Information / Sources, Long Beach

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Favorite thing: This booth is located on Aquarium Way and filled with all kinds of wonderful information of things to see and do.

Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
301 E. Ocean Blvd, Suite 1900
Long Beach CA 90802
(562) 436-3645
(800) 452-782

Favorite thing: go to visitor guides that are conveniently located along 1st, especially during the summer season, on Friday during the Farmer's Market and on weekends. Thankfully there are guides to help even the local like me find the nearest bank or the best way to a store or cultural site, let alone the out-of-towners wanting directions to the Queen Mary.

Favorite thing: Residents of Southern California enjoy mild weather during the winter months. This picture of downtown Long Beach was taken on March 3. The air temp was 73 degrees and the water temp was a chilly 55!

During the spring and summer temps range from 70-90 degrees. Many people compare the climate here with those of Italy and Greece.

Southern California is one of the few places where it is possible to surf and snow ski in the same day. My friends and I tested this claim to fame one spring day and discovered that it is logistically possible with minimal planning and even less sleep!

Favorite thing: ensure that you get a great tour guide - be it a professional guide or a pseudo-guide (read: your clueless friends... Oops!).

Fondest memory: There are so many sites and attractions to discover in Long Beach that without a good car and your friends to drive you around, you will really need the professional help of a good tour guide. I mean it. Otherwise, you'd end up like me - visiting all the supermarkets... and other non-touristy sites because my friend (a Long Beach resident) is as clueless as me! I'd get killed for writing this if my friend reads this page. All in good jest.... All in good jest, D.

Anyway, should you need professional help (and I don't mean a psychiatrist!), do check out some of the tour companies that I've listed below to help you with your pre-trip planning:

Long Beach Heritage

P.O. Box 92521 Long Beach, 90808-2521. 562/493-7019.

Long Beach Heritage, a nonprofit cultural heritage group, offers regularly scheduled and 'custom-made' walking tours of historic and architectural Downtown Long Beach.

For more info and reservations, please call: 562/493-7019.

Santa Catalina Island Company/Discovery Tours

Discovery Tour Center, Crescent Ave., (across from Pleasure Pier).

P.O. Box 737, Avalon 90704. 310/510-2500, 800/428-2566; fax 310/510-7254.

Discover Catalina Island by land and sea... and experience the company's rugged Inland Motor Tour, exclusive Casino Tour, extraordinary Glass Bottom Boat Trip (day and night) and more.

May through October - even includes romantic dinner cruises and the world’s only Flying Fish Trip! The new Starlight, a semi-submersible vessel , is not just a tour, it’s an undersea experience!

Hey, how come I never get to try this out, D? :-(

US Helicopters

4225 Donald Douglas Drive., #103, Long Beach 90808. 562/497-0390 or fax at 562/497-0392.
Take a helicopter flight over the City of Angels. Exclusive helicopter tours from Long Beach Airport to above Disneyland, Beaches.... They also have Long Beach Harbor Tours and Los Angeles Tours.... Cool.