Contact: Paul Heller (805) 927-1164

DISCOVER ONE OF CALIFORNIA?S BEST KEPT SECRETS: SEVERAL HUNDRED MOSTLY FREE TOURS OF THE GOLDEN STATE'S FINEST PLACES

Looking for something different to do this weekend on a limited budget? Want to learn about your community? If so, take a tour.

According to Paul Heller, the author of the upcoming book: Seeing Gold: A Guide to Hundreds of Tours of California's Best Museums, Neighborhoods, Factories, Architecture, Historic Homes and Lighthouses, there are over eight hundred hidden tours, mostly free, available in California.

"The variety of tours is astonishing,? Heller says. ?You can visit the world?s smallest full scale chocolate factory in Berkeley, take a bus tour of neon signs in Los Angeles, learn about molecular physics in the world?s longest building (two miles long) at Stanford University, and even visit a Burlesque museum in the Southern California desert.?

Heller says ?the best part of these tours is the guide?s enthusiasm about their topics. I am always amazed at their ability to make topics that I previously had no interest in come alive. I am surprised that so few people go on these tours. Almost one-third of time I get a personalized tour because no one else shows up.?

After attending more than two hundred of these tours, Heller decided to write a book and develop a seminar to help get the word out. ?I think it is a shame that more people don?t know about these tours.? Heller notes. ?They are mostly free and there is no better way to learn about all the great places and people in California. After taking all these tours, I truly feel blessed to be a native Californian. No place else on Earth has the spirit of unlimited possibilities.?