Napa - Monterey - Pismo Beach - SF itinerary help!
 

Hello,

We will be spending our honeymoon in late July/August exploring parts of California, starting from Napa Valley/Sonoma down through Big Sur to Pismo Beach, and back up to SF for a few days. We're a young couple in our late 20's that enjoy food & wine, are fairly outdoorsy but also would like some opportunities to relax. I've put together an itinerary with the help of many posts on this forum but some critiques/reviews would be so helpful!

Weds July 30th:
- Land in SFO, pick up rental car @ 11:30, drive down to Napa, have a quick lunch
- Domaine Carneros (sparkling)
- Artera
- Check in hotel (White House Inn)
- Dinner @ Zuzu + Carpe Diem wine bar OR Cuvee (happy hour, no corkage Weds)

Thurs July 31st:
- Oxbow Market in the morning, pick up lunch for picnic
- Darioush (no tasting)
- Regusci (RR; picnic lunch)
- Silver oak & Duckhorn tastings (already reserved by a friend)
- Dinner in St. Helena?

Fri Aug 1:
- Sonoma Valley wine tour with Platypus ($110)
- Dinner @ the girl & the fig OR back in Napa dt (Mustards?)

Sat Aug 2:
- Spa doable in the morning? Or some other activity?
- Quick lunch
- Inglenook - RR ($50, 2hrs)
- Castella di Amarosa - RR($34, 2 hrs)
- Appies @ Auberge du Soleil (bistro)
- Dinner @ Tra Vigne (reserve private table?)

Sun Aug 3:
- Check out, 3.5hrs Napa - Pacific Grove
- Check in Pacific Grove
- Lunch @ Compagno’s (sandwich)?
- Bike ride along Pacific Grove (Adventures by the Sea rental - $20/4 hrs, $30/8)
- Dinner in PG (An Choi or Thai Bistro take out?)

Mon Aug 4:
- 17 mile drive ($10pp); lunch at Roy’s or PB Market?
- Downtown Carmel
- Borromeo del Rio Carmel Mission
- Dinner in Carmel (Casanova, Andree’s bouchee, or Dametra)
- Carmel Beach for sunset w/ blanket

Tues Aug 5:
- Monterey Bay kayaks ($55pp;@10am)
- Lunch @ LouLou’s
- Cannery Row & Fisherman’s wharf
- Aquarium (free passes)
- Dinner @ Fish Hopper or Lallapalooza
- Cocktail @ Restaurant 1833?

Weds Aug 6:
- Check out, drive to Point Lobos State Reserve (morning, ~2hrs, hike here?)
- Picnic lunch somewhere?? Where would be a good spot?
- Drive to Big Sur (stop @ Bixby Bridge, any others?)
- Pfeiffer Beach
- Julia Pfeiffer Burns for waterfall (hike here also? doable 2 hikes in a day?)
- Dinner @ Nepenthe
- Drive down to Pismo Beach (~3 hrs)

Thurs Aug 7:
- Breakfast @ Old West Cinnamon Rolls
- Pismo Beach ATV (Sun buggy - 2 hrs)
- Lunch @ Chipwrecked?
- Hearst castle day (Upstairs suites?) or evening tour ($25pp)
- Dinner in Grover Beach (Bunn Thai or Izakaya Raku?)

Fri Aug 8:
- Drive hwy 101 back to San Francisco

Please critique away! Any advice is much appreciated!

Just make sure it's a very early dinner at Nepenthe. Although it doesn't get dark until late in summer, I wouldn't want to make the Big Sur coast drive after sunset. Compagno's sandwiches would be good for your picnic lunch that day, so maybe switch.

July 30 - if up is north & down is south - you'll need to drive up to Napa from SFO.

I think you are rushing the Big Sur Coast - and perhaps spending too many days in the wine country (four nights). After you've visited about 4 wineries - it becomes a little redundant, IMO. Is it too late to subtract a day from the wine country, and spend a night in Big Sur?? If you have dinner at Nepenthe around 4:30 (I think that's when they start serving), you won't get to Pismo Beach until 9PM. I'd want to do the coast earlier than that - as curousgeo suggested. You have too much stuff planned for Aug 6 - you should do the coast slow.

Pismo Beach to SF is 4 hrs - but it could take you 5 hrs on Friday "getaway" day. That's more time than you are spending on the Big Sur coast! If you don't want to subtract days from the wine country, how about skipping Pismo Beach & Hearst Castle and spend the night in Big Sur. That will give you a lot more time to enjoy the coast and you won't have the boring 5 hr drive back to SF.

Getting back to SF - get on 280 as soon as you can - it is much more scenic than 101 and has less traffic (it's actually classified as a "scenic highway").

Stu Dudley

I agree about the 4 nights in wine country.

Also, regarding dinner at The Girl & The Fig, my one experience there last week was not great. I think Mustard's would be more relaible, or is a place in Healdsburg feasible? (It's in the Sonoma Valley.) We love Dry Creek Kitchen, and love Scopa even more; reservations required for both.

I would skip Pismo Beach and stay in Cambria instead, especially if you want to see the castle. Pismo is nothing great, IMO. Also, no way would I have dinner at Nepenthe and then drive all the way to Pismo. Make sure your dinner is as early as possible.

I would cut a day from Napa and add it to the Central coast. The winery thing will get repetitive. Plus there are even more vineyards and wineries as you travel down the state. You could spend a night in Cambria and do your Hearst Castle tour then. I like The Pismo area and going out on the dunes is lots of fun. Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties have lots of wine tasting opportunities.

http://www.centralcoast.com/wine/wineries.html

Thanks for the tips! Our days in the wine country are already reserved, but we do have a little more flexibility with the rest of the trip.

Stu, you mentioned we have too much planned for Aug 6th. If we were to stay closer, either in Big Sur or Cambria rather than Pismo Beach, what would you cut from the 6th? Could we move anything to another day?

I do love the idea of going out onto the dunes in Pismo but considering all your advice not sure how feasible it is...would staying in Cambria one night and then one in Pismo be do-able? Or just cut Pismo altogether?

Thanks everyone!!

I would move visiting Pt Lobos to either Monday or Tuesday morning - whichever day is the least foggy.

IMO, The coast from Pismo Beach to just north of Hearst Castle is not as scenic/dramatic as the coast north of there up to Carmel and including Carmel/Pacific Grove. I haven't visited Pismo Beach since the 60s - so I can't tell you if it is more interesting than Cambria - but it will shorten your drive from Nepenthe by 1 hr and you won't give up much in the way of coastal views.

If you stay in Cambria, going to SF via Hwy 1 then 101/280 is only 30 mins longer than the boring 101/280 to SF. You'll get some different views going north on Hwy 1 than you had going south. If Pt Lobos was a "fog out" - you have another chance to visit it. You could skip dinner at Nepenthe on Wednesday if the weather is bad, and have lunch there on Friday. This gives you two "passes" on the Big Sur Coast which will increase your chances of hitting clear weather.

Using Hwy 1/101/280, it's 4 1/4 hrs to SF from Cambria, and a little over 5 hrs from Pismo Beach to SF. Plus a possible 1 hr commute delay if you hit traffic at the wrong time from either starting points.

I would stay in Cambria, skip Pismo Beach, and return to SF starting on Hwy 1.

Stu Dudley

Stu hasn't been to Pismo since the '60s. I was there last month.

>>Stu hasn't been to Pismo since the '60s. I was there last month.<<

Yep - but I wouldn't want to drive an additional hour after a nice relaxing dinner at Nepenthe. And I would also like to have the opportunity of driving on Hwy 1 again on the return to SF, and have it take almost an hours less than starting the trip from Pismo Beach. If ceekay had an extra day available - "dune it" or dig for Pismo Clams (what we did in the 60s) at Pismo Beach.

Stu Dudley

I love the Napa/Sonoma part of your trip and Day 1 has two of my favorite wineries, Domaine Carneros and Artesa (at least, I think that's what you meant. I'm not familiar with Artera so excuse me if I got that wrong.)

You might think about lunch or dinner at the Culinary Institute at Greystone in St. Helena. We enjoyed it very much.

http://www.ciarestaurants.com/califo...-at-greystone/

Even with reservations in Napa/Sonoma, I would still take a day off and stick it on the Central Coast.

Thanks all for the helpful suggestions. We've decided to skip Pismo (save for another trip!) and stay in Cambria for the 2 nights. I am also bookmarking the Culinary Institute to try out!

I am also in the process of working on our SF itinerary but am finding myself somewhat lost in terms of what to see on which days...I know we definitely want to do the Alcatraz evening tour, bike across the Golden Gate to Sausalito, Fisherman's Wharf, and Chinatown, but not sure when and how to fit them in. We are staying in the SOMA area close-ish to the Ferry building, and we have from Friday till our flight out on Wednesday. Here's what I have so far:

Fri Aug 8th:
- Breakfast @ ?
[5 hrs Cambria - SF;~2pm; take hwy 101/280]
- Quick lunch
- Check in
- Union Square
- Dinner @ Cafe Claude? (live Jazz)

Sat Aug 9th:
- Breakfast @ Ferry Building Farmer’s market
- Lunch @ Tadich Grill?
- Yerba Buena Gardens
- Walk #1 - YB & Telegraph Hill, Filbert Steps
- Dinner @ ?
- Late night drinks @ Bourbon and Branch ? (speakeasy)

Sun Aug 10th:
- Haight-Ashbury walking tour (@11am, 2 hrs)
- Lunch @
- Golden Gate Park
- de Young Museum
- Japanese Tea Garden
- California Academy of Sciences
- Dinner @ Club Deluxe (live Jazz?)

Mon Aug 11th:
- Cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf in morning?, pick up lunch
- Rent bikes @ Blazing Saddles
- Picnic lunch
- Bike across GG bridge to Sausalito
- Ferry back to Wharf
- Alcatraz night tour ($37 pp)
- Late dinner @ ?

Tues Aug 12th:
- Chinatown in morning
- Dim Sum @ ?
- North Beach
- Dinner in North Beach @ (Trattoria Contadina? L’Osteria del Forno? Sotto Mare?)

How does this look?? I've got a lot of question marks everywhere because I'm not sure what neighbourhoods would be best for which days...I've heard great things about Noe Valley and Fillmore St but have no idea how or whether to fit them in. Thanks again all!

Maybe Great Eastern for dim sum. Ristorante Milano in Nob Hill is a nice neighborhood restaurant, smallish place so reservations are a must. Original Joe's, Alfred's Steakhouse or House of Prime Rib are classic, old school San Francisco restaurants. I'm sure others will have recommendations as well.

>>Sun Aug 10th:
- Haight-Ashbury walking tour (@11am, 2 hrs)<<

My wife is the tour guide for the the SF City Guide's "Victorian San Francisco" walk on that day at 2:00. She does a fabulous tour. After the tour, perhaps we could meet for coffee or dinner in The City. We got married in LA in '71 and spent our honeymoon in Santa Barbara, Hearst Castle, San Simeon, Big Sur, Carmel, and San Francisco - much like you. I have the menu from Nepenthe in the scrap book my wife put together. We moved to San Francisco 4 years after we got married - and have been here since '75.

We head out for a month in France next week.

Stu Dudley

ceekay, What exactly do you plan to do in Cambria? I'm asking because I live nearby and thee is nothing there that will keep you occupied for even one day, nuch less two or three.

It is near Hearst Castle and there is a beach but the town has nothing to speak of other than a handful of shops and a few restaurants. (Robins and the Sea Chest are favorites for dinner... Linn's for breakfast or lunch.) I'm afraid it isn't a honeymoon town. Many buildings are closed and boarded up.

I would suggest seeing Hearst Castle as a day trip with dinner at Nepenthe on your way back to Carmel.

Thanks for the recommendations curiousgeo, I'll be sure to put those on the list of places to check out.

Stu that sounds like an amazing story - I've always wanted to live in San Francisco, so we're really excited to have the chance to come visit. My fiance's having another peek at our itinerary; but hopefully we can fit in your wife's tour!

We are getting to Cambria late after dinner at Nepenthe and then we're really only spending the next full day in the Cambria area, so we're thinking a good half day at Hearst Castle and then perhaps some horseback riding or just chilling at the beach before we head back to San Fran the next morning.

Not understanding the trip to Pismo then backtracking to Hearst then back to Pismo. Why not stay the night near Hearst, take a morning tour then head down to Pismo?

clarkgriswold: >>We've decided to skip Pismo (save for another trip!) and stay in Cambria for the 2 nights.<<