I will be spending 2 weeks in California in May, 2004 and am looking at the following itinerary.

Fly into Oakland on a Saturday, drive down to Carmel for 3 days....spend one of those days driving down to San Simeon and back to Carmel. From Carmel > Yosemite for 2 days and stay in the park. From Yosemite > Lake Tahoe for 3 nights and then > Sonoma for 3 nights and finally > Napa for 3 nights. We will drive back to OAK on a Saturday to fly home.

Any recommendations on places to stay, eat and see will be appreciated. We have been to San Francisco and Napa before but not the other places.

I like Fishwife in Pacific Grove (right next to Carmel). Good food and very dencent wine list. As far as lodging goes, I would also look into staying in Pacific Grove. Are you looking for B&B? Romantic? Budget? Priceline is always an option for the Monterey peninsula.

I noticed that your total stay in the wine country is 6 nights - unless you have a really compelling reason to stay so long in that area, I would add a night or 2 to Yosemite.

I agree with an extra night or two in Yosemite.

Utahtea

Three days in Carmel???

I just returned from a 2-week stay along the coast of CA (San Fran down to LA). Carmel was by far my most enjoyed city of all of our stops. It was that way perhaps because of the location we stayed at in Carmel - that being right in town.

We stayed at The Normandy Inn which was wonderful! (Recommended by regular Fodors poster Patrick.) We stayed in a fireplace suite and enjoyed the whole experience. The Pine Inn is across the street. I went through it and it looked very nice as well, perhaps a little more upscale than The Normandy was. I checked out La Playa as I liked their website so much. Looked at a room there and decided that it wasn't for me. I hear there might be a (nice) Best Western up the main drag a bit. Not sure if it is on the main street or not (Ocean Avenue), but THAT is where I would want to be - especially for my first visit to the area. Don't worry that none of the hotels aren't on the water.

I am not a window shopper, but I was in Carmel! Great shops and many reasonably priced restaurants.

I would love to go back to Carmel soon. I think you will have a blast!
Paul

-To clarify, I would want to have a hotel room on Ocean Avenue in Carmel.

(Sorry - just re-read my post and thought I didn't make myself clear.)

Thanks for all the great information.

paul where did you eat in carmel we will there in 2 weeks post alaska san frasn cruise i too was debating between normandy or the pine innn thank you so much

Carmel is a day trip for me too, and I can't see why you would want to spend more than 3-days there unless you really love to eat and shop rather than sightsee. I also agree that Napa and Sonoma are close enough in proximity that you will not need 3 days in each location. 6-days of winetasting is a lot and Yosemite will be incredible in May. Waterfalls at their peak flows. I was just there last weekend and it was lovely. The stars at night alone are worth the trip, but we also hiked the Panorama Trail--8 miles--but well worth it!

Wineries I like to visit include Niebaum Coppola, Hess, Artesa, Schramsberg. If you have 3 full days in Sonoma--you may want to visit Healdsburg (day trip). It has really been changing over the past few years and many people tell me it is now their favorite wine country destination.

I agree w/ the others - add to Yosemite and cut from Napa / Sonoma.

But I don't understand why you are staying in BOTH Napa and Sonoma anyway. They are so close to each other - about 10 miles as the crow flies and 16 by road. I'd just stay 3 or 4 days in the general area.