Hi all:

I am new to these boards but I see you all seem nice and friendly so maybe you can help me out. My husband and I are looking to spend a long weekend (3 full days) in either sf or wine country or some combo thereof this coming june or july. A few questions:

1 - Would it be possible to do wine country for 1 day and sf for the other 2 (we would stay all three nights in sf)? Or would it be better to just go to wine country for all 3.
2 - Where would you rec. staying in sf? How about wine country?
3 - What activities do you rec. in either place.
4 - We wouldn't have a car but we would be getting a car (and a driver!) to do the wine thing . . . any services you rec?

Any other thoughts??

TIA!!!!

Kate

ttt

You can visit the Napa valley or the Sonoma valley in a day's outing. I would stay in SF if I were you.

I would stay in SFO and make a day trip to NAPA. You can see a couple vineyards and take in a nice restaurants without changing hotels.

Fisherman's Wharf area hotels are tourist district, but acceptable. Marriott and Hyatt are both just fine. Russian Hill hotels are expensive Fairmont, Mark Hopkins, but beautiful views and nice area. Union Square is in the heart of shopping, on the BART line but has some seediness to deal with.

SFO restaurant destinations are endless. Golden Gate bridge is a must. If you get a car, you can do Muir Woods, only an hour across the bridge. You can take a ferry to Sausalito. Take a tour boat to Alcatraz.

Two days in the city will give you time to do a small fraction of the opportunites in San Francisco. Have fun.

I'd stay in the city. Look into "Wine Tours" or similar on the web for day tours to Sonoma. I've done it a couple of times and you don't have to drive not knowing the territory and the tour vans are driven by folks who know the wine people.

The last time we were in San Francisco we stayed at the Argonaut down at Fisherman"s Wharf and really loved it. It is a boutique hotel that was once an old cannery building. A lot of people don't care for the wharf area, stating that it is too touristy, but I found the location great for getting around. You are within walking distance of North Beach (Italian neighborhood) and Chinatown and a short bus/trolley/taxi ride from Union Square. Plus, you have all that the Wharf has to offer you there, cruises to Alcatrazor or the Golden Gate Bridge, a ferry ride to Sausalito or all kinds of tours, not to mention all types of shops and souvenier shops. Down near Pier 39, where you catch the ferry, they sell all kinds of tours, including ones to the Wine Country. We did the Napa Dinner Train and really loved it. It picked us up at our hotel, then took us by bus to Napa, stopping someplace for wine tasting along the way. Once in Napa, we boarded the train for a three hour tour through the wine country, along with a gourmet lunch (very good food). There was also a wine tasting traincar. We came back to SF through Somoma, stopping at a vineyard there. We came back into SF over the Golden Gate Bridge just about at sunset. We have been up in the wine country a couple of other times, but I thought this was just a great way of getting a feel of the area in a daytrip.