My husband and I (early 30s) are going to San Diego for 4 nights and San Francisco for 4 nights the first week of August. Below I have listed our plans. Can anyone give me feedback on restaurants and siteseeing?

San Diego:
Day 1 arrive early evening.
1 Day for Zoo and Balboa Park
1 Day for renting Bikes and going to Coronado for a beach day
1 Day Open - possibly LaJolla

Dinners:
Georges or Marine Room
Fish Market/Top of Market
Casa de Bandini
1 night open

San Francisco:
1 day doing a city tour and alcatraz
1 day wine counrty tour
1 day - possibly driving to Carmel
1 day Open

No plans for dinner yet in SF. Would like to do 2 nights expensive and 2 nights moderate.

Any/all suggestions welcome.Thanks!

Your itinerary is good, however I would probably do a tour of San Diego (Old Town, Gaslamp District,Mission Bay, Seaport Village).

For restaurants, I can't remember names but we've been to a few places close to the Gaslamp District that were good.

For San Francisco, I'd spend the last day in San Francisco. One day is not enough to see everything. Go to Union Square for shopping, do the Golden Gate (you can get awesome pictures of the bridge on the other side), Chinatown,etc...lots to do.

Restaurants in SF: There are a ton! And many good ones...for expensive I recommend Kokkhari's (Greek), Plouf (french), Boulevard (American),etc...there's a ton to choose from.

For more suggestions on restaurants, visit this site: http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/food/restaurants/top100/

topping

In Balboa Park, near the museums, is an excellent restaurant: Prado. It has eclectic food and a nice setting.

Definitely plan on 2 days in San Francisco. If you like seafood, be sure to have a meal at Farallon.

For your Carmel day, do plan on spending the night; down and back plus sightseeing is a lot for one day. If you spend the night you can enjoy a nice dinner (we like Piatti) and go out to Point Lobos State Park, which has spectacular scenery.

your restaurant choices are good. it will probably be very hot in august. i'd recommend hitting the zoo as soon as it opens. during the hottest part of the day 12:30-3:30 head out to the museums in the park and have a late lunch at the prado. then you can return to the zoo for the cooler part of the day when hopefully the animals will be more active around dinner time. casa de bandini is a fun place for dinner.

Celine nailed 3 of the best restaurants in SF...Plouf would especially be great on a summer night, as the alley it abuts is turned into an alfresco dining area for 5 restaurants. I would avoid Kokkari right now...they just had a chef change and got a mediocre review in the SF Chronicle recently. One GREAT place and reasonable prices with phenomenal food: Delfina....other than Gary Danko, my favorite restaurant in SF

Great itinerary. I think that 1 day in SF is good to get an overview of the town. I would suggest planning the Carmel sidetrip as an overnight excursion as it's too far as a daytrip from SF. I'd also combine it with a daytrip to San Jose as well. There's lots to see there as well.


www.carmelbythesea.com
www.sanjose.org

Fog City Diner is a great place for a reasonable but wonderful meal in SF. I'd also recommend New Asia in Chinatown for dim sum.

The Benzinger vineyard in Sonoma had a great educational tour that included a tram ride through the hills, tours of their cellars, and tastings.

In the Gaslamp District of SD, we LOVED La Bocca for Italian. The Casa de Bandini had fun atmosphere, but really lousy, overpriced food. If you do go, don't bother with the huge marguerita - it seemed "alcohol free!" The on/off trolley tour is great in SD, but pretty much takes a whole day. A brief visit to the mission would be lovely.

Have a wonderful trip!

The long standing Thee Bungalow (great Duck in Cherry sauce) and the newer "seafood" sister The Third Corner X the street are both wonderful with mind blowing wine lists.
Oh, they are in San Diego's Ocean Beach area.
George's at the Cove is very Special as well, but pricy.
M

Yank Sing has great Dim Sum in SFO.
Stella Pasticceria and Figaro on Columbus have good Canolis and Aqua has a great multicourse, multiwine event.
We like Bistro Jeanty and Terra in Napa Valley.
If you have never seen Beach Blanket Babylon, that is a must - they have a web site - same name.
M