After a lot of help from all you guys and a bit of our own research, my husband and I haev come up with this tentative itinerary for our 10day vacation to SF/Vegas around Thanksgiving.

Nov 22 Th- 5pm- reach SFO. Take BART to Hyatt, downtown SF.
Nov 22 Th pm- walk around downtown...
Nov 23 Fr- Day long tour to Wine Country and GoldenGate bridge. Dropped back at hotel around 6pm
Nov 24 Sat- more downtown things and lunch
2pm - Alcatraz
Nov 25 Sun - Crooked Street, other SF sights.. on our own.
Nov 26 Mon - Take Caltrain to Palo Alto/ San Jose area... maybe Stanford. Explore that area
Nov 27 Tue- Check out of Hyatt downtown
10am- Rent car and drive down up to Big Sur stopping along the way for lunch. Back by sunset.
PM- Check into Hyatt airport.
Nov 28 Wed- check out, return car and fly to VEgas. Reach Vegas at 1:30pm
Nov 28 PM- Check into Monte Carlo.
-Mystere Show.. daytime.. walking around, casinos, other sights etc etc
Nov 29 Thu- More casinos and sights... possibly a short hike during the day near Red Rock Canyon
Nov 30 Fri- first wedding anniversary, staying at the Venetian
Dec 1st Sat- Check out and fly home.

Suggestions and Recomendations--
- Places to eat in downtown SF keeping in mind that we are vegetarians (no seafood either)
- Sights to see in SF area (accessible by BART or other public transportation) during the day...
- Other things to do in Vegas during the day.. I know I saw a thread on here of "free things to do". Is it possible to visit the Red Rock Canyon without a car? Are there buses that take you there? How far is it from the strip?
- Suggestion for our anniversary dinner... nothing too expensive.. but a nice place with lots of vegetarian options and good dessert!


any other suggestions to this itin is more then welcome and appreciated!!

As an alum of the University of California at Berkeley (Stanford's arch rival) may I suggest that instead of going to Palo Alto, you take BART across the bay and see UC Berkeley instead? Lovely campus and Telegraph Avenue is much more interesting.

Red Rock Canyon is about a 30 minute drive from the strip. No buses that I know of go all the way to the park. You can do a tour of the park - there are a number of vendors that do that. But, otherwise, you'll need to rent a car for the day.

Just one comment right now about Nov. 27 -- it is a killer day.

You want to drive out of downtown SF on a weekday morning, travel all the way to Big Sur, and then back again to SFO. Sunset then along the central coast is about 4:45. You will literally be driving most of the day.

Since you are not spending the 26th doing anything in SF anyway, I would check out of the Hyatt Mon. morning instead, pick up you rental car and drive down the Peninsula to visit Palo Alto/Stanford. Then continue down the coast and stay the night anywhere from Santa Cruz to Carmel. Being a monday night there won't be many 2 night minimums.

Then spend Tues exploring Big Sur and then back to SFO.

IMHO your current plans for Mon/Tues don't work

I was going to say exactly what janis said. There's no point in taking Cal-Train south on the 26th, then coming back to the city and renting a car to go south again the next day. Also, exploring Stanford is doable on foot, but it's a huge campus and would be more easily done with a car. You could even do Half Moon Bay first, then Palo Alto/Stanford on your way to Big Sur.

Point noted...

How bad is parking in those areas?
That's one of the main reasons I had planned on taking the caltrain.

Secondly, Is there enough to keep us occupied with in that area? Not just Palo Alto.. I'm open to other places in that general area.

I agree - an overnight in the Monterey area instead of a daytrip to Palo Alto and a day trip to Monterey/Big Sur makes better sense logistically and I think will be more relaxing and more fun.

I have no affiliation with Stanford or Cal (SJSU alum) but given the choice between touring one and its surrounding area, I'd go to Berkeley as lifelist suggested.

I do have an affiliation with both Stanford and Berkeley and while Stanford's campus is beautiful, between the two, as a tourist, I'd visit Berkeley. Reason: funky college town, beautiful campus, history. Palo Alto is a lovely suburban community, but doesn't have any of the college-town-ness that Berkeley has (main reason, the edge of the Berkeley campus is the edge of the college town, whereas the Stanford campus is separated from the town).

Re: parking. Berkeley would be the biggest hassle, parking-wise, but there are parking lots in all of the towns mentioned, and metered parking on the street.

I really don't know how Berkeley even fits in the conversation??

The OP talked about going down the Peninsula. While the Berkeley campus may be a better "tourist attraction" - I don't see where the OP mentions going there.

DS: Unless you have an urgent need to tour Stanford - I'd just head south down the coast. Not much reason to visit San Jose or Palo Alto really. But there are some nice wineries in the the Santa Cruz mountains if that interests.

Nice places - but over the hill along Half Moon Bay and down the coast is fabulous. Skip San Jose and do a 2 day/1 night loop down the coast and back to SFO

You're right - I was responding to lifelist, rather than to the OP. OP, visit Stanford - it's beautiful!!

I may go to Stanford AND Berkley!

With such a short time in the area, I would definitely head to Berkeley. Only 25 mins via BART, and it's a famous one-of-a-kind town. It's going to take you at least an hour to get to Palo Alto.

Yes - Berkeley is closer. However the OP will be driving through the peninsula to get south to Monterey/Big Sur.

I personally wouldn't go to either on such a short trip - but adding a visit to the East Bay certainly does nothing to fix the mess that is Tues' planned itinerary.

If you wanted to drop something else you have planned while in SF, then use that time to hop over to Berkeley. But you still need to plan an overnight to Big Sur and back . . . . .

It hink I am going with jamis and dmlove's suggestion of not going back and forth to SF and then south again. And will stay somewhere in between SFO and Big Sur.. i.e near San Jose area?

any recommendations? I imagine it would be a pain to get out of San Jose if we actualyl stayed there.. traffic and all? What would be the best... I have some Mariott coupons so any place with a Mariott would be great.

I wouldn't stay in San Jose. If you are going to visit Stanford, I'd head over the hill and stay in Santa Cruz or all the way down in Monterey. I'm not sure of any Marriott properties in Santa Cruz - but there are in and around Monetery.

I wouldn't stay in San Jose either. I would stay in Monterey/Carmel/Pacific Grove/Etc where the things you actually want to see are. San Jose is a good place to live, but doesn't offer much for tourists - and by staying in San Jose, you would still end up with a bunch of back and forth driving.

If you want to see Stanford, stop on the way to the Monterey area.

Just to clarify, my suggestion regarding Berkeley came from this request from the OP:

"- Sights to see in SF area (accessible by BART or other public transportation) during the day..."

And, Berkeley fits that request which came to mind when the OP mentioned visiting a college campus, Stanford.

I've cancelled one night's (Monday) stay at SF airport Hyatt and am looking to rebook it to either Santa Cruz or Monterey. I'm not sure which place to pick.
Monterey seems a little bigger with more choices but pricewise, they seem the same on priceline. How much further of a drive is it from Santa Cruz?

Also suppose we want to visit/meet up with some friends in the San Jose area Monday night, is it better we stay in Santa Cruz instead of Monterey (proximity)?

Monterey and Santa Cruz are about 45 minutes apart, so you can stay in one and visit the other. Which you choose just really depends on what you are looking for. Santa Cruz is more of a beach town with the university influence. Monterey is more historic, has some more upscale stuff, plus the aquarium and canery row. Pacific Grove is a smaller town with a nice cute downtown and great coastline. Carmel is definitely upscale with galeries and nice restaurants.

As for visiting friends in San Jose Monday night, Santa Cruz is about a 30 minute drive from San Jose, Monterey is about an hour.

Thanks J_Correa.

We just booked a room yesterday in Santa Cruz. I figured it wouldn't make that much of a difference since it's just one night.

There are day tours out to Red Rock Canyon. I took a Grand Canyon plane/bus tour from Look Tours (looktours.com) to the Grand Canyon (7 hours from hotel picup to drop off). They did a good job and do offer a RRC tour.