Vier aufregende L.A.-Roadtrips

The lowdown: Consider the classic Californian driving holiday and you’ll likely picture the surf and fog-trimmed cliffs of the Pacific Coast Highway – and few roads rival the Golden State’s Highway 1.

Jump in your hire car, and start with a late morning cruise north to Santa Barbara, where colonial Spanish architecture and twisted bougainvillea abound. There are former Franciscan monasteries and museums to explore, but the real joy can be found in its riviera lifestyle, Napa Valley-style wineries and refreshingly un-LA pace of life.

Leave the glimmering copper-red roofs in the rear-view and buzz north to see the route’s window-down hallmarks. In quick succession you’ll drive by McWay Falls, a silver veil of cliff-to-cove mist, then Bixby Bridge.

By the time you reach Big Sur, America’s most famous road tripper, Jack Kerouac, enters the picture. The area’s redwoods and rugged coastline inspired On the Road and it’s easy to see why. From here, the highway winds to Carmel-by-the-Sea where luxury boutiques stand toe-to-toe with bohemian-owned galleries. Then comes beachy Monterey and the fabled Santa Cruz Beac Boardwalk, a kaleidoscope of fairground rides and all-American schmaltz. Now you’ve come to the end of the road, stay at Hotel Paradox and take full advantage of the hotel pool.

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The lowdown: Ask anyone in Los Angeles where best to rekindle the Summer of Love spirit and many will give the same answer: Joshua Tree National Park. At weekends, rock ’n’ roll-loving kids pack up their campers and drive Interstate 10 into the Park to drink beer and watch the sunrise.

In the deep laziness of the summer of 1973, rock ’n’ roll history was made by the folk music pioneer Gram Parsons when he died at the fabled Joshua Tree Inn and Motel. Fixated by the pull of the desert landscape, the former Byrds band member regularly took trips to the Park, inspired by its moonscapes framed by rocky outcrops and yucca palms.

Have a listen to The Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses, indebted to Parsons’ influence, and you can hear the desert’s influence on the song. Or listen to U2’s The Joshua Tree. Those magic-hour guitars still resonate around the bars and diners along the 29 Palms Highway, in particular at honky-tonk music saloon Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown. Stay at Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort and Spa for Spanish-style elegance, outdoor fire pits and to cool off in one of the three swimming pools..

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The lowdown: The crystal air in the Sierra Nevada Mountains isn’t the only reason road trippers taking Route 395 from Los Angeles feel giddy. The forests below Mount Whitney are inhabited by wolverines, coyotes and snakes. Explore deeper into Sequoia National Park and you may even spot black bears.

As the park begins to appear in the sun-streaked windscreen ahead, the journey unfolds through a series of lens-popping sites. First comes the Mojave Desert, then Red Rock Canyon, before the road detours from the frontier town of Lone Pine, the jumping-off point for camping trips in what many regard as the United States’ most beautiful tract of wilderness. Whichever way you tackle it – by boot, bike, karabiner or hoof – it’s euphoria that feels earned.

Before heading into the wilds though, there’s something equally fantastic to see: the sunburnt-orange rock formations of the Alabama Hills, used as locations for Wild West classics including The Lone Ranger, Raw Hide and Bonanza. As you'd expect, the sunsets here are Oscar-winning.

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The lowdown: Stark. Dramatic. Barren. All fairly standard words to describe the otherworldly beauty of Death Valley National Park and its geological weirdness. It’s also the hottest, lowest and driest national park in the United States – and its eastern entry point on Highway 14 pulls in hundreds of LA road trippers every week.

Justifiably, they come for the rhythm of the road. It slinks through Antelope Valley, a rugged expanse of hills blanketed by rust-orange poppies, before veering east towards Nevada. Around this time, the emptiness of the desert starts to grab you. You’ll stand agog at salt flats, below sea-level basins and oases. Marvel at the red-rocked badlands at Zabriskie Point and the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells.

In bright, bustling Los Angeles, a road trip like this reveals the extraordinary persistence and power of the Californian desert. If you drove another 120 miles from here you’d reach Las Vegas. With its promised land of hotel casinos, it’s a world away from Death Valley. But why not linger here just a few more days, under the red sky and burnishing sun? Furnace Creek Ranch, with its golf course and pool, is an odd oasis to find in the desert, but a welcome one, too.

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