Proposed West Coast driving itinerary -- how does it look?
 

After playing around with dates and flight times, we have settled on the following draft itinerary for our trip in July. We will have spent some time in the Portland/Seattle area and in Victoria and Vancouver (Canada) before leaving Seattle to drive south. As well, we spent a few days in Healdsberg and in San Francisco in 2009, so have decided against committing further time to San Francisco on this trip. Possible accommodation choices are shown in brackets.

Day 1. Pick up car in Seattle and drive to Cannon Beach via 101 from Olympia (2 nights at Stephanie Inn)

Day 3. Drive to Yachats (2 nights at SeaQuest Inn)

Day 5. Drive to Bandon (1 night at Lighthouse B&B or Bandon Beach Motel)

Day 6. Drive to Eureka (2 nights at Carter Inns)

Day 8. Drive to Mendocino (2 nights at Brewery Gulch Inn)

Day 10. Drive to Napa (3 nights at Best Western Elm Street)

Day 13. Drop car at SFO before flight home.

As can be seen, we are sticking to the coast all the way, and plan to enjoy the opportunities for walks on the beaches, etc, but intend to do detours as the mood takes us and time permits. Hopefully, the itinerary is sufficiently unhurried (in terms of driving times and distances) to enable us to do that.

Any comments or advice on the timing, the stopover locations or the possible accommodation (good or bad) would be welcome.

Rob.

It seems like you have plenty of time allotted for a leisurely trip. My only comment would be that of the Napa Valley towns, I find Napa itself the least charming and prefer St. Helena or Yountville for both ambiance and convenience to the wineries, but others may disagree. Sounds like a good trip.

Looks like you've got a good schedule without too much driving in any one day. I would second the view of voyage61 that Napa is the least attractive of the Napa Valley towns. Also gotta drive more to get to the wineriesl Yountville is good. Also, Calistoga. Although I much prefer Sonoma County (Healdsburg and environs) to Napa, you will enjoy the trip I'm sure.

Not sure where you are planning on heading inland after Mendocino, but route 128 south through Boonville is a pretty drive and intersects 101 at Cloverdale.

You'll be driving right by Redwood National Park on your Bandon to Eureka day. Stopping there to see the old growth redwoods seems like a no brainer.

I'd look at a different location to stay in the Napa Valley area, especially for three nights. There are host of great restos in Yountville that make it a very attractive place to stay.

If on your previous trip you did not see Point Reyes National Seashore, you might want to include that on your agenda somehow. The area around it is very picturesque and full of amazing, organic, artisan food producers, which might not excite you, but does me.

Have a great trip.

I love St. Helena and Yountville as well as Calistoga. I would not stay in Napa. Go to JP's in Cannon Beach for good dining.

J P's at Cannon Beach @ 240 N Hemlock Street, Cannon Beach, Oregon 503 - 436 - 0908.
http://www.jpsatcannonbeach.com/

If you are looking for a hotel with an ocean view, try a few miles N of Florence. Bandon is nice but no ocean view.
By all means, stop to see Redwood NP. If you don't see Redwood, stop at Muir Woods Just N of SanFran.
Have you checked the one-way dropoff fees for your rental car?
You can easily drive from SF to Seattle in 2 days using I-80 and I-5.

Thanks for your responses. I will have a look at switching the Napa stay to Yountville. We enjoyed Healdsberg, and it sounds as if Yountville may be closer to that sort of town than Napa is.

We will certainly make a stop at Redwood NP. I hope that each driving day has enough spare time in it to allow us to do this sort of thing. That is something that would concern me about changing our stop from Bandon to the Florence area, tomfuller. If we did that, it seems that our drive to Eureka would be over 5 hours, which is more that I am aiming to do in any one day (unless it is to take in a particular point of interest as a detour). We will be seeing plenty of ocean views, so I might sacrifice them for one night.

We didn't get to Point Reyes on our last visit. It looks like a comfortable day trip from Yountville, and my wife wants to visit a particular quilting shop in Petaluma, so that may be a workable combination. We share your excitement regarding food, iamq, and usually spend a couple of months undoing the damage caused by overly enthusiastic participation when we return home.

I can't see a way around the one-way drop off fee. $300 seems to be the standard and I haven't found any rental company that doesn't charge it. Some won't even allow drop-off at a different place. I had considered trying to return the car to Seattle, but we would have to use two days of our time to do it and, by the time we pay for the fare back to San Francisco, that would take care of a chunk of any saving. I may just have to swallow that dead rat.

I really appreciate the local insights provided here. Thank you all for your helpful advice.

Rob.

I agree there are more desirable towns that Napa--Healdsburg is my favorite, in the Sonoma Valley. Dinner on the town square is always a treat.

Rather than stay in Eureka, I would stay about twenty miles north in Trinidad. Here is a B&B that is right up your alley: http://www.trinidadbaybnb.com/

In Yachats we stay at the Overleaf Lodge.

HTTY

Thanks, HTTY. To me, Eureka was nothing more than a convenient place to stop, in terms of time and distance from Yachats. Trinidad Bay looks just as good and the B&B sounds nice, with a bit more character than my initial choice in Eureka.

The SeaQuest Inn is highly rated but, looking at it again, it seems a bit remote from Yachats for our purposes, and the Overleaf Lodge looks to be just as good. Any favourite restaurants in Yachats?

Rob.

Not sure if it can be easily added into your itinerary, but was wondering if Crater Lake NP is a possibility. Haven't been, sorry to say.

We like the Fireside Inn, the Overleaf's sister property (next door - common beach area) which is a little less expensive.

Trinidad is nice but limited in terms of lodging choices. You might also look at Ferndale, a very nice Victorian town just south of Eureka. You could use it as a base to explore the Lost Coast area - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Coast - which is off many people's radar but well worth a visit.

A couple of eating suggestions...

The Samoa Cookhouse in Samoa, across the bay from Eureka. Lumber mill food served family style by your Grannie, provided your Grannie was used to the company of mill workers - http://www.samoacookhouse.net/

Occidental Hotel or Negri's in Occidental, CA. Occidental is a small town in the hills between Bodega Bay and Santa Rosa, famous for its family-style Italian dinners. Not the world's best food, but a lot of fun and a great transition point between the north coast and the wine country. http://www.negrisrestaurant.com or http://www.unionhoteloccidental.com/

In Yachats I would stay at the Fireside or Overleaf- as said before, they share the same beach and there is a nice walking path so you can walk into town. Its a small town but fun to walk around. Stop at the old church, its a museum now and still an active church.

The Fireside has a restaurant, food is not fabulous but its fine - and its right on the ocean so great views. There also have a nice bar upstairs with even better views.

In Trinidad, we stayed at the Trinidad Inn- it was very nice, had kitchens in case you want to do your own cooking and BBQ Grillls- the manager was great about advising us what sights to see.

The Oregon coast between Lincoln City and Florence is one of the most scenic parts of the coast- you will have a lot to see and do.

My favorite beach is at Heceta Head- one of the most photographed lighthouses in the US- nice trail up to the lighthouse, nice protected beach- make sure you stop there.

Crater Lake is waaaay out of the way if you are following the coastal route.

You might want to take a look at Calistoga to stay in the Napa Valley. I don't know if it has the high end restaurants with well-known chefs that Yountville has, but it has thermal springs with lots of places with hot baths. There is a nice shopping strip, and it's less congested than St. Helena. Consider driving the Silverado Trail at the north end of Calistoga to get back south and go around St. Helena to avoid the traffic there. Don't get me wrong. St. Helena is nice, it's just a bit of a bottleneck.

Instead of staying in Eureka proper, you might want to take a look at Ferndale. And from Ferndale go the the redwoods via the coast (Ferndale, Capetown, Petrolia, Honeydew and then the Humboldt State Park to get back to 101).

You might be interested in the pictures starting with no. 336 (the sequence is south to north). I think that I geo-mapped them, so that they might connect to your itinerary.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7624512998387/

I'm not sure if anyone has told you yet that July can be a very foggy and cool month on the California coast. Eureka can be like an ice box then and very windy. Since you are spending so much time on the Oregon Coast, you might want to bypass the Hwy 1 section in California and spend that time inland where it will be warmer. That way you could spend some more time in Redwood National Park which is the highlight of that part of Northern California.

I would choose Trinidad over Eureka at that time of year to stay in although the Carter House is certainly one of the best places to stay in the area. We like the Lost Whale Inn in Trinidad. If you are into gambling, you might choose the new hotel at the Blue Lake Casino although the food is not that great there so you would have to drive several miles for dinner. If you are into beer, the Mad River Brewing Co. in Blue Lake should be a mandatory stop. And the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka too.

For Napa, it will cost you quite a bit more to stay in Yountville that at the Elm House Inn in Napa. Yountville is the most famous culinary capital in the Wine Country but Napa has a number of very fine restaurants too. If you won't be spending that much time in your room, it might be worth the lower room cost to stay there. Or, choose the smaller town of Calistoga which has a good selection of pubs and more moderately priced restaurants as well as the thermal springs.

I would stay in Bandon over Florence. Bandon has some ocean front motels and is just a quaint little town. Not as commercialized as the towns up north on the Oregon coast. Be prepared for windy, cold, wet weather and maybe you'll get lucky! Have a great trip.

Don't Miss Fern Canyon in Redwoods. I like Stout Grove for a short hike and James Irvine Trail for a long hike. James Irvine can connect to Fern Canyon, but this ends up being about a 9 mile hike, but very well worth it. You can see Fern Canyon in an easy 1 mile hike. Stout Grove Trail is about a mile as well.

We did some tidepooling at Point Reyes and it is good there. There is a great state park just a few miles south of the Redwoods that has good tidepooling. Patricks Point is the name of it. McClure Beach is the beach for tidepooling in Pt Reyes.