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Idyllwild, California

Image by Jane Belanger

There’s nothing to do in Idyllwild! Exactly – it’s not Big Bear or Mammoth. Like my family and I, that’s why visitors to the “mile high” town return year after year.

There’s not one traffic signal in the town of 5,000. Other than two gas stations, there are no franchised businesses – not one Starbucks, Subway or 7-11. Our three days over New Year’s were spent breathing fresh air and browsing the numerous ma-and-pa shops, antique stores, art galleries and restaurants in the village.

Our favorite lodging: Woodland Park Manor, quaint 1950s-style cottages with a kitchen, fireplace and floor-to-ceiling forest-view window ($95 - $115/night.)

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Best inexpensive eats ($10 or less): Good Times Pub, The Village Market and Lumber Mill. Or cook your own from the fully stocked Fairway Market.

Best shops: the Toy Shop (with classic bottled soda) and Spruce Moose at The Fort shopping center.

Best antique store: Fern Valley Emporium, with lots of Americana and memorabilia, restored-in-shop jukeboxes and pinball machines and real antiquities too.

Directions: Less than two hours from most of San Diego. Save some miles, and time (despite what your GPS may tell you), by taking the 15/215 north to Newport Road exit, right to Winchester Rd. (Hwy. 79), left on 79 to Hwy. 74. Right on 74, through Hemet, into the mountains (the Palm to Pines Hwy.) At Mountain Center, turn left on Hwy. 243, up five miles into Idyllwild.

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Image by Jane Belanger

There’s nothing to do in Idyllwild! Exactly – it’s not Big Bear or Mammoth. Like my family and I, that’s why visitors to the “mile high” town return year after year.

There’s not one traffic signal in the town of 5,000. Other than two gas stations, there are no franchised businesses – not one Starbucks, Subway or 7-11. Our three days over New Year’s were spent breathing fresh air and browsing the numerous ma-and-pa shops, antique stores, art galleries and restaurants in the village.

Our favorite lodging: Woodland Park Manor, quaint 1950s-style cottages with a kitchen, fireplace and floor-to-ceiling forest-view window ($95 - $115/night.)

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Best inexpensive eats ($10 or less): Good Times Pub, The Village Market and Lumber Mill. Or cook your own from the fully stocked Fairway Market.

Best shops: the Toy Shop (with classic bottled soda) and Spruce Moose at The Fort shopping center.

Best antique store: Fern Valley Emporium, with lots of Americana and memorabilia, restored-in-shop jukeboxes and pinball machines and real antiquities too.

Directions: Less than two hours from most of San Diego. Save some miles, and time (despite what your GPS may tell you), by taking the 15/215 north to Newport Road exit, right to Winchester Rd. (Hwy. 79), left on 79 to Hwy. 74. Right on 74, through Hemet, into the mountains (the Palm to Pines Hwy.) At Mountain Center, turn left on Hwy. 243, up five miles into Idyllwild.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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