Considering flying our family of 5 (incl. kids 14, 13, 10) into and prob out of San Fran October 8-15 for fall break. What surrounding areas would you recommend we include? We love beautiful sites, hiking, national parks, etc. We'll need to prioritize with only a week. Would love some guidance. We will rent a car.

You could easily fill a week with San Francisco-Monterey Peninsula (Monterey Aquarium etc., Carmel (town and beach), Big Sur) (two hours south of San Francisco - Pt. Reyes National Seashore (one hour north of San Francisco).

I would probably do something like this:

1. from SFO drive directly to Monterey (2 hrs) and stay someplace like this 3 nights:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8104325

Aquarium, Big Sur day trip, rent bikes and ride along coast. (dress warm!)

2. Drive up to Point Reyes Station and stay somewhere like this for 2-3 nights:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/298838

Pt Reyes Lighthouse, lots of gorgeous hikes, great restaurants in Point Reyes Station.

Drive to SF (one hour), check into hotel or AirBNB (find one that offers free parking of some kind). Sightsee in city for 1-2 days.

Realize that the drive from Carmel to Pt Reyes is a 3 1/2 hr drive with no traffic. If you do this on a work day - I would budget 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hours. On the SF peninsula, take the hwy 280/19th ave route, & not 101 or anything going through the East Bay.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...mendations.cfm

Stu Dudley

I agree with splitting between San Francisco and Monterey. You are just missing the big Dreamforce convention which ends October 7.

Too much to fit in Redwoods/Sequoias?

Stu - Is it possible you wrote a trip review years ago about Tuscany?? Seems like I remember your name and my husband and I talking about our "friend" Stu being so helpful!! This would've been about 2005!

You can see redwoods between Monterey and San Francisco - stop at Henry Cowell State Park or Big Basin, both of which are "in-between".

What about driving up to Napa and Sonoma in CA's wine country? Fall is a particularly beautiful time of year, when they start harvesting the grapes. It's about a 2-hour drive from San Francisco

With kids, I'd go with the Monterey area and the Santa Cruz mountains.