Arcadia is on the edge of the San Gabriel Valley, well placed for day trips. Pasadena — with the Huntington Library, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Old Pasadena restaurant district — is 15 minutes west. Downtown LA is half an hour by car or 40 minutes on the Metro A Line. East, the wineries of Rancho Cucamonga and the apple country at Oak Glen are an hour out; west, Hollywood and Griffith Observatory are an hour through traffic.
For mountain air, Chantry Flat in the Angeles National Forest is ten minutes from town and the trailhead for the canyon hikes. Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead, the closest mountain resorts, are two hours east.
