SF - Wine - Yosemite Itinerary
 

My wife and I are planning a (last-minute) trip to Northern CA in early June. We have a rough draft of our itinerary planned out, but would love to hear opinions on the details or any changes you can recommend!

Day 1: arrive SFO very late (11pm), crash at airport hotel

Day 2: see SF

Day 3: see SF, pick up rental car in afternoon, drive to Santa Cruz to meet friends for lunch

Day 4: drive to Sonoma/Napa, explore

Day 5: wine tours

Day 6: explore Mendocino area

Day 7: drive to Yosemite

Day 8: Yosemite

Day 9: Yosemite, drive back to SFO for 10pm flight

A few things.... We've been to SF before, so don't need to explore the whole city. Also, for us, the driving at discovering cute little towns/views/cafes is the best, so semi-aimless drives are ok.

Any thoughts on timing/order/hotels/etc would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Sounds like a reasonable itinerary. Lodging around Yosemite at that time will probably be hard to come by, so I think you should take whatever you can find. You might luck into a cancelation at someplace in the valley. You will more than likely have to stay outside the park though. El Portal, Mariposa, Groveland, Fishcamp, and Oakhurst are towns to check.

From SF to Santa Cruz, if you have time, I would take Hwy 280 to 92 over to Half Moon Bay and then south on Hwy 1 into Santa Cruz. This is a nice drive - some wide open coastline, a few small towns, farmland, etc.

If you are driving up to Mendocino, rather than doing the wine tours in Napa/Sonoma, do them in the Anderson Valley (Navarro, Husch are some of the better known vineyards). It would save you some time. But the drive from Mendocino to Yosemite is long. I would consider the Lake Tahoe area as an alternative to Mendocino, and because of the lack of snow this year, you might even be able to get to Yosemite via Tioga Pass.

and driving alot is exactly what you will be doing. Your day 6 consits of drving to Mendocino to sleep and turning around for the drive to Yosemite-a minimum of 7 hrs. Think about skipping Mendocino, taking Day 6 to drive to Angels Camp via Hwy 12 and 49 (2.5 hrs) and then on into Yosemite via Hwys 49 and 120(2.0hrs). This route will provide you with lots of little towns to explore. Spend Day 7 & 8 in Yosemite.

This may all be moot until you have rezzies in Yosemite which most folks obtain a year in advance-although you could get lucky with a cancellation.

My other concern is your afternoon drive
from Santa Cruz up to Sonoma/Napa-if this is a weekday, and especially a Friday-
get outta dodge (SC) soon as the commute traffic will be a nightmare as you back track through the bay area and up to Sonoma/Napa. Perhaps your friends could meet you for an early lunch in
The City.

Firm up your plan and get your hotels
ASAP-we can help if we know your budget.

R5

I would stay at the Mariposa Lodge, about 40 min. from Yosemite Valley ... adorable little lodge, about 2/3 the price of the crummy rooms at the Lodge in Yosemite. I didn't mind the price at Yosemite Lodge, but I DID MIND the state of the rooms!

Agree with razzledazzle completely.

I'm getting dizzy just trying to follow your zipping around California - LO!

Why not head for Yosemite right after Santa Cruz? You can stay outside the park if need be.

Then head for wine country, enjoy wine country.

If you feel like you have the time, go up to Mendocino, if not, skip Mendocino. There's a lot to do in Mendocino, it's really not a zip-in, zip-out destination.

Then go to SF, turn in the car and enjoy SF.

How about having your friends meet you in Half Moon Bay for lunch? That would save you a lot of time no matter what your plans are.

I'm still firming up my itinerary plans for a trip to california this october. One plan is to fly from the UK to San Francisco, spend 4 nights there, pick up a hire car and drive up to Napa Valley/Sonoma for a couple of nights and then onto Yosemite for 3 nights and then back to SF for 1 night before flying home (not sure at the moment whether to extend the stay and include Vegas - flights haven't been booked yet!). What would be the most scenic route to take?

Topping!

You might want to just create a new thread rather than piggy backing onto an older one - you will probably get more repsonses that way. Otherwise, people are likely to open the thread, see that it is several months old, and move on to another thread.

I've never gone from Napa to Yosemite, so I don't know the best routing. From Yosemite to SF though, unless you are interested in side trips into the Gold Country or something, I would just take the direct route - 120/5/205/580, etc. Which ever way you go, you will have to get through the central valley and the Bay Area. Once you leave the mountains, the drive isn't particularly scenic, except for a few spots.

This route might not be exclusively scenic, but it will definitely be interesting, taking you through the developed delta area, then the undeveloped part, then the central valley and its industrial agriculture to the foothills and on to Yosemite.

Take Highway 12 from the Napa Valley to Rio Vista, 160 towards Antioch, pick up highway 4 and go east on it until highway 49, south on 49 until highway 120 that you take into Yosemite.

We drive from Napa to Yosemite several times a year on our way to the Eastern Sierra. October is still a busy time of the year both in the wine country and Yosemite.

I would avoid the Antioch - Byron area unless you like traffic. The easiest route to follow is Hwy 12 east from Napa to I-5, south to Hwy 120 and then east to Yosemite. You can also take Hwy 4 east out of Stockton but cut over to 120 at Copperopolis instead of going all the way to CA 49.

Also, you want to avoid driving Hwy 12 east on a friday afternoon/evening. The backup at Rio Vista can be horrendous. In fact, driving east on 12 from Napa can be bad any afternoon from 4 to 6 pm, so get an early morning start if possible.