Ramona Condo for Rent: Cozy Southern California Home for Snowbirds - Property 213934

Day Trips to Anza Borrego Desert: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park encompasses 600,000 acres and is America's largest state park. It offers one of the most diverse desert landscapes in the world and shelters an astonishing proliferation of wild things. Many people think of a desert as a barren, inhospitable place, strewn with boulders and carpeted with sand, where the sun blazes and the wind blows without ceasing. Portions of Anza-Borrego precisely fit that definition. But there are secret places in the desert, oases filled with lush vegetation, shade, and cool, soft breezes. Palm Canyon is just such an oasis that you can explore in a self-guided trail. It would be impossible to list all the attractions of this vast desert area. Your first stop should be the Visitor Center, an excellent place to start your tour of the park. You will enjoy the slide program and exhibits on desert geology, fauna and flora. The desert in bloom (best time March-April) is the highlight of the year and attracts visitors from afar.

Day Trips to Pacific Coast Beach Towns, or Mexico: You can spend many days exploring all the attractions of San Diego (Balboa Park, Coronado, Mission Bay, Old Town, Sea World, the world-famous zoo, to name a few), but do not overlook the small beach towns north of the bustling city. La Jolla is charming and glamorous, Del Mar is famous for its horse races, Solana Beach a laid-back small beach community. The most scenic drive from Ramona to Solana Beach is via Highway 78 to the San Pasqual Valley and from here by County Road 8, Linea del Cielo Drive. This meandering drive takes you through Rancho Santa Fe directly to the beach area. Torrey Pines State Beach, just south of Del Mar, is a good place to spend the day with a picnic. There are countless possibilities for day trips, to include Outlet Shopping. A day trip to Tijuana, just across the border, is for the more adventurous. You can get there by Trolley from downtown San Diego. Another option would be to head north to L.A. by AMTRAK train.

San Diego Wild Animal Park: The U.K. based journalist and travel book author Mike Gerrard published an article about the San Diego Wild Animal Park in February 2007. (This can be found under http://california-travel.suite101.com). He writes that if you cannot go wildlife watching in Africa or Asia, the next best thing is to visit somewhere like the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Here in a vast spread of 1800 acres, over 3500 animals live in conditions that reproduce their natural habitats. Here you can see the creatures of the African bush and plains, the Australian rain forest and the Asian jungles. America's wildlife has not been overlooked as one of the park's greatest success stories is Condor Ridge. Here you can see the California condor, just one of the many threatened and endangered species that the captive breeding program of the San Diego Wild Animal 'ark' has helped to reintroduce into the wild. The park also offers special photo caravans in parts of the park not otherwise open to the public.

Golf: Golf Course at your doorstep. The house overlooks the San Vicente Golf Course, a PGA course designed by the famous golf course architect Ted Robinson and inaugurated in 1971. You can easily forget about the stress of big-city life when you are surrounded by the serene beauty of this 'valley in the sun', as the locals call the area. The golf course meanders through a valley surrounded by ancient oak and cottonwood trees. Historians report that the local Indians used the flat rock outcroppings for grinding acorns. Among the amenities of the San Vicente course are a putting green, chipping area, practice bunker and driving range. You can rent golf carts and pull carts. Golfers are still allowed to walk here. The facility also boasts a large, heated swimming pool, tennis courts and a restaurant (reportedly the best in Ramona). In the evening, before the onset of darkness, home owners walk their dogs on the golf cart paths. Late at night you can hear coyotes howling in the valley as they hunt small mammals.

Other Activities: Surfing and whale-watching on Pacific Coast 75 min away; desert excursions