Expert: Ernest Tufft - 3/26/2010

Question
Hi. I was so glad to find this website because my husband and I are trying to plan a road trip down the CA coast but we are at a bit of a loss in terms of the itinerary.  Here are a few of the things we are hoping to accomplish and we would love any advice that you have:
-- trip this summer for approx a week
-- fly into SF - spend approx 1 night there
-- would like to do 1 day & possibly a night in wine country - need recs on napa vs sonoma, which vineyards, how long to stay etc
-- would like to spend a few days driving down hwy 1 - which towns should we spend the night in?  any recs of hotels or things to do?
-- we have family in San Diego that we will spend 1 or 2 nights with at the end of the trip

We are hoping to have a fun and romantic trip that includes beautiful sights, good food and a variety of things to do and see.  Any advice you can provide us with in terms of when to go, how long to stay in each play, where to stay - towns along the way (even hotels if possible), and other must do's would be much appreciated!  

-- Amy

Answer
While a week along the California coast can be accomplished with tight planning, most first time visitors underestimate the time involved driving the 500 mile stretch of winding cliff side highway between San Francisco and San Diego.  While the wine country north of San Francisco is a must see opportunity for any wine lover, I recommend that you skip this and spend time within the central coast wine country of Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo.

Unless you have been to San Francisco before, you'll probably want two nights, not just one, bumming around the city.  I have visited every major city in North America, and frankly, I find San Francisco without peer when it comes to romantic adult urban entertainment.  This is a safe, rich, and sophisticated city with great food, museums, theater, and a complex landscape of hills and valleys that are truly charming.  DON'T rent the car here--you'll just get confused with the seemingly chaotic traffic, waste time and money trying to find parking, and miss out on the buzz of the city as locals see it.  Take BART from the airport (either SFO or Oakland) into the city to your hotel, and then have fun the catching antique trolley along Market Street, classic cable car downtown, or BART and MUNI train into the neighborhoods or outer reaches of the city.  San Francisco is so compact a city that sturdy adults and youth won't mind walking hill and dale around town.  Nevertheless, the scope of intrigue for tourism in San Francisco can last a lifetime of repeated visits (compare with New Orleans or Boston, for example, two great cities with substantially fewer square miles of urban tourism adventure).  Before you go, be sure to research the MUNI website for basic services and routes.  Locals are very generous about providing visitors help when navigating this excellent, if complex, public transit system, but it helps to have good background knowledge about the city.  Note, for example, that the N Judah MUNI train line from downtown to near Golden Gate Park is a good route to keep in mind.

You can take CalTrain from San Francisco south to get the rental car more cheaply somewhere in the peninsula, otherwise drive rental car along either freeway I280 or US101 south into the Silicon Valley to the quaint village of Saratoga for lunch.  At Saratoga, get onto CA hwy 9 to drive up and along the ridgeline of the Santa Cruz Mountains for spectacular pull-out views of the San Francisco Bay.  Along the way, see the original California state park, Big Basin, a unique grove of old growth redwoods.  There are several quaint villages along windy hwy 9 that terminates at the Beach in Santa Cruz.  Check out the pier for a crab sandwich and downtown for upscale dining.  Some of the best collections of wines available anywhere are found at the restaurants of Santa Cruz at reasonable prices.

Stops in Capitola, Moss Landing, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, and Carmel are also highly recommended for food, coastal village fun, and scenic coastal drive, each being unique in its own right.  Choose which stops you have time for, and catch the others next time around.  After driving through the 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach, Carmel in particular is worth a few hours downtown, window shopping among the upscale art galleries, wine shops, clothing stores, etc., while a visit to the Carmel Mission is both instructive and wonderfully engaging for anyone.

The 90 mile stretch of Hwy 1 south from Carmel, past Big Sur, to San Simeon, is the most famous drive for steep cliffs and breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean.  At Piedras Blancas is a free and easy to appreciate sea lion beach, while the world-class and eccentric collection of art and architecture of Hearst Castle is a recommended 1/2 day activity at nearby San Simeon--get tickets well in advance (I recommend tour #1 or #2) and watch your time carefully though.  The Hwy 1 drive though 90 miles long, often takes about 3 to 4 hours of scenic stop and drive activity.

Morro Bay is a good place to stay overnight, having plenty of reasonably priced motels with view of the fishing village, Morro or bird rock, beach.  Inland are nearby Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo, the latter having a downtown with good nightlife and dining, due to the location of the university there.  The whole region of inland hills and valleys is scattered with vineyards and wineries producing world-class wines.  Do a little research and choose to visit just a few in a one day drive around the area.  The region is particularly famous for producing great Pinot Noir (the location for the movie "Sideways"), Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes and wines.

From San Luis Obispo south, there are several stops of note (Solvang is a popular tourist trap of sorts, for example), but the charming city of Santa Barbara is worth a one night stay, if necessary, before heading through the LA basin.  There are, of course, a million things to do in LA, but I'll assume that you'll already be behind schedule at this point and will proceed directly to San Diego.  Try to drive through LA at night to avoid traffic.

Hope this helps....

Hope this helps...