The nation’s third largest state after Alaska and Texas, California encompasses more than 150,000 square miles and offers a variety of landscapes, cultures and wild habitats. The state is home to untamed deserts, majestic mountains and canyons, ancient Redwood and Sequoia forests and 840 miles of coastline. Exploring the entire state in one trip might not be reasonable—or practical–but taking short road trips that explore regions of California allows you to get to know the state intimately and at your own pace.

Step 1

Decide which area of California you’d like to explore. Northern California offers wineries, rugged coastline, majestic Redwood forests and the historic cities of San Francisco, Eureka and Santa Cruz. Central California is home to the upscale, coastal Monterey; the cowboy town of Bakersfield; the former Gold Rush settlement of Kernville, and the Fresno-San Joaquin Valley, also known as California wine country. In the southern part of the state you’ll find the quaint, immaculate ocean-side town of Santa Barbara, as well as Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego.

Step 2

Determine how long you’d like to be on the road. A trip up the coast can be completed in as little as a day, but you won’t get to stop and see much. Plan on at least three to four days if you’d like to stop and explore, more if you’d like to stop and relax. If you’re traveling the state from south to north, you can zip up Interstate 5, which runs from San Diego to the California-Oregon border and winds through fruit orchards and rolling farmland, or you can take the more leisurely 101 Freeway, which hugs the coast and offers stunning ocean and mountain scenery.

Step 3

Take time to visit a National Park, Monument or Preserve. The U.S. National Park Service maintains 23 different areas in California. National Parks in the Golden State include Redwood, Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Pinnacles. Lava Beds National Monument, just south of Oregon border, doesn’t get nearly as crowded as some of the more well-known National Parks in California. The park features more than 700 caves, as well as inactive volcanoes, American Indian rock art and historic battlefields. At the 1.6-million-acre Mojave National Preserve in Nipton, you’ll find Joshua tree forests, volcanic cinder cones, abandoned mines and homesteads and seemingly endless carpets of wildflowers.

Step 4

Make lodging reservations as far in advance as possible. Accommodations in the northern California beach town of Mendocino, for example, fill up very early for the months between December and April, due in large part to the annual migration of 20,000 gray whales, which make their way from their Baja winter home to their summer habitat in northern California. State and National Park campgrounds and lodges fill up quickly as well, especially during the summer. Even though you should book well in advance, many campgrounds have restrictions on how early they’ll accept reservations. For example, Yosemite National Park accepts reservations up to five months prior to your arrival date. Six of its 13 campgrounds are first-come, first-served, but if you don’t arrive by noon you might not be able to claim a spot.

It would require the writing skill of a Shakespeare or Thomas Hardy to describe the diversity of Northern California. For, Northern California offers a whole variety of entertain, visual delights, cuisine, and so much of history.

The beauty of Northern California lies in its silvery beaches, diverse marine, the awe inspiring forests of tall sequoia and redwood trees, the towns, now forlorn, which at one teemed with prospectors of goal and silver.

California is easily accessible. If you are planning a trip to Northern California, and wish to avoid the routine and often mundane tours, and wish to plan your own trip, with no specific agenda, then RV camping is ideal for you. Be warned however that during the summer months Northern California gets heavily booked, and woe betide you, if you don’t book in advance.

Be sure to book well in advance at the right place. Find out which places in North California have good, well maintained RV camps, and you can book a place for your RV, what facilities are offered and so on. Please go into detail, because if you land up in the wrong place, instead of having a holiday, you would be spending a nightmarish experience. The best place for taking an RV is generally in the Sequoia National Park and the Redwood National Park. They have good hook up facilities and ease of access. Make sure that the dimensions of your RV are such you can get in and out without having to content with outsized RVs! It has happened to many, and sure, you would want to avoid it.

You can even think of camping your RV on the beaches of California. There are some very good beaches where you can park your RV, but again, you need to call in first and book yourself a good camping place with all the attendant facilities that you need. You can think of Fort Braggs Beach and the Half Moon Bay. These are the more popular ones, but you can discover more suitable for yourself.

We mentioned earlier that another great attraction of Northern California is its ghost towns, that were once a hotbed of activity with prospectors for gold. Some people like to camp out here in the old ghost towns. Bodie is one such town.

Sacramento, the historical capital also attracts visitors in very large number of months. You can of course choose to stay in one of the large many hotels of the town, but if you think it cramps your style, you can use your RV in one the camps that are available just outside the city.

Before beginning your trip, make sure your RV is in good condition, and that the air conditioning is working perfectly. Northern California can become very hot and humid so checking your air conditioner is a must.

Again it bears repetition that if you are planning a trip to North California you need to make firm bookings whether it is for an RV or even an hotel room. And if you are taking your family with you, do make sure very much that all your travel plans are in good shape and everything is finalised and you are holding confirmed bookings.