mominburbs

I have a conference in Anaheim this July and my husband is planning to fly out and meet me for a long weekend afterwards. We would do not want to go to LA or San Diego. Do you have any suggestions, quaint towns, B and B's, etc. We want to go somewhere relaxing, good food is important, night life is not. I would love to drive up the coast to San Fran but we only have four days. We will have a car but won't want to be more than three hours from LAX.
Thank you for your input!!!

Jax76

consider Laguna Beach - lots of art galleries and beautiful beaches.

november_moon

How about Santa Barbara?

Tomsd

You might even go north of Santa Barbara about 45 minutes to Danish themed Solvang or Los Olivos - with the Lavendar Farm, etc. http://www.solvangusa.com/ and http://www.clairmontfarms.com/

And/or stay at a winery in that area. http://www.solvangusa.com/explore-so...tasting-rooms/

Did you see the very funny movie - Sideways? A great primer for the area. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/

Or if you like warm weather - go to Palm Springs for a few days and take the tram to the top of Mt. San Jacinto.

tomfuller

Consider taking the train to Oakland and then renting the car and fly home from SFO or Oakland. In four days, you can see a lot of the coast south of San Francisco including Monterey.

Suzie

What about Pismo Beach? Morro Bay? Cambria? Then you can visit Big Sur one of your days, San Simion or just hang by the beach.

mominburbs

thanks for the great ideas! I don't think I want to visit any wineries, rather save that for a trip to Napa one day. The lavendar farm looks cool. I just want a low key, relaxing trip (close to the ocean) and my husband is not going to want to do a lot of driving everyday (although I don't mind). I did think about flying home from Monterrey or SF, however, then the rental car gets very pricy (with pick up and drop off at different locations). Does anyone know any nice, reasonable places to stay? We enjoy inns and b&b's.
Thanks again for the help!!!

montereybob

If you go to any place north of LA, you will spend hours on unnatractive, crowded freeways before you get to the nice low key relaxing places that you are seeking. In Anaheim, you are only a 30 min drive to some very nice beach towns. I would recommend Laguna Beach. From there you can explore the other fun beach towns to the north and south.

sf7307

Laguna Beach is great.

mlgb

A little bit different in the Palos Verdes Peninsula, there are some nice walking trails and the restaurants at both Trump and the hotel are good. But not too much in the way of shopping. If you want the gallery scene, that is Laguna Beach.


Hotels do tend to be expensive along the coast in July, so be prepared. Cambria etc are more than a few hours.

www.terranea.com

mlgb

An easy day trip from Anaheim or Laguna is San Juan Capistrano and the shopping, mission and galleries are all good.

PeaceOut

Newport Beach or Laguna Beach would fit your criteria. The Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel is amazing, but not an inn or a B&B.

Tomsd

Simple rule of thumb: The further you get from LA - the less expensive and crowded. Just find an area and google away.

Really - you are the one who has to decide.

starrs

It's four hours away but we really enjoyed relaxing at Moonstone Beach in Cambria and visiting the central coast wineries. LOVED the area and very relaxing. We stayed at the Best Western there (and really liked it) but these cottages were really cute - http://www.cambriainns.com/moonstonecottages.html