Expert: Ernest Tufft - 4/21/2009

Question
My wife and I will be making our first trip to California this July. We will be
flying into San Francisco for a 6 day vacation. We would like to stay in San
Francisco for a few days, drive to Napa or Sonoma Valley and stay a few days,
and drive to Monterey and stay in the Carmel area a few days.
Do you have a hotel recommendation for San Francisco, or location. We want
to spend some time at Fisherman's wharf, Alcatraz, Golden Gate bridge, and
see the Trolley cars. I read one of your recommendations on Napa Valley
regarding spacing out geographically. How many days should we allocate to
wine country (out of the 6)? Thank you.

Answer
Gregory,

You will have a great time, and in 6 days can get plenty done, but don't try to do more than you have planned here.  I recommend taking an overnight stay in the wine country, and the same in Carmel or Monterey.  You'll need the rest of the time for San Francisco.  Check out my many pages devoted to these places at Virtualtourist.com where I provide photos and detailed text recommendations.  My membername is atufft, but if you go to San Francisco or Napa, for example, and then scroll to the bottom of the page, my icon is among the Top 5 Contributor list.  In general, for San Francisco, I recommend not trying to book too many tourist trips.  Let the city take you in.  If you and your wife are able to walk all day, you will find the urban hills of the city fascinating and healthy.  Use my Virtualtourist.com tips to help choose neighborhoods to visit, and then don't drive around.  Use the city's great MUNI transit system, which includes cable cars, antique trolleys, subway trains, and electrical buses.  The network is very complete and with a map and the occasional question to vendors and other passengers, you will quickly determine which transport to take where.  Golden Gate bridge can be seen on the way to Napa by rental car, and frankly I would skip Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz as they really are so plastic and touristy as to have lost any authentic value for understanding this complex city.  Although I still like wandering through China Town and North Beach, less famous business districts, like along Clement Street and West Portal provide much better bargains for fine quality food, and enjoy the more relaxed treatment by waiting staff.  These neighborhoods are where the native San Franciscan's eat, and they are very demanding customers.  If you want a ferry ride, go to Sausalito and have lunch on the waterfront there.  You will have time enough to drive up to Napa and stay in either Calistoga or St. Helena in a Bed & Breakfast home for the night.  Some really world class dining is available in Napa Valley, so browse a bit on-line to narrow down your choices and get reservations in advance.  Same goes for the wineries.  Don't try to stop at every winery.  Pre-plan based upon my Virtualtourist.com advice and other advice you find, and choose two or three at most.  See my restaurant tip for Carmel and dine there.  In all these places, you can improve you wine palate a lot as good Northern California restaurants have world-class wine lists, often at reasonable prices.  Visit the Old Mission at Carmel, before walking around downtown and going to dinner.  From San Francisco to Monterey, take Hwy 101 to Hwy 9 in Saratoga.  Hopefully, you will have a small car or sports car to drive the windy and beautiful route through the Santa Cruz Mtns.  Expect to visit more than once.  Hope this helps...alan