- de Young Museum (San Francisco): The city's oldest museum was rebuilt from the ground up, and in late 2005 debuted as one of San Francisco's top attractions. Anchored in beautiful Golden Gate Park, surrounded by stunning flora, and shimmering in its fabulous copper exterior, it has a fantastic collection of American paintings, decorative arts and crafts, and arts from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Topping it off is a tower with great city views and a surprisingly good cafe with outdoor tables overlooking the sculpture garden.
- The Exploratorium (San Francisco): The hands-on, interactive Exploratorium boasts 650 exhibits that help show how things work. You'll use all your senses and stretch them to a new dimension. Every exhibit is designed to be useful.
- California State Railroad Museum (Sacramento): Old Sacramento's biggest attraction, the 100,000-square-foot museum was once the terminus of the transcontinental and Sacramento Valley railways. It displays dozens of locomotives and railroad cars, among other attractions.
- Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles): Designed by Richard Meier and completed in 1997 to the tune of $1 billion, the Getty Center is a striking, starkly futuristic architectural landmark, with panoramic views of the city and ocean. The building itself is enough reason to visit, but so is the permanent collection, the crown jewel of which is Van Gogh's "Irises," which the museum paid $54 million to acquire.
- Petersen Automotive Museum (Los Angeles): This museum is a natural for Los Angeles, a city whose personality and history is so entwined with the popularity of the automobile. Impeccably restored vintage autos are displayed in life-size dioramas accurate to the last period detail (including an authentic 1930s-era service station). Upstairs galleries house celebrity vehicles, car-related artwork, and exhibits.
- The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: In 2007, San Diego's internationally respected contemporary art museum opened its third space, transforming a portion of the historic downtown train station into the city's newest cultural icon. Together with its other downtown annex and the flagship space that overlooks the ocean in La Jolla, MCASD stake its claim as the boldest, most important museum in San Diego.
