Off 1-5, 9 miles North of San Diego. Sandy coves and tiny bays form a picturesque coastline at La Jolla, a town set on a low-rise cliff-top and with main streets lined by child boutiques, trendy restaurants, jewellery shops and up-market art galleries. Enticingly, La Jolla combines its obvious affluence with tremendous visual appeal – few buildings rise above the palm trees, postcard-perfect ocean views are everywhere, and a relaxed, seaside charm pervades.

For such attributes, La Jolla is indebted to Ellen Scripps, a wealthy philanthropist who moved to the town in 1896 and bought large tracts of land, placing them under public ownership. Scripps also commissioned architect Irving Gill to raise several buildings in what became his acclaimed and distinctive style, which fuses a Cubist-influenced modern technique with the traditional California mission look. One such building, originally Ellen Scripps’ home, is now the Museum of Contemporary Art (http://www.mcasd.org), 700 Prospect Street, a renowned showcase of post-war works, chiefly from the California minimalist and Pop Art schools, and a setting for notable temporary exhibitions.

Scripps’ money also helped finance La Jolla’s other main tourist draw: the Scripps (or sometimes Birch) Aquarium (http://www.aquarium.ucsd.edu), north of the town centre at 8602 La Jolla Shores Drive, where dozens of tanks re-create marine habitats – from kelp forests to coral reefs – and display many curious creatures of the deep. The aquarium is run by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a branch of the University of California, which occupies a sprawling (and intensely uninteresting) campus above La Jolla.

Overlooked by many visitors due to its unlikely setting in the University Town Centre shopping mall, 4405 La Jolla Drive, is the Mingei International Museum of World Folk Art (http://www.mingei.org), whose stimulating exhibitions highlight some of the world’s disappearing cultures. One culture that shows few signs of disappearing can be seen in its natural habitat just south of La Jolla at Tourmaline and Windansea beaches, where the hard-core surfers are descendants of those described in Tom Wolfe’s 1968 book, The Pump House Gang.

Detour – Torrey Pines State Reserve

On Hwy-21, 4 miles North of La Jolla. Covering a 1,000-acre headland site purchased by Ellen Scripps and donated to the state, the Torrey Pines State Reserve protects one of the few remaining groves of the Torrey pine – the U.S.’s rarest pine tree. A few walking trails – the best is the half-mile Guy Fleming Trail – bring close-up views of the trees, many of them twisted into strange shapes by ceaseless ocean winds, and ravishing views of the coastline. The same winds provide uplift for hang-gliders, who launch themselves over the near vertical cliff-face and hover above the ocean, just south of the reserve.