My bf and I are are planning a road trip starting in San Francisco. We have about 8 days total, arriving in SF Dec 24th and flying out potentially from Sacramento Jan 1st. I have a loose itinerary of the trip, but I am not sure how many nights in each place or what is feasible to see within the course of each day. We are very active and love the outdoors as well as a little city life mixed in. Looking for an overall good mix of a San Francisco city highlights, scenery landscapes (oceanside, woods and hiking) animal sightings (seals, whales), and of course good food/ cool lodging (midrange).

2 nights San Fran (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day recs appreciated)

2 nights Carmel (lodging recs currently have La Playa Carmel booked bc I found decent deal open to others though)

*Point Lobos, Garrapata State Park, Bixby Bridge, McWay falls, Pfeiffer Beach - sunset, Nepenthe for Lunch, Limekiln park, maybe Monterey Aquarium if there's time.

1 night Big Sur (deciding Btwn Big Sur Lodge and Glen Oaks)

*Head back north cross the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito check out Muier Woods/Point Reyes to get to Napa.

2 nights Napa (need lodging here, possibly River Terrace Inn, but open to suggestion)

*Domaine Careros, Rutherford Hill, Stag's Leap wineries (we are actually not big wine people, but love the landscape and scenery that Napa has to offer open to suggestions)

**Point Arena State Park, Mendocino Headlands park, MacKerricher State Park to see seals/whales.


Head out early to Return rental car fly out of Sacramento back to Tampa (seems to be the closest airport to Napa with decent flights) flight is at 12:30pm. (says its an hour and change to get there, but I assume there may or may not be as much traffic as it will be New Years Day that we are leaving).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Here is my trip report on San Fran and Monterey--I believe it includes Carmel as well.
San Fran & Monterey Bay with Tweens

You might want to check out the redwoods inGarrapata State Park just 20 minutes south of Monterey. You will also see some in Muir Woods.

I like the location of La Playa, close to the beach and also for walking to downtown. Limekiln has finally reopened but you can't get there from the northern end as Hwy 1 is still closed at Regent's slide which won't be reopening any time soon. In general you'll need some flexibility when visiting Big Sur in winter as new slides can develop when it rains which can cause temporary or long term closures of Hwy 1.

Another option for redwoods is Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Much less crowded than Muir Woods and no parking permit needed. If you want to do the Garrapata State Park hike, note that the name of the trail is Soberanes Canyon Trail.

Although Lime Kiln State Park is currently open, all the trails are closed and that's really the best thing about Lime Kiln.

I do hope you are not planning on exploring the Mendocino area from Napa. It's not really a day trip.

Welcome to Fodors . . . I'l ignore the 'Cali' bit

Just a couple of quick comments:

"2 nights Napa (need lodging here, possibly River Terrace Inn, but open to suggestion) . . .
**Point Arena State Park, Mendocino Headlands park, MacKerricher State Park to see seals/whales."

Absolutely impossible. Two nights only gives you 1.5 days in Napa. Assuming you use half a day for Stag's Leap et al. that would give one day for the rest. Just the straight drive using mostly 101 instead of the scenic Hwy 1 Napa > Pt Arena > Mendocino > MacKerricher SP > Napa would take more than 8 hours without a single stop. If you want to visit Mendocino County you need to stay IN Mendocino County, not in Napa.

And for the Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur bits -- stay all three nights in Carmel or Pacific Grove - don't stay a night in Big Sur. You can visit the northern end of Big Sur from there. It is always iffy to base plans/accommodations around Big Sur in winter. As mentioned above, the full road isn't open and if we get storms between now and then even more of it could close by then.

Isn’t Cali in Colombia?

Anyway, if you’re Delta fliers and don’t mind the late arrival home, fine, SMF is good. There is an Alaska flight from Santa Rosa that leaves before 7am but the price is OK and arrival is afternoon, not after midnight. Could fly out and back on one way tickets, it doesn’t always cost more.

Wonder if we'll hear from the OP again??

People are beating around the bush -lol- don't call the state "Cali" if you want to fit in.

Why 2 nights in Napa? But only 1 in Big Sur. That seems an odd distribution of time. Why Sacramento as your departure airport?

Nonetheless... WELCOME to Fodor's forums.