10 Must-Visit Small Towns in Southern California

Southern California offers more than beach scenes once you head inland. Idyllwild runs hiking trails into Mount San Jacinto State Park year-round. Solvang preserves Danish architecture and 1911-founded bakeries on a downtown grid styled after early 20th-century Denmark. Ojai pairs a walkable downtown with wine tastings and the Ojai Valley Trail. The featured towns cover alpine, coastal, and island terrain across the southern half of the state. Ten Southern California towns ahead trade coast scenes for mountains and historic missions.

Idyllwild

Idyllwild sits at 5,400 feet in the San Jacinto Mountains and runs an unofficial mayor system that, for over 12 years, was filled by a golden retriever named Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II (and his successors). The town of about 3,800 residents serves as the western gateway to Mount San Jacinto State Park, with 50 miles of trails that climb to the 10,834-foot summit of San Jacinto Peak. The Devil's Slide Trail to Tahquitz Peak runs 8 miles round-trip and requires a free Forest Service permit.

The Idyllwild Nature Center on Riverside County Parkway covers regional geology, flora, fauna, and Cahuilla culture across an indoor exhibit hall plus 200 acres of demonstration gardens and trails. The Idyllwild Arts Academy, the only boarding arts high school west of the Mississippi, runs free summer concerts and student gallery shows that draw retirees and second-home owners alongside students. The downtown holds the famous Idyllwild Pizza Company and ERIN Restaurant for evening meals.

San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded by Junípero Serra in 1776 and one of the 21 California Missions, holds the oldest building still in use in California (the Serra Chapel, dating to 1782, where Serra himself celebrated Mass). The mission's annual return of the cliff swallows each March, traditionally on St. Joseph's Day, March 19, is the basis for the festival held downtown that same week. The mission ruins of the Great Stone Church, destroyed in an 1812 earthquake, remain on the grounds.

The Los Rios Historic District, two blocks west of the mission and across the railroad tracks, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood in California, with original 1794 adobes still in residential use. San Juan Capistrano runs about 35,200 residents in the southeastern corner of Orange County. The Coach House music venue, on the south side of town, has hosted touring acts since 1980 across rock, country, and blues bills.

Solvang

Solvang was founded in 1911 by Danish-American educators from the Midwest as a colony intended to preserve Danish language and culture. The town now runs about 6,000 residents in the Santa Ynez Valley with a downtown that follows traditional Danish architecture (timber-framed buildings, thatched-look roofs, and four working windmills). Olsen's Danish Village Bakery has been making aebleskiver, kringle, and apple slices since 1970.

Old Mission Santa Inés, founded in 1804 as the 19th of the 21 California Missions, sits just east of downtown and runs guided tours through the church, museum, and gardens. The Elverhoj Museum of History & Art occupies a Danish-Mountain-style 1950s home and covers the town's Danish heritage in detail. The Santa Ynez Valley wine region, including 120 wineries within 25 miles of downtown, has its tasting-room hub at the dozen-plus venues along Copenhagen Drive.

Avalon

Avalon is the only incorporated city on Catalina Island, a Mediterranean-climate island 22 miles off the Southern California coast. The ferry runs about an hour from Long Beach, San Pedro, or Dana Point. About 3,400 year-round residents live in Avalon, with golf carts as the dominant transportation since the city restricts motor vehicle permits. The Avalon Casino, a 1929 circular Art Deco building on the harbor, holds the world's largest circular ballroom (180 feet in diameter) and a 1,184-seat movie theater that still runs first-run films.

The Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Garden, on the south side of town, covers 37.8 acres of native California island plants alongside the marble memorial to chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., who owned most of Catalina for decades. The Avalon harbor itself runs glass-bottom boat tours, semi-submersible underwater tours, and the trail to Lover's Cove tide pools for marine life viewing.

Julian

Julian was founded in 1869 as a Gold Rush mining town when a former Confederate soldier named Drue Bailey discovered gold in the surrounding hills. Today, the unincorporated mountain town of about 1,500 runs on apple pie, an industry started by settlers from the Midwest who planted orchards across the surrounding hillsides in the 1890s. Mom's Pie House on Main Street and the Julian Pie Company both run year-round, with peak fall demand running lines around the block on weekends.

Calico Ranch Orchard, north of town on Wynola Road, runs U-pick apples September through October across multiple varieties. The Eagle Mining Company on C Street opens its 1870s gold mine for guided tours that descend several hundred feet into the original shafts. Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, just south of Julian, covers 25,000 acres of forest, meadow, and burn-recovered chaparral with 100 miles of hiking trails.

Ojai

The Ojai Valley sits in the foothills of the Topatopa Mountains and is famous for its pink-purple sunset glow on the rim of the eastern peaks, a phenomenon known locally as the "Pink Moment." The town of about 7,500 residents serves as a sanctuary city for spiritual retreats, meditation centers, and the Krotona Institute of Theosophy. The 1923 Spanish Colonial arcade and bell tower along East Ojai Avenue (Libbey Park to Mira Monte) define the downtown architecture.

The Ojai Valley Trail, a 9.4-mile paved rail-trail, runs from Ojai south through Mira Monte and ends in Foster Park near Ventura. The Ojai Music Festival, held each June since 1947 at Libbey Bowl, programs avant-garde and contemporary classical music with rotating festival directors. Bart's Books on West Cañada Street, an outdoor used-bookstore in operation since 1964, runs an honor-system overnight purchase shelf along the front fence.

Wrightwood

The Pacific Crest Trail crosses Highway 2 at Inspiration Point above Wrightwood, the high point in the central San Gabriel Mountains. Wrightwood itself sits at 5,935 feet of elevation in a wooded basin between Mountain High North and Mountain High East ski resorts. The town runs about 4,400 residents who effectively double the population during ski weekends.

Mountain High Resort runs three separate base areas with 16 lifts and a vertical drop of 1,600 feet, with night skiing seven nights a week through the winter season. Ziplines at Pacific Crest runs five lines that range up to 300 feet above the forest floor on the slopes of Wright Mountain. The Wrightwood Historical Society Museum on Park Drive runs a small collection covering the town's apple-orchard history and the 1959 construction of Mountain High's original lift.

Lake Arrowhead

Lake Arrowhead, a 2-mile-long alpine lake at 5,114 feet of elevation in the San Bernardino Mountains, is a private lake (owners and residents only have water access, with general public swimming and boating prohibited). Visitors can access the lake only on the Arrowhead Queen Tour Boat, a 1-hour guided cruise that departs from Lake Arrowhead Village. The village itself, on the south shore, runs shops, restaurants, and lodging including the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.

The Will Abell Memorial Trail on Arrowhead Ridge runs a 2-mile loop with the only public lake overlook. Wildhaven Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary, in Cedar Glen on the east side of the lake, rehabilitates injured California native species including black bears, mountain lions, and bald eagles, with tours by appointment. The 1.5-million-acre San Bernardino National Forest surrounds the lake on all sides with hundreds of miles of additional trail networks.

Kernville

The Kern River runs along the eastern edge of Kernville with some of the best whitewater rafting in the western United States, including Class III runs through the "Lickity Split" and "Sock'em Dog" rapids and Class IV-V runs through the Forks of the Kern higher up the canyon. Sierra South Mountain Sports on Sierra Way and Kern River Outfitters in nearby Lake Isabella both run guided half-day, full-day, and multi-day trips from May through September.

Kernville itself runs about 1,400 residents and serves as the gateway to Sequoia National Forest and the Domeland Wilderness to the north. Riverside Park, in the center of town, runs shaded picnic spots and direct river access for swimming during the warm months. The Kern Valley Museum on Cassidy Court covers the gold-mining and ranching history of the upper Kern River Valley, including the lost town of Whiskey Flat that was submerged when Lake Isabella was created in 1953.

Carpinteria

Carpinteria State Beach, a mile-long stretch of soft sand on the south end of Santa Barbara County, is often called "the world's safest beach" for its gentle surf, gradual slope, and absence of rip currents (a function of the natural breakwater formed by the offshore Channel Islands). The Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve, just west of the state beach, runs a 1.4-mile bluff-top loop with a Pacific harbor seal rookery viewable from a designated overlook.

The town runs about 13,000 residents and was originally named for the Chumash tomol plank canoes that Spanish explorers in 1769 saw being built along the shore (carpintería is Spanish for "carpentry shop"). The Carpinteria Valley Museum on Maple Avenue covers Chumash culture, Spanish ranchos, and the early 20th-century lemon and avocado industries. The annual California Avocado Festival each October fills downtown with around 100,000 attendees for the country's largest avocado celebration.

The Other Half Of California

Southern California works as a multi-pace destination once the trip plan extends past the beach cities. Idyllwild, Wrightwood, and Lake Arrowhead deliver the mountain-town versions of the state. Solvang and Julian deliver the European-heritage and Gold Rush-era versions. Avalon delivers the island version. Carpinteria, San Juan Capistrano, Ojai, and Kernville fill the in-between gaps with coastal, mission-history, valley, and river-town options. Pick one or pair two, and the state opens up beyond the highway maps that lead everyone to the same beach.