christinew9743

We are planning a 10 day trip around northern California the second week of January. Thoughts on this itinerary? What would you change? Are we spending enough time in each location? too much? Would you stay somewhere different?

Jan 9: arrive in San Francisco, drive to Point Reyes and stay at Olema House
Jan 10-12: drive to Mendocino, stay at Sea Rock Inn for 2 nights, and explore area
Jan 12-13: drive to Eureka, stay at Carter House Inn for 1 nights and explore area, including Redwood National State Park
Jan 13: drive to Garberville, stay at Benbow Inn for 1 night
Jan 14-19: Drive to Yountville, stay there for 5 nights

MichelleY

Too many one nighters. I would take a few days off of Yountville and add to other locations.

janisj

Welcome to Fodors.

Ditto MichelleY's comment. I wouldn't do any one night stops (except maybe Point Reyes - depending on what time your flight arrives)

Plus -- you'll need to be prepared for nasty/wet weather. Might be lovely - or it could be like today with it pouring down in buckets.

The best Redwoods aren't really in the National Park because the State got there first. (I know you posted Redwood National State Park) Some of the very best are much farther north (Jedediah Smith, Prairie Creek, etc) - plus Eureka is beee-atch to drive in/through. A real bottleneck. Even though I try to avoid Eureka -- I'd drive through it to get farther north and stay somewhere like Trinidad -- but for 2 nights.

OR - if you didn't want to go so far north, stay maybe in Ferndale instead of Eureka - someplace like this: https://gingerbread-mansion.com - and concentrate on the Avenue of the Giants instead of the parks farther north. The Benbow is great BTW.

Olema House to Mendocino up the coast is about a 4 hour drive without stops (in relatively decent weather). There is a lot to see along the way (light houses, Fort Ross, amazing scenery) so count on it taking most of the day.

MmePerdu

Just a note to say my experience of driving around Eureka was quite the opposite of the “bottleneck” described above. We stayed at an Airbnb just out of town & were looking at real estate so were all around town as well as downtown. If anything it felt a bit deserted, parking on the street was easy & this was in summer. I cannot imagine it will be worse in January.

janisj

Driving around IN Eureka isn't so bad -- it is the main road through which is the problem. The article from late 2020 sort of explains the situation. When there isn't traffic there is construction - and usually both.

https://www.northcoastjournal.com/Ne...rekas-broadway

Broadway is the main highway (101) and is a mess. Not a reason to avoid going farther north -- just be prepared. IMO there are nicer places to stay than Eureka.

MmePerdu

Again, we drove into & out of town in all directions & in Eureka for several days & had no difficulties whatever. Apparently there can be traffic but at no time was that my experience.

Regarding the town, my son & granddaughters had never been there & I hadn’t for a long time. We loved walking & driving around, like a California time capsule with the well-preserved historic buildings. I think it would be a shame to not include it in a road-trip through the area.

christinew9743

I appreciate the feedback. Perhaps we look at doing two nights around Ferndale/Eureka vs one night in each. Is Benbow to far away to visit the Avenue of Giants? Just thinking where might be a better place to spend two nights?

christinew9743

Would love any recommendations of better options (or different options) to stay vs Eureka?

sludick

The Benbow is a great base to use for exploring the Avenue of the Giants. We stayed there 2 nights and did just that, back in 2019 (just before Covid shut everybody down). There are some lovely short hikes/walks through the woods, bring your rain gear and hit the trails. We also stayed in Trinidad, at Emerald Forest Cabins. I was a bit surprised to find that hubby liked it so well, as he is normally more hotel and less rustic in his tastes. Eureka, though, was not our favorite place - a bit shabby, with traffic on the main road and just... meh. Ferndale was lovely, and I wish we'd planned to spend a night or so there.

Enjoy your trip.

sludick

Link for Emerald Forest: https://www.emeraldforestcabins.com/

janisj

If you cut Yountville back a couple of days (or more) what I'd do personally is 1 night Pt Reyes, 2 nights Mendocino (but because spend most of the day just getting to Mendocino, 2 nights really only nets one free day for Mendocino/Ft Bragg/etc), 2 nights Trinidad, then EITHER 2 nights Ferndale or 2 nights at the Benbow. Both the Gingerbread Mansion and the Benbow are 'destination' properties and really terrific. But the two are only 60 miles apart and the Avenue of the Giants is in between so either one makes a good base.

That leaves 3 nights for Yountville . . .

youngtom2910

we did a similar trip to what you are contemplating this summer. We stayed, for example, at the gingerbread inn, which I would recommend. We continued from there, after hanging out with the redwoods for a while, to drive into southern oregon to outside of Brookings. we stayed at the Tu Tu' Tun Lodge for 2 nights. It's a lovely inn on the rogue river in the middle of the woods. Wonderful restaurant.