BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello,

Planning a trip (7weeks in duration) to tour the West Coast of America. Starting in San Franciso in the north, and finishing in San Diego in the South. Start of this trip will be first week in May. Flying into San Fran and flying home from LA.

Rough itinerary:
*San Francisco - 1 week in the city (bay area, wine tasting...etc)
*Then out to Sacremento (day or two) and Yosemite park for a few nights (lodges)
*Back to San Fran to finish two weeks (maybe up to Sonoma county for the wine again)
*Down to Monterey (few days around the area)
*Big Sur (few days around the area)
*Santa Barbara (few days around the area)
*Ventura (few days around the area) - hope over to Channel Islands
*LA (couple of days tops... not too keen to be honest)
*San Diego (4 days approx)

There is potential to extend north and start in Seattle, or head inland at Monterey then south, hit San Diego (and maybe a day of two in Tijuana) and then head up to do LA, ventura and Santa Barbara... and then finish...

Transport:
*Rely on public transport whilst in San Fran
*Rent a car for trip down coast (seems a bit more flexible than Amtrak or Greyhound?)

Accomodation:
*Prefer hotels (nothing too shabby) and lodges

Budget:
*Two of us with combined budget of £8,000 sterling (flights out and back already paid for - this is "spends")

Questions:
We are new to this so just looking for opinions on whether:
1. Budget is realistic?
2. The rough itinerary will provide a decent mix of locations offering city-living, outside adventure type stuff and some exposure to US culture.

Any thoughts on transport? Car rental could be pricey, but seems essential to get the best of the area between San Fran and San Diego...

We are planning to only book the first week accomodation in San Fran, and then arrange accomodation on the fly... similar story with transport... i.e. arrange a car whilst in San Fran, rather than try and book advance from here in the UK... does this sound reasonable? We have got the guides to California from the us and uk tourism sites which have plenty of hotel details in...

P.S. Thanks in advance for any/all feedback!

Sounds good so far. I have a few questions:

Why Sacramento?

Instead of going back to Napa/Sonoma valley, how about visiting one of the other, "less-touristed" wine regions? Amador County for example, or, since you will be in Monterey anyway, visiting the wineries in Monterey County?

For San Francisco lodging, check out the San Remo Hotel.

Just a plug for my own part of the world, but there are many good wineries around San Luis Obispo county, which is where you arrive once you've taken the coast road through Big Sur. Coming that way you will also drive right by Hearst Castle - a guided tour, but a very unique experience.

I agree with both static & spiral.

Why Sacramento? Your time would be better spent heading up the coast to Eureka and seeing the beauty.

Look beyond Napa/Sonoma. If you want to stay in that 'hood, go further north to the Russian River Valley/Dry Creek/Healdsburg area. More lovely and less crowded. Russian River Valley has wineries among the redwoods. Or, for an even more "undiscovered" wine tasting...Livermore Valley, about one hour east of SF. I love tasting out there. Most places are free. Several of the tasting rooms are in more unique settings (i.e. old barns, walnut farms). You'll have some AWESOME reds and good whites. As you work your way down the coast, the Monterey/Santa Cruz area has some nice stops, as well as Paso Robles. (I have a soft spot for Livermore, though)

On your way down the coast, be sure to stop in San Luis Obispo/Morro Bay/Pismo Beach area. Hearst's Castle is in Cambria, right near there. SLO is a fantastic town, and Pismo a great beach town. These are about 1.5 hours north of Santa Barbara.

I think your budget should be plenty. The pound has an excellent exchange rate right now.

PS...Lodging in SF. San Remo that static suggested is in a great location in North Beach, easy access to lots of the great attractions. If you want something more off the beaten path (but in the center of town, on 4 bus lines), try Hotel Tomo. It is located in Japantown/lower Pacific Heights, they just redid it and it is relatively inexpensive (for SF) and this funky anime theme.

And, I will plug the night tour of Alcatraz. A bunch of us booties just did it and it was pretty cool.

Your trip sounds great. I think the advice from previous posters is very good for getting to some of the other wine areas of California as well.

Sacramento is ok, but not that much to do there in my opinion though I once spent a very romantic valentines day there after riding the train up from SF.

I like riding the train, but the schedules are atrocious. And nothing connects well. I think you are right to rent a car and it will help you get to less-touristy places.

You might want to go north from SF along the coast. Muir woods is beautiful just across the Golden Gate. Then the coastal road Highway 1 is beautiful scenery but slow. If you get all the way to Eureka, go to Prairie Creek north of Eureka. I think it's now part of the Redwood National forest and I have to say that it's very beautiful. There's a canyon that has ferns going up all the sides. Plus they have elk there too. I grew up in Eureka so I know lots of stuff up that way, if you want more info. Of course, I couldn't wait to get away...you know how that is.

If you have a chance, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park are amazing to visit. Kings Canyon has huge granite cliffs like Yosemite but it is not as visited. There are wonderful hiking trails in Sequoia and of course they have giant trees.

Have a wonderful trip.

I may be prejudiced because I am from Northern California or State of Jefferson if you wish but you are missing almost a third and some of the most beautiful parts of the state-Mt. Shasta,LasenPark, Redding's SunDial Bridge-Redwood forest- the incredible coast from Crescent City to SF- Sonoma and Napa County- Tahoe- I could go on and on.

I have to agree with everyone here that going north of SF would be well worth the time. Cresent City is a great little town, and maybe think about camping on the beach one night near Ft Bragg. To travel that far and miss out on something as amazing and tranquil as the redwood forests would just be a shame!

I'm glad to see this thread, as I'm hoping to do a similar trip. You may want to start pricing rental cars as they can be very expensive when you rent over a long period, especially if you drop them in a different location than where you picked it up.
Good luck!

There's a really useful article on this forum regarding what to do in San Diego written by donaldru.

The article can be found here

For more travel articles take a look at the WorldRamblers travel blog