Northern California
 

We will be in Northern California mid June. Staying in Tiburon Bay for 3 nights then open for 3-4 days. Any suggestions going North. What about Mendocino ?

We just spent four nights just outside of Mendocino village in Little River. Here a link to our rental, which we loved. http://www.vrbo.com/449643. You can read my review there.

We really liked the area. We hiked and kayaked mostly, but wished we'd had time to visit some of the nearby wineries on Route 128 and to visit the Mendocino Botanical Gardens. We also spent a couple of lazy afternoons wandering the village itself.

I think it depends on what you enjoy doing, BAHItaly. Hiking, shopping, drinking wine??

Mendocino is a quaint little town with some good dining and drinking options (which I'd be happy to name, if you're interested), loads of twee shops, one good bookstore, and stunning natural beauty surrounding it. (The town resembles nothing so much as a New England whaling village--surprisingly!)

The Anderson Valley is home to some terrific wineries, most specializing in pinot noir, but also chardonnay, and Roederer Estate is there, too, making nice sparkling wine.

We preferred Booneville as a base, because it's lower key, but it's VERY low key compared to Mendocino :-) Hendy Woods State Park offers easy hiking among redwoods.

Little River was pretty sleepy, too. I liked staying away from the Village. Plus, we were there during the week so even the village was relatively quiet.

Thanks for replies. We like alittle shopping, hiking and amazing vistas, and wine.
We need a base after leaving Tiberon. We need to be careful not drive too much.
I'll check distance to Mendocino.

By my calculations, it's under 3 hours--at least if you take 101. If do take 101, you'll exit at Cloverdate to get on 128. That route goes through some lovely areas, including some coastal redwoods in Navarro. It's so, so pretty. As someone mentioned, Hendy Woods offers some good hiking. You could stop there en route to Mendocino. There are also a number of wineries along 128. Once you exit 128, Mendocino is only another 10 or so miles north on 1. It's just gorgeous all along the way.

I'd note that we aborted our attempt to take Highway 1 all the way up the coast from Marin. We ended up getting as far as Point Reyes, before heading inland via Petaluma to pick up 101. It was pretty, but it was also on a Sunday and between all the cyclists and the traffic, it was just too slow and too harrowing for our tastes. Now we now to just take 101 north. But to each their own. Maybe it's not as bad on a weekday.