I have been reading through lots of the forums and have seen great info and I hope someone can help me We are traveling to SF/N. Cal this Christmas/New Years. We can rent a car for part of the trip and dump it for the city portion. My kids are 5 and 8, love travel and have a high tolerance for site seeing. We fly in late Christmas Eve (like 10 pm) to OAK and leave Jan 3 at 11 pm from OAK. I would like to make our trip diverse. We would like to see the following places/stuff:
San Francisco
1-2 Wineries
San Simeon
Monterey
Big Sur
A gold mine/cave
whale watching
redwoods
anything else that is great

I tried to get Tahoe or Yosemite to work in the plan, but we are from Miami and dont do well driving in snow and mountains - so we are hestitant (we drove last winter in Whistler, BC - that was enough for me.)

My husband and I have both been to the area before and want to do some new things that we havent done.

We also have Christmas Day and New Years Day when many things are closed to contend with -
Thanks so much!!!

You could go to Muir Woods to see redwoods on the way to Sonoma Valley wineries. I would also take the kids to Chinatown and maybe a cruise under the Golden Gate bridge. We found a private boat doing a cruise as we walked along Fisherman's wharf. It was less money than the big boats and a lot more fun.

All the big hotels in the City will be open and serving a special holiday meal. Do make reservations for Christmas day, as these are pretty popular. I don't know if you celebrate Christmas but Union Square will be very festive and lit up. The hotels all have their lobby's decorated very nice.
Tahoe is VERY popular with Bay Area residents during this time of year. Who knows what kind of winter we'll have, but if you are uncomfortable driving in the snow I wouldn't plan on going up there at that time of year.
You can visit wineries in the Napa area or during a trip south. There are wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains and in Carmel Valley.
Monterey has a 'First Night' celebration on New Years Eve. It's a very family friendly celebration, with different little events and a big parade leading up to midnight. Check here for more info www.firstnightmonterey.org
I'm not sure if their are many true working gold mines anymore. There is however Columbia Historic State Park that is a living gold museum. Look it up at www.columbiacalifornia.com. They have gold panning and stuff like that.
Redwoods can be seen at Muir Woods in Marin county, Big Basin and Henry Cowell in the Santa Cruz Mountains and smaller ones in Big Sur.
You'll be here during peak whale watching. Pt. Lobos is a good place for whale spotting, as is all of Highway 1 south of Carmel. Careful though, that highway isn't for the timid driver and if it's very stormy, skip it. During heavy rains it closes at times due to slides. Again, we could have mild warm weather at that time of year or it could be coming down buckets. We are kinda hoping for buckets due to our drought.

Boy, lots to see and do. I doubt you can fit it all in.

Chances are you can rule out any whale watching as they will all be in Mexico by then.

Probably, (what I would do) is head south from San Francisco to Monterey (aquarium). Go along Hwy 1 along the coast (top 5 roads in the world) to Cambria (Hearst Castle).

Go over to San Luis Obispo and the Paso Robles area. There are several excellent wineries in that area.

Then go on over to the central valley and Fresno and drive up to the Sequoia National Forest and/or Kings Canyon (redwoods).

Then go up Hwy 99 to Columbia State Park and Moaning Caves for your gold mine and cave fix. You can even rappel inside Moaning Cave, if you WANT TO!

Moaning Cave is open every day of the year if that helps.

Don't worry about missing out on whale watching. It's a tradition in our family to make a pic-a-nic with our Christmas leftovers and hike Pt. Lobos and wave at the many whales cruising by. There are plenty still making their way to Mexico.

Empire Mine State Park in Grass Valley would be good for seeing a gold mine. It's a great park, although anything in the foothills (Highway 49) will definitely be chilly that time of year.

Thanks for all the info. I am going to start researching these options.

On the Whale Watching at Pt. Lobos - you can see them from shore or do we go on one of those boat trips??

Also by chilly - what do you mean?? 30s??


One last thing - does anyone have any accomodation suggestions for all these places??

Thx!!

The record low in Carmel-by-the-Sea on December 25th was 31 degrees F. That's the record low. It will likely be in the mid-50s, but can be rainy, damp, raw, etc. being near the ocean.

Grass Valley is a great place to visit and Empire Mine is really interesting.

For Grass Valley, temperatures will generally be in the 30s-50s with some overnight lows possibly dipping into the 20s. There is occasional snow that time of year. Some years we have Christmas dessert outside on the deck - my grandparents live up there.

As much as I love and promote Healdsburg and the wine country..its going to be cold and probably (hopefully) rainy during the time you are visiting. I'd go South to Carmel etc. I'd take the kids to visit the Steinbeck museum in Salinas..its very interesting. The aquarium in Monterry is a MUST see for kids......esp. if the weather is cold and wet.

With your amount of time, I'd vote for San Francisco and Carmel/ Monterey/ Big Sur (weather permitting as your main plan. Then adding in the gold country as mentioned as time allows. I have friends in the Auburn/ Grass Valley/ Nevada City area myself and really enjoy trips up there. It will be colder than SF, though note J_Correa's comments. Way warmer than your Whistler, BC adventure.

Should we stop in Santa Cruz??

Santa Cruz is beach and boardwalk. Beach will be too cold and boardwalk (i.e. rides) will be closed.

On the otherhand, there are other things to see in Santa Cruz besides the boardwalk. If the weather is nice, you might see some great surfing. You could check out the surf museum at lighthouse point, wander around downtown, go to Capitola Village. Santa Cruz is a cool place.

It just depends on how you want to allocate your time

See my comments to "Notes on San Francisco" regarding what to do in SF.

Next...if you're staying IN San Franciso...understand that San Simeon is AT LEAST a 5 (FIVE) hour drive ONE WAY. (Down 101 to Paso Robles/Templeton...and then West on 46 to 1....even longer if you go Route 1.) The tour of San Simeon is a couple of hours. So you're talking AT LEAST 12 hours ....without stopping for lunch, dinner etc. I would suggest you stay overnight in either Monterey/Carmel (a 3+ hr drive from San Simeon, 2 hrs from SF) or Cambria (small town on the coast a couple of miles from San Simeon. This would allow you to drive one leg (either down or back) on Route 1, one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Further, if you were in Carmel/Monterey you could see the Monterey Bay Acquarium (a MUST for children), Carmel and the 18 mile drive through Pebble Beach....as well as the Steinbeck Museum. AND there are a number of wineries in the Carmel area (as there also are in the area east of San Simeon).

Ooops. I should have said...see my comments to "Hints on San Francisco". DOH!!!! * slaps forehead *

You only have 10 days, 2 of which are travel days, so that's 8 full days. You're trying to do a bit too much. You really only have time for SF itself and the Monterey/Carmel/Hearst Castle/Big Sur area. You can go wine tasting around Monterey area. Basically, spend first 4 nights in SF, then rent a car to go to Muir Woods, and then drive down to Monterey and spend the other 4 nights around that area. Then drive back, and spend the last night in Berkeley or SF again before heading to the airport.

I have almost 10 full non-travel days we leave on the red eye on the 10th day.) DO you think its crazy to try to get to Hearst Castle?? Also I am thinking of skipping Muir Woods and trying Big Basin as it is much biger & probably way less crowded - My plan so far would be to land Xmas eve and drive to Saratoga area for the night. Xmas day spend at Big Basin and then drive down to Monterey for the night. Then spend soen time there before heading to Big Sur and down to San Simeon. On the way back use the non Rte 1 route and head to Gold Country before heading to SF for the end of the trip (and ditching the car when we get there.) I can drop Napa, been there - the kids wont miss it. It is still too much for the time? We want to have fun and also see my brother who lives in SF.

Absolutely not crazy to see Hearst Castle.

You can see redwoods in Big Sur, no need to go to Muir Woods.

It's only about 100 miles from Monterey to San Simeon on the Big Sur coastline. You can do the drive and take a tour the same day. The next day you can continue on to Cambria, Templeton and the Paso Robles wineries on a return trip back to Oakland via US 101. That's only about 3 hours driving without stops. The weather is likely to be better the farther south you are.

Sorry, to be clear I meant 3 hours from Paso Robles to Oakland without stops.

Add another hour if you start in San Simeon.

I