I've been all around this great big world

Fun, fun, fun - for the travel pages' traditional seasonal competition this year, we celebrate the beach, and the Beach Boys, with a singalong quiz.

Answer the 23 questions below, amuse us with your tie-break, and you could be in the running for a couple of the freebies we have received over the past year but cannot accept. First prize is an inflatable sun bed, second prize a special pair of Oscar + Dehn eye shades (ideal for long-haul flights to Californian beaches); these lucky people, plus three runners-up, will win Lonely Planet's USA Phrasebook, containing crucial information on surfspeak (eg surfer's nipple - wear and tear caused by wave action - and TV parking, where a space for your T-bird becomes available just when and where you want it - so named because it only happens on TV). Wouldn't it be nice?

The questions are arranged into several groups, most of which can be answered with reference to a compilation of Beach Boys greatest hits and a good map of the US - except questions 13, 14 and 15, which may oblige you to interrogate someone with vague recollections of the Sixties and Seventies. But in a spirit of seasonal generosity, everyone is allowed one "wild card" answer - write "God only knows" beside one question and it will be marked correct.

Californian and other girls

The first five questions in this section concern the song "California Girls". It features the geo-sociological strata of female society in the US, including (a) Midwest farmers' daughters; (b) Northern girls; (c) East Coast girls; (d) California girls; (e) Southern girls. The answer to each is from (a) to (e).

1. Which group keeps their boyfriends warm at night with the way they kiss?

2. Are hip?

3. Really make you feel all right?

4. Knock me out with the way they talk?

5. Comprise the cutest girls in the world?

6. The West Coast has the ...?

a) San Andreas fault

b) sunshine

c) smackheads

7. And what sort of bikini is dug?

a) British

b) French

c) Itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-yellow-polka-dot

"Surfing USA"

8. Which County Line features in "Surfing USA"?

a) Orange

b) Essex

c) Ventura

9. Which beach doesn't feature in "Surfing USA"?

a) La Jolla

b) Brighton

c) Pacific Pallisades

10. Which of the "Surfing USA" beaches in the Los Angeles area is furthest north?

a) Redondo

b) Manhattan

c) Sunset

"I don't know where, but she sends me there"

11. Where were the cottonfields?

a) Over in Oklahoma

b) Across in Alabama

c) Back in Louisiana

12. If you travel 100 miles west of LA, and 50 miles east of Detroit, you end up with:

a) Heroes and Villains

b) Barbara Ann

c) Little Honda

13. Which zoo features on the cover of Pet Sounds?

a) San Diego

b) Regent's Park

c) Central Park

14. Is Sirtoa

a) A legendary surfers' beach between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

b) The 1957 Plymouth car first driven by a 17-year-old Brian Wilson.

c) The acronym for Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority - not a surfers' paradise.

"I can't wait to get back to the States"

15. In which London venue have the Beach Boys played?

a) London Arena

b) Crystal Palace Bowl

c) Shepherd's Bush Empire

16. Which Radio 4 travel programme is named after a Beach Boys song (or is it the other way round)?

a) Going Places

b) From Our Own Correspondent

c) Breakaway

17. Which Welsh valley is celebrated in the song "Help Me"?

a) Rhondda

b) Wendy

c) Dee

"I get around"

18. When faced with the prospect of driving up and down the same old street, do the Beach Boys get

a) bored

b) bugged

c) buggered

19. "Drinking all night, got into a fight" - but around which town did the crew of Sloop John B roam?

a) Nassau

b) Nantwich

c) Naples

20. Most of the Beach Boys recordings are on the Capitol label, whose headquarters famously resembles a stack of 45rpm records. But where is it?

a) Los Angeles

b) San Francisco

c) San Diego

"We'll all be gone for the summer"

21. The last name of one member of the Beach Boys is the same as a Dallas airport. Which?

a) Brian Wilson

b) Mike Love

c) Bruce Fort-Worth

22. "We'll have fun, fun, fun till..."

a) Her daddy takes the T-bird away.

b) Emission control regulations agreed at the Kyoto convention prohibit wasteful cruising in large cars.

c) The flight home on Virgin Atlantic arrives at Heathrow without fully functioning under- carriage.

23. Finally, from which song does the headline of this quiz come:

a) "Good Vibrations"

b) "California Girls"

c) "Lady Linda"

To enter, write your answers in the form 1a, 2c, etc, then tell us in 12 words or fewer (or more, if they are especially entertaining) which is the best beach the Boys never broached - and why.

Send your entry to Beach Balls, Travel, The Independent, 1 Canada Square, London E14 5DL, or e-mail to travel@independent.co.uk to arrive by Friday 9 January.

Usual Newspaper Publishing plc rules apply. The travel editor's judgement is flawed but final.