area landmark is the Kunde Estate Winery on State Route 12, which was first planted in 1879.

Kenwood Plaza Park, located two blocks south of State Route 12 at 200 Warm Springs Road, is managed by the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department.

Annadel State Park lies to the west, Hood Mountain Regional Park lies to the north, and Sugarloaf Ridge State Park lies to the northwest.

In January 2008, the Arnold Palmer Classic Course at the city's SilverRock Golf Resort, became one of the four host golf courses for the annual Bob Hope Chrysler Classic PGA golf tournament.

The most prominent feature of the La Quinta area is its Santa Rosa Mountains. Visitors to Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, California can be treated to a brief glimpse of the foothills in one of the park's attractions: Soarin' Over California. The "Palm Springs" segment of Soarin' Over California was actually shot at the world-famous PGA West golf complex in La Quinta. The Santa Rosa Mountains (California) are nestled against the golf course and can be seen easily in the segment.

The area is very close to the earthquake-causing San Andreas Fault, with some companies offering jeep tours to the fault line.

Long Beach is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the sixth-largest in California. In addition, Long Beach is the 2nd largest city within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The city completely surrounds the city of Signal Hill.

The Port of Long Beach is one of the world's largest shipping ports. The city also has a large oil industry; oil is found both underground and offshore. Manufacturers include aircraft, automobile parts, electronic and audiovisual equipment, and home furnishings. It is also home to headquarters for corporations such as Epson America, Molina Healthcare, and SCAN Health Plan. Long Beach has grown with the development of high-technology and aerospace industries in the area.

The RMS Queen Mary is a 1936 art deco ocean liner permanently docked at Long Beach. Roughly 200 ft (61 m) longer than the Titanic, the former Cunard Liner is famous for being the fastest in the world from 1936 to 1952, for its distinctive art deco design and for its use during World War II as a troop transport. It was purchased by the city of Long Beach in 1967 for conversion to a hotel and maritime museum.

The nonprofit Aquarium of the Pacific is located on a 5-acre (20,000 m2) site on Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, Calif.—across the water from the Long Beach Convention Center, Shoreline Village, and the Queen Mary Hotel and Attraction. The Aquarium features a collection of over 12,500 animals representing over 550 different species. The facility focuses on the Pacific Ocean in three major permanent galleries, sunny Southern California and Baja, the frigid waters of the Northern Pacific and the colorful reefs of the Tropical Pacific. Favorite exhibits at the Aquarium also include the Aquarium's interactive Shark Lagoon (guests can pet sharks and sting rays) and Lorikeet Forest (guests can feed nectar to colorful lorikeet birds). Exhibits at the Aquarium introduce the inhabitants and seascapes of the Pacific, while also focusing on specific conservation messages associated with each region. Exhibits range in size and capacity from about 5,000 to 350,000 gallons. The Aquarium of the Pacific has been visited by more than 13 million people since its opening. The Aquarium was rated #2 Los Angeles area Family Destination in the most recent Zagat U.S. Family Travel Guide, second only to Disneyland. The Aquarium of the Pacific is also the only major nonprofit aquarium in the nation to have attendance increases for the past six years in a row. Morey & Associates’ research ranked the Aquarium of the Pacific as number one in visitor diversity among all of the nation’s leading aquariums.

Despite its small size, the town's scenic location on a headland surrounded by the Pacific Ocean has made it extremely popular as an artist colony and with vacationers. Because it is less than four hours by car from the San Francisco Bay Area, it is a popular weekend getaway spot for Bay Area residents.

Many movies have been filmed in and around Mendocino and Mendocino County, including The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming; Overboard (actually filmed in Fort Bragg); The Dunwich Horror; Karate Kid III; Dead & Buried; Dying Young; Forever Young; Same Time Next Year; Racing with the Moon (partially filmed in Fort Bragg); Pontiac Moon; and The Majestic (also partially filmed in Fort Bragg). Mendocino was depicted as turn of the last century Monterey in the James Dean classic East of Eden. "Summer of '42" starring Jennifer O'Neil included local Mendocino High School students.

Montara is located approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco and 50 miles (80 km) north of Santa Cruz, California. Neighboring towns include Pacifica to the north, Moss Beach, El Granada, and Half Moon Bay to the south. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.9 square miles (10.2 km²), all of it land.

The rare and endangered species Hickman's potentilla occurs at the northern extremity of Montara on the slopes above Martini Creek at elevations ranging from 32 to 410 feet (10 to 125 meters).

Nearby Montara Mountain, part of the Santa Cruz Mountains, rises to an elevation of 1,898 feet (578 m) above sea level. The mountain is accessible by a gravel fire road. On a few occasions light snowfall has fallen on the upper reaches of the mountain.

The town is surrounded by open space (Rancho Corral del Tierra) and a popular recreation area includes Montara State Beach. The nearly mile long stretch of sand drops steeply into the ocean making it hazardous for swimming. It is, however, a fairly popular surfing destination for experienced surfers. 10-15+ ft. waves can be common during winter storm swells.

Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Napa County, California, USA. Napa Valley is considered one of the top wine regions in the United States, with a history dating back to the nineteenth century. The combination of Mediterranean climate, geography and geology of the valley are conducive to growing quality wine grapes. John Patchett established the valley's first commercial vineyard in 1858. In 1861 Charles Krug established Napa Valley's first commercial winery in St. Helena. Viticulture in Napa suffered several setbacks in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including an outbreak of the vine disease phylloxera, the legal institution of Prohibition, and the Great Depression. The wine industry in Napa Valley recovered, and helped by the results of the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, came to be seen as capable of producing the best quality wine. Almost 4.7 million people visit Napa Valley each year, making it the second most popular tourist destination in California, second only to Disneyland.

There was a point in the early 1990s when the town was also a center of the "neo-hippie" movement in Sonoma County, but high property prices and other economic pressures have since driven out the young families that fed this movement.

For many years Occidental has been known for its Italian restaurants, which serve generous family-style dinners for a fixed price (following the European custom). The two Italian restaurants today are the Union Hotel (founded in 1879) at 3703 Main Street and Negri's at 3700 Bohemian Highway.. More recently, the large number of craft breweries in the area have made Barley and Hops Tavern, in downtown Occidental another local and tourist destination

Pacific Grove is known for its Victorian homes, Asilomar State Beach, its artistic legacy and the annual migration of the Monarch butterflies. The city is endowed with more Victorian houses per capita than anywhere else in America; some of them have been turned into bed and breakfast inns.

The city is also known as the location of the Point Pinos Lighthouse, the oldest continuously-operating lighthouse on the West Coast, Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, located in the historic downtown, and the Stowitts Museum & Library.

It is also known as John Denver's place of death.

A major center of growth in the Palm Springs area, Palm Desert is a popular retreat for "snowbirds" from colder climates (the Eastern and Northern US, and Canada), who swell its population by an estimated 31,000 each winter. In the past couple of years Palm Desert has seen more residents become "full-timers" (mainly from California, who have come for affordable but high-valued home prices).

Petaluma is a transliteration of the Coast Miwok phrase péta lúuma which means hill backside and probably refers to Petaluma's proximity to Sonoma Mountain.

Petaluma has a well preserved, historic city center which includes many buildings that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

This coastal city is also the county seat of San Diego County as well as the economic center of the San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos Metropolitan Area considered congruent with the county. San Diego is also the largest city of Southern Border and is the region's western anchor. The city was rated the fifth best place to live in 2006 by Money Magazine. According to Forbes the city of San Diego ranks as the fifth wealthiest in the United States. San Diego's biggest industries are manufacturing, military, and tourism.

San Diego's economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology/biosciences, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, defense-related manufacturing, financial and business services, ship-repair, ship-construction, software development, telecommunications, wireless research, and tourism. The presence of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center promotes research in biotechnology.