What are the best places to visit when coming to California for the first time?

Grace Cathedral

California is a large state and you don’t mention how much time you’ll be spending here, but Yosemite National Park is incredibly beautiful as are Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The coastal redwoods near Humboldt are also impressive and include the world’s largest trees. For a beautiful coastline, check out the Monterey Peninsula around Carmel. The coastal cities, San Francisco (with it’s bridges), Santa Barbara, the Greater Los Angeles area and San Diego are all beautiful and have lots to offer in sights to see and tourist attractions. There is quite a bit of desert in the southern part of the state, and if you are into that, check out Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Monument. California is the most beautiful state in the country with outstanding weather. Enjoy your stay here….you will not want to leave.
See ya….Gary/wtf
PS: Welcome to fluther.

The northern part of the state up in the Redwoods.

San Diego area.

The city of San Francisco is a favorite of mine. There is so much to see and do in California that you won’t get everything in.

Make Tahoe is a gorgeous area.

You may want to also see Los Angeles and Hollywood, depending on what you like.

I would say visit San Francisco. So diverese and the food selection is great. Also if you can swing by visit UC Berkeley and Stanford. Gorgeous campuses and so much history. Finally if you can visit Santa Clara University and see the mission there, so beautiful.

Aside from what others have said, if you are in California go to Disneyland, but only if you are into that sort of thing.

Monterrey is absolutely gorgeous. All those flowers and lemon trees!

Monterey Bay Aquarium is awesome! They have lots of jelly fish there too :)

As others have said, California is so varied, it’s difficult to pick one thing because it will be so very different from another important area. However, if I did have to pick one, I would pick San Francisco as an excellent introduction to California. It’s an excellent representation of what’s great about this state. :)