Amandalore Sarah - Fodors 2015 southern California

Great dining is a staple of the California lifestyle, and a new young generation of chefs is challenging old ideas about preparing and presenting great food. Food-truck frenzy has created a movable feast up and down the state. Esteemed chefs and urban foodies follow the trucks on Twitter as they move around cities 24/7 purveying delicious, cheap, fresh meals.

In L.A., chef Roy Choi started the movement when he began serving up his Korean/Mexican Pacman burgers from his Kogi BBQ truck. In SoCal, you can find food-laden trucks at sports and entertainment venues, near parks and attractions, and on busy roads and boulevardsand the ensuing lines of hungry patrons. You can keep up with the trucks in L.A. through www.foodtruckmaps.com .

California chefs continue to shop locally for produce and farmer-sourced meat. Tender Greens (with locations in Hollywood, San Diego, and Pasadena as well as in Northern California) sets the bar high by serving hand-raised produce; grain-fed, hormone-free beef; hand-raised chickens; and line-caught tuna.

Evidence that California wine culture is alive and well comes from Temecula, which is emerging as an exciting wine destination in the Inland Empire. The number and quality of the wineries continue to grow: Thornton, Ponte, and Mount Palomar wineries offer fine dining to pair with their delicious Rhne-style wines. Hotels are springing up among the vineyards, and events such as the Balloon and Wine Festival draw thousands of visitors to the region.

In SoCal, vineyards are going up in unlikely places, such as in the hillsides of San Diego County, where Escondido-based Orfila keeps snagging awards, and on Catalina Island, where the Rusack family planted the first wine grapes ever on the historic Escondido Ranch.

Hotels are coming back to life in a big way. The luxurious JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton stand side by side in the burgeoning L.A. LIVE sports and entertainment complex. The W Hollywood now occupies the famed corner of Hollywood and Vine, another hot spot just steps from the Pantages Theatre.

Riding the rails can be a satisfying experience, particularly in California where the distances between destinations sometimes run into the hundreds of miles. Amtrak has frequent Pacific Surfliner service between San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. These are coach cars, but many of the trains have been upgraded and are comfortable and convenient, especially if you want to get off and on the train at several destinationsAnaheim near Disneyland, downtown Los Angeles, coastal Ventura and Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Oakland (just a BART ride to San Francisco).

Californias theme parks work overtime to keep current and attract patrons of all ages. LEGOLAND California Resort keeps expanding with new attractions such as Pirate Reef and LEGOLAND Water Park. And LEGOLAND opened its 250-room LEGO-theme hotel in 2013. Disneyland continues to grow. The newest attraction, Cars Land, is a must for big and little kids. The Disneyland Hotel has a new look, with water features galore and family-friendly accommodations.

Californias beauty-obsessed citizens arent the only ones opting for a fresh look these days: its esteemed art museums are also having a bit of work done.

Following a trend set by the Getty Villa in L.A. and the de Young Museum in San Francisco, Long Beachs Museum of Latin American Art doubled its exhibition space. Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (MCASD Downtown) and San Joses Institute of Contemporary Art have both expanded into new digs. And the Palm Springs Museum of Art, a world-class showcase for contemporary work, has opened a satellite venue in Palm Desert. The L.A. County Museum of Art keeps expanding its Wilshire Boulevard campus; the latest addition is the Renzo Pianodesigned Resnick Pavilion, where changing shows display works by David Hockney and Chinese paintings.

Because they offer activities indoors and out, the top California cities rate as all-season destinations. Ditto for Southern Californias coastal playgrounds. Dying to see Death Valley or Joshua Tree National Park? They are best appreciated in spring when desert blooms offset their austerity and temperatures are still manageable. Yosemite is ideal in the late spring because roads closed in winter are reopened, and the parks waterfallsswollen with melting snowrun fast. Snowfall makes winter peak season for skiers in Mammoth Mountain, where runs typically open around Thanksgiving. (They sometimes remain in operation into June.)