California Coast
 

I am driving up the coast from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. I will be in Santa Barbara, Carmel & Monterey, Napa & Sonoma and San Francisco. Does anyone have any restaurant suggestions, activity suggestions, winery suggestions, shopping suggestions they can share??

What kind of food and in what price range?

What kind of wine and do you want tours?

Looking more for dinner spots in the moderate price range. Would def do tours, any wine. Not very particular as long as its good :)

a favorite breakfast spot is the outdoor patio at the highlands inn in carmel highlands

kayaking in monterey bay is pretty fanstistic if the weather is nice

stoping numerous places along higway 1 along big sur can feed the soul

carmel beach late in the day is a fun place to see the locals with their dogs

Any particular kind of food? In Carmel, our favorite moderate/casual place for dinner is Mundaka which serves tapas. There are several tasting rooms in downtown Carmel now. One of our favorites is Figge Cellars inside Winfield gallery. Shopping for what? They're consolidating the 3 Inago boutiques in Carmel and have all of the discounted stuff at the Ocean Ave store (at San Carlos). Last month everything was 70% off and I picked up a cute pair of boots and a handbag for a good price. They said the sale will be ongoing until the end of the year.

If you take the Foxen Canyon Road, just north of Buellton you'll find several good wineries.... Foxen, Fess Parker, Riverbench, Rancho Sisquoc, Zacca Mesa as starters. There are also several tasting rooms in Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Winery is just a couple of block from the beach and from State St.
In the Paso Robles area, if you take Highway 46 west just a couple of miles there are lots of winery choices....Peachy Canyon, Grey Wolf, Kenneth Volk, Castoro, etc. There are many more and not all of them are on 46.
For lunch or dinner in Santa Barbara one of my favorites is the Palce Grill, great Cajun dishes.Also the Harbor Restauratn and Brophy Bros.

There are many wonderful restaurants in the Napa Valley - all at a varying price range. So I'll let you know of a few local gems with really good, fresh food and easier on the wallet.

In the town of Napa:
** The Restaurant Pearl - fresh, fresh, fresh. Best soups in the valley. Good salads. Fresh fish. Homemade tortillas, wonderful meatloaf, veggies, duck, pork chop, chicken verde, sandwiches. tacos. Organic.
** C Casa at the Oxbow - Love their fresh salads and tacos. The salmon taco is fabulous. Organic.
** Grace's Table - ever-changing menu with fresh produce. Great weekend brunch as well.

A new one we tried recently in Rutherford is Alex's Italian Restaurant. Authentic. Organic. Grow their own. Homemade pasta. Incredible salads and appetizers. More expensive than the others but worth every bite.

DW and I had a nice lunch at Marie Callender in Pismo Beach. We were in Santa Barbara in less than 3 hours after lunch

For activities, I would recommend walking the coastal trails in scenic Point Lobos and Pacific Grove. Also the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Shopping is fun in Carmel by the Sea village. There so many excellent restaurants in Carmel and Monterey --- too many to list here. When you get there, check out all the reviews on Yelp.

boom-boom has given you some wonderful winery suggestion for the Central Coast.

If you like steak, here are a few suggestions:

In Casmali (yes! it's a town in California!), there's the wonderful Ole West style restaurant called the "Hitching Post". It's not far off either Highway 1 or 101 south of Santa Maria.

make sure you get there in daylight because it's almost impossible to find in the dark.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-hitching-post-casmalia

A bit further up the coast, right along the ocean in Shell Beach, is F McIntock's.

They once had a 32-oz steak which doesn't appear to be on the menu any more, but they still serve "Turkey Nuts", you know, that part of the turkey...anyhow...

http://www.mclintocks.com/

Go inland a bit to Templeton and stop by another great steak place, AJ Spurs:

http://www.ajspurs.com/Menu.html


The Central Coast is beef country. People recommend going to Hearst Castle. Guess what Hearst was doing on thousands of acres of land here? Yup, raising cattle.

So, if you're a steak person - Enjoy!

While in San Francisco, check out the Ferry Building Marketplace. Lots of good food and shopping, and the scenery is good. Stu Dudley is our SF expert, I would look at his posts.

Carmel, go to Spanish Bay, have a glass of bubbly on the patio the views are awesome. At dusk the bagpiper closes the golf course and puts on a good show. Spanish Bay is on the 17 mile drive which costs 9.75 to drive, it is worth the money and give your receipt to any of the restaurants and the take the 9.75 off the tab.

The CA coast is foggy in July and August, We sell more sweatshirts in the summer than we do in the winter!

thank you so much for the suggestions! just printed everyone's and will be sure to take with me