San Francisco/Napa
 

My husband and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary in the SF and Napa area. We will have 9 full days to take in all that we can. This site has been very helpful thus far. My question: We planned to stay in SF and travel from there. However, I am now wondering if we should stay at different places. Our trip is in Feb. should we pre-book or would we have any problem finding accomadations with it being off season? Thank you.

I always pre-book, because sometimes only the nice places fill up..... There are so many great places to see around there, and I would probably not stay all the 8 nights in SF. Maybe spend half in SF, and then stay closer to the wine country the other half. We also really enjoyed the Napa Valley railroad - great lunch, and really pretty scenery!!! Also - be sure to go see the redwoods - unbelieveably beautiful (easy to get to from SF).

I would book now for San Francisco, but usually when I drive down Lombard St (lots of motels on Lombard - maybe 30 or so) in Feb, about 90% of the motels have vacancy signs on weekdays and about 75% have vacancies on weekends. Napa Valley can get booked up anytime of year on weekends, but I think you would not having trouble getting walk-in reservations on weekends. Often there is a 2 night minimum on weekends.

Personally, I would reserve the first 3 days in SF. Then see what the weather's like and make your plans accordingly - either more time in SF or take a drive up the coast to Muir Woods, Muir Beach, Pt Rayes, Russian River/Jenner, east to Healdsburg, then over to the Napa Valley. If the weather is nice, Feb would be a very scenic time for this drive - with the green fields which turn brown sometimes as early as April (vineyards will be bare in Feb). You could spend the first night on the coast (Jenner or Pt Reyes, or Stinson beach - just "go" till you find someplace that looks interesting), next night in Healdsburg (which I prefer over the Napa valley), then the next night in the Napa Valley - St Helena would be a good town to stay in.

I have posted a detailed itinerary in the past about this route - see if you can find it.

Stu Dudley

It's best to have reservations for Friday and Saturday nights especially if you are coming over Presidents' weekend which is a very busy time in the Wine Country.

I would definitely pre-book in the Napa area, especially if you want to be able to pick your preferred type and cost of lodging.