Guide
The missions
Seven of California’s 21 missions are close enough to LA for a day trip. Most still celebrate Sunday Mass, two are reachable by train, and all seven are worth knowing about. Oldest first.
Founded 1771 · the 4th missionMission San Gabriel Arcángel
Start here. It is the oldest mission in LA County and the one that looks least like the others: the priest who designed it was from Córdoba, so the long side wall has the capped buttresses of a Moorish fortress instead of a plain adobe front. California wine began in these vineyards. An arson fire nearly took the church in 2020; it reopened in 2023 with a new museum, and the Claretians, who have run the parish since 1908, are still here. Only the 7 and 10 AM Sunday Masses are in the old church, so pick one of those.
- Sunday Mass
- Sat 5:30 PM, 7 PM (Vietnamese) · Sun 7, 8:30 AM (Spanish), 10, 11:30 AM, 1 PM (Spanish), 3 PM (Vietnamese)Only the Sunday 7 and 10 AM Masses are in the old mission church
- Visiting
- Tue to Sun 8 AM to 4 PM, last entry 3 PM · $15 adultsSeniors and military $12, youth and college students $10, under 5 free. Closed Mondays.
Founded 1782 · the 9th missionMission Basilica San Buenaventura
The last mission St. Junípero Serra founded himself, on Easter Sunday 1782, and the easiest to fit into a day: it sits on Main Street in downtown Ventura with Mass all weekend. The walls are six feet thick at the base. In the museum are two wooden bells, rung in Holy Week when the metal ones went quiet. Since 2020 it has been a minor basilica, the first in the Archdiocese.
- Sunday Mass
- Sat 5:30 PM, 7:30 PM (Spanish) · Sun 7:15, 9 AM, 10:45 AM (Spanish), 12:30 PM
- Visiting
- Daily 9 AM to 4 PM · $8 adultsSeniors and military $5, youth $3, under 5 free. Tours start at the gift shop, 225 E. Main Street.
Founded 1786 · the 10th missionOld Mission Santa Barbara
Franciscans have lived at Santa Barbara every day since 1786. Only one other mission can say that. The friars you pass on the grounds include novices in their first year, and the 4 PM Saturday vigil in the mission church counts for Sunday, which is what makes the train trip work. Look up: it is the only mission with two bell towers, which is how it got the name Queen of the Missions. California's first bishop is buried in the sanctuary.
- Sunday Mass
- Sat 4 PM · Sun 7:30, 9, 11 AM
- Visiting
- Mon to Sat 9:30 AM to 5 PM · Sun 12:30 to 5 PM · $17 adultsLast ticket at 4 PM. Seniors and military $15, youth $12, 4 and under free. Closed Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Founded 1787 · the 11th missionLa Purísima Mission State Historic Park
No Mass here, and it is still worth the drive. La Purísima is a state park, not a parish, and the most completely restored mission in California: the church, the workshops and the friars' quarters all stand in a single line along the valley instead of the usual square. Burros, longhorns, sheep and goats graze where the mission's herds did. Come on a Mission Days weekend and volunteers bake bread and spin wool the old way. Trails open at 6 AM, and there are 968 acres of them.
- Sunday Mass
- No Mass hereIt is a state park, not a parish
- Visiting
- Historic buildings daily 9 AM to 4 PM · $6 per carFree guided tours Wed to Sun at 1 PM, and Sat at 11 AM, from the visitor center
Founded 1797 · the 17th missionMission San Fernando Rey de España
Bob Hope is buried here. So, in the museum, is a Russian Orthodox bell from Kodiak, Alaska, dated 1796 and dug out of a nearby orange grove in 1920. The long building you see from the road is the convento, 19 arches of it, which the mission calls the largest two-story adobe in California. The church fell in the 1971 earthquake and was rebuilt by 1974. One Sunday Mass, at 9:30.
- Sunday Mass
- Sun 9:30 AM
- Visiting
- Daily 9 AM to 4:30 PMTickets at the gift shop; the price is not posted. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and July 4.
Founded 1804 · the 19th missionOld Mission Santa Inés
A Spanish mission in a Danish town, run by Irish friars. The Capuchins came from Ireland in 1924 and are still here, and downtown Solvang is a short walk from the church door. The Chumash revolt of 1824 began on this spot after a soldier struck a visitor; when the church caught fire, the Chumash stopped to put it out. California's first seminary opened here in 1844. The vestments in the museum were once thrown away, until a priest's niece started rescuing them a century ago.
- Sunday Mass
- Sat 5 PM, 7 PM (Spanish) · Sun 8, 9:30 AM, 11 AM (bilingual), 12:30 PM (Spanish)
- Visiting
- Self-guided tours 9 AM to 4:30 PM · $8 adultsSeniors $7, ages 6 to 12 $5, free for 5 and under and for veterans and military
Just outside the archdiocese
Founded 1776 · the 7th missionMission San Juan Capistrano
The Serra Chapel is the only church still standing where St. Junípero Serra said Mass, and 250 years later there is still a weekday Mass in it. Go to that. Beside it are the ruins of the Great Stone Church, brought down by the earthquake of December 1812; the mission keeps December 8 as a day of remembrance for the people who died. On March 19 the swallows come back from Argentina, 6,000 miles, and the whole town shows up. Weekend Mass is at the basilica next door, and the Surfliner drops you two blocks away.
- Sunday Mass
- Sat 4:30 PM, 6 PM (Spanish) · Sun 7:30, 9, 11 AM, 1 PM (Spanish), 5 PMWeekend Masses are at the Mission Basilica next door, 31520 Camino Capistrano
- Visiting
- Tue to Sun 9 AM to 5 PM · $19 adultsSeniors $16, youth and students $11, 4 and under free. Closed Mondays.
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