No Stu not more active than San Francisco necessarily. But San Diego has a lot of things to do outside whereas San Francisco does too and in addition SF has the beauty, the cosmopolitan feel, great restaurants. Both are fun cities for different reasons. I agree with SuzanHall that SF is romantic.

** The races at Del Mar run 5 days a week "Weds through Sunday", and that does indeed impact hotel rooms in the North San Diego County area.


LOL - you can get the Del Mar Hilton for a pittance, even on Priceline, in the middle of winter, and it would be tough to get rooms there are all, on a whim, in early August.

Many of the traveling horse people need rooms too, so they, in addition to the racing fans, impact many of the nearby rooms available.

If budget is a factor, you should price out both options. With San Diego you will need a rental car to get around easily. With SF you can manage without a car until you go to Napa. San Diego will be more relaxing imo and there are more outdoor sports. I like both but they are different vacations.

mclaurie beat me to what I was coming to post.

One consideration is the rental car. Not needed in the city in San Francisco. Necessary for Napa (unless you did a tour) or San Diego.

I think San Francisco is an amazing, world-class city with a very special feel about it.

I think San Diego is "nice" (I grew up on Los Angeles).

LATINAPR, you've received good advice. San Diego and San Francisco are completely different experiences. It depends on your interests. And your budget.

But, I agree that you shouldn't try to do both cities in one week.

And 'wine country' is found throughout California, inland from San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc. Everyone knows of Napa and Sonoma, but there are many other places. To be honest, I was disappointed the first time we went to Napa.

Once you've decided which city you want, come back and get recommendations for hotels, restaurants, outings, etc.

Do you have more than a week? Tabernash2 is correct. There is a lot more to California wine than Napa and Sonoma.
SFO is not the only airport to serve the SF Bay area.
Check on flying to SMF (Sacramento) Oakland and even San Jose.
With 8 or more days, I would spend 4 days seeing the city of SF and a bus tour out to see Napa as a day trip. Also take the boat out to see Alcatraz.
The morning of the 5th day take the Amtrak bus from Fisherman's Wharf over to Oakland Jack London to catch the Coast Starlight south to Santa Barbara (arrives 6PM).
If you still want to go to San Diego, you can catch a Pacific Surfliner train through Los Angeles all the way to San Diego.
Fly home from San Diego.

We don't know how long this trip is, right?

If you have 4-5 days, I'd just go to San Francisco and enjoy the city. If you have 2 weeks then I like tomfuller's idea or rent a car and drive between SF and the LA area. Certainly there's beautiful beaches on that route!

>>tomfuller's idea or rent a car and drive between SF and the LA

Stu, You missed that I said "or".

tomfuller's idea is taking the train.

I am proposing instead renting a car and driving the Pacific Coast highway.

If you want to find a place to swim that the water temp is over 17C you will have to go to Mexico.
Goleta Beach is just west of Santa Barbara. http://www.watertemperature.org/Gole...tes-Beach.html
The surfers use some type of wet suit every month of the year.
If you don't like the train idea, fly from SFO to San Diego and skip the coast that you didn't want to see.

Thank you all for all the wonderful advice. After reading all of this, I have made up my mind and decided San Francisco. I'll try and plan my trip the end of June or early July as some have suggested.

If anyone has any further suggestions as far as budget hotels, please send that info alone.

Again, I appreciate all the advice.

>>If anyone has any further suggestions as far as budget hotels, please send that info alone.

If you don't have a car that has to be parked, there are 3 HI Hostels in SF.