harvak

trying to swing all of this in 7 days time. hearst castle wineries s francisco then up coast by train to seattle san juan islands for whale watching and fly home to st louis from there any ideas and or must see s 25 th anniv and my wife has never been to w coast am on limited budget so asking for advice thanks

TrvlMaven

The train portion may eat up more of your time than you want to spend. Amtrak is very slow, often not on schedule. July is one of the busier months in CA--you might just stay with SF, Hearst Castle, and do some wine tasting between the two.

beazor

I agree about the trains. Are you sure it really goes along the coast?

If this is a romantic trip, see Hearst, visit the4 wineries in that area then stay around Monterey/Carmel for the rest of the time.

If you want to see SF for a few days, skip Hearst spend a few days in the city then go up to Sonoma County to perhaps Calistoga and spend a couple of days.

If you're renting a car to get around you might be surprised how long it takes to drive from place to place.

My son just moved to the Seattle area, from what he syas you might want to just spend the week up there.

I think you should just pick one of the 3 areas.

ira

Hi H,

I also suggest only 1 destination.

Either Seatlle or SF will keep you happy for a week.

If you have to visit a winery, they have them in Washington.

Google "wineries near Seattle".

TerryLFred

I personally would pick the California coast over Seattle. My husband and I just got back from 3 days in Napa for our 20th Anniversary. It is so beautiful there. We stayed at the Lavender B&B in Yountville (our first time staying there). It was wonderful. Hearst Castle is great too. Driving the coast of California is spectacular. Do you like nature, food, wine? Depending on what you like to do most could dictate where you'd like to spend more time. My husband and I are foodies so we plan our trips according to where there are great restaurants.

If you like B&B's, you might want to check out the parent company of the place we stayed as they have B&B's in many of the places you are thinking about. Their website is www.foursisters.com.

We live in So. California and have driven up and down the coast/state. It's amazing how much time you will need to visit the few places you mention in California. We have also been to Seattle quite a few times.

After you decide on where exactly you want to visit, I can give you some suggestions for those areas.

Enjoy your trip. And congratulations on your 25th Anniversary!

FainaAgain

I took the train up the coast, and there was very little "coast". Not worh the time and money.

There is so much to do around SF, maybe instead of going to up the coast you fo to Yosemite. Or lake Tahoe.

Don't miss Monterey on the way up from Hearst.

travelwild

Congratulations! My husband and I (from Florida) visited Napa Valley 4 years ago. We are wine LOVERS and foodies as well. We stayed at the Yountville Inn which was really nice but expensive.

Having never visited wineries before, we were not prepared for some of the "snobbiness" of the larger wineries. We found that the smaller ones - off the beaten path were much more fun. We were scheduled to stay for 5 nights, but after 2, we bailed out of there and drove through Sonoma (liked it MUCH better) and on to San Francisco where we found a hotel for $99 in the wharf and had a blast.