Need ideas for a Northern California Visit
 

Thinking about taking a trip to Northern California this Summer. We definitely will spend a few days in wine country - leaning towards Sonoma. We have about a week, so I'd like to also spend a few days exploring another area in NoCal. We'd love to see Yosemite, but I've heard that the crowds are terrible. I've been to San Francisco many times and love it, but I'd like to go somewhere new this time.

We are pretty open to suggestions, so I appreciate everyones ideas.

Thanks in advance!

http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/trav...rea-california...

Round Robin up the coast around to Shasta and down

simply awesome...

Happy Travels!

In the past 48 hours, both Mt. Shasta and Crater Lake have got some new snow. If you can hold off until after July 4, you stand a better chance of not finding snow covered roads.
Since you don't need to see SF again, consider flying to Sacramento. Flying to San Jose makes sense if you do decide to go to Yosemite.
Check the NPS websites for what roads are open before you try to go to Crater Lake or Yosemite.

Since you're probably going to Sonoma this suggestion might not be a good one, but we love the smaller, less crowded wine area of Murphy's (Calaveras County), and we just spent a long weekend in Plymouth (Amador County), where there are numerous wineries, none of which charge to taste, and the countryside is beautiful. Murphy's has become more popular in recent years, but the Amador County Wineries were just perfect in terms of being able to comfortably taste and get around.

Murphy's is near caverns you can tour and also Calaveras Big Trees. In addition to the wineries on our Plymouth visit, we went to the Flower Farm which we enjoyed visiting.

www.amadorwine.com
www.calaveraswines.org
http://www.gocalaveras.com/.../state...eras-big-trees

Sorry, that last URL didn't work. Try this one instead:

bigtrees.org

Yosemite would get my vote every time.

I would vote for Yosemite as well.

How about somewhere along the coast? There are lots of choices depending on what you are interested in. Mendocino/Fort Bragg for wild coastline and small towns. Santa Cruz for a classic CA beach town. Monterey/Carmel for beautiful coastline with larger towns and more going on than the Mendocino area.

The summer crowds would keep me from Yosemite as well. You've been to SF before, so that probably means you will have other opportunities to come to CA, perhaps a different time of year. If that is the case, then I would save Yosemite for another times.

If you want mountains, you might consider Kings Canyon/Sequoia national park. Lassen NP is great too - although definitely better later in the season because of the late snows and high elevations. It was snowing yesterday at least as low as 4200 ft just outside Lassen Park. The road through Lassen Park tops out at around 7200 ft, I think, so I am sure the snow up that high is still quite deep.

Since you only have a week and you're already spending a few days in Sonoma, I'd recommend staying nearby. You can visit Armstrong Woods to see redwoods. Then go to Sonoma Coast State Beach. Point Reyes National Seashore is also worth a visit.

Here are a few links:
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=450
http://www.sonoma-coast-state-park.com/
http://www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm

These are all wonderful suggestions. thank you everyone so much!

Shanti - if we were to visit the areas you suggested, would we want to move hotels or can we get to everywhere within an easy day trip?

If you are at all interested in art, you would enjoy the DiRosa Center in Napa. It's an amazing collection of contemporary California art set in 200 acres of vineyards and gardens. http://www.dirosaart.org/

It's only about a half hour drive between Armstrong Woods and Sonoma Coast State Beach, so you could easier stay in one hotel to visit both places. It's about another hour and a half to get to Point Reyes, so that would be a bit of a drive.

But if you want to visit more wineries, you could also go to Healdsburg. That's about a half hour drive or so from Armstrong Woods and about an hour or so from Sonoma Coast.

This is great. After reading all of your posts, I am thinking that we would do a couple days visiting the wineries in Sonoma and then a few days enjoying the natural beauty of the area in Armstrong Woods, the Sonoma Coast and Point Reyes. Healdsburg looks lovely as well. Is this a good itinerary for about a 6 day visit?

We don't mind driving but don't want a 2+ hour drive every day to get somewhere. Are all of these places close enough to stay in one hotel, or should be do 1/2 the time in Sonoma and 1/2 the time somewhere like Healdsburg to get a different experience?

Also if you have any recommendations on hotels, B&Bs or resorts I would love to hear them.

Thanks everyone so much!

JB1968: we did this last year:

stayed at Bodega Bay Lodge located more on the coast. Wonderful suites with views of Ocean and wildlife everywhere if you can afford them (we got a Travelzoo coupon special that was 1/2 off Suites).
Take a look at the website:pics are very representative.
http://www.bodegabaylodge.com/

You can do a day trip from Bodega Bay along the coast north to Jenner and Duncan Mills and Armstrong PArk (giant redwoods and easy hikes.
http://sonoma.com/visitorsinfo/Sonom...Winery_Map.pdf
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=450
http://www.yelp.com/biz/cape-fear-cafe-duncans-mills-2
Cape Fear CAfe has the best shrimp grits ever! Great stop for breakfast, lunch or dinner
http://ilovesunsets.com/home.html can't beat the view: dinner expensive but great for sunset

or day trip from Bodega Bay to Point Reyes for some oysters south fabulous..or you could stay near Point Reyes too for your coastal experience.
http://www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm
http://www.nickscove.com/

Consider too spliting your hotels between Sonoma wine country and Sonoma Coast as all the roads to Sonoma Coast are curvey and dark not safe for someone to drive at night if have been drinking.

You could stay in Sonoma the entire time, but traffic on 101 can be horrible. I'd stay somewhere northwest of Santa Rosa to visit Healdsburg, Armstrong Woods, and Sonoma Coast State Beach. But it might work out ok to stay in Sonoma to visit Point Reyes - it would be about an hour drive each way and most of the backroads go through pretty areas. I never thought of the roads as being dark and curvy - but then I lived there and was used to driving those roads.

All of these places were day trips for me so I don't know anything about hotels or b&b's in the area.

Would it be convenient to the coast, Armstrong Woods, Point Reyes as well as wine country if we stayed in Healdsburg? I'm trying to decide if we split our time between hotels in Sonoma and the coast, or stay in the same place which would be easier.

By "wine country" do you mean both the Healdsburg and Sonoma areas? If so and you want to stay in just one place, stay in Sonoma. Just make sure to avoid rush hour traffic when going to and from Healdsburg. It's probably a little over an hour to Armstrong Woods from Sonoma, but most of it is a nice drive. About an hour drive each way to Healdsburg (if it's not rush hour) and Point Reyes.