Stay in Sonoma, but want to hang in San Francisco.
 

Hello everyone, my husband and I are planning our anniversary trip to California, with a stop in Sonoma. We are considering staying in Sonoma to avoid the city caos, but would love to explore San Francisco. Will you recommend to drive and stay in Sonoma?

The drive is about 75 minutes -- or much longer during the morning commute. And again in the afternoon commute it would take longer -- so you'd be spending between 3 and 4+ hours just traveling back and forth. Sonoma is not a great base for visiting SF but OK for a day trip if you just want a short look-see.

I think it would be OK for one day trip if you made sure to leave early enough to miss most of the worst traffic (or late enough, but that would cut into your day), and planned to stay in the city until after dinner. But I wouldn't want to do it more than once, because indeed, Sonoma is a bit too far to make a good base for visiting SF.

I would stay in San Francisco and do a day trip to Sonoma.

Specifically, where/what is the San Francisco chaos?? To me, the chaos is driving in & out of the city - which is precisely what you plan to do. That's like jumping into the fire.

Stay in the city in a quiet area, like slightly off Lombard in the "Motel Row" region.

Stu Dudley

Either stay OUT of the city and decrease that "chaos" you are obviously misinformed about or stay in it and enjoy the place.

I completely agree with the day trip...to Sonoma!

Well, to be fair, some would prioritize the pleasures of Sonoma over those of SF--different strokes and all that. Being massively into wine, SO and I would do that. Nature lovers might do that.

I don't think SF is terribly chaotic, but people who don't like cities might disagree.

My point being, we need to hear from the OP why she wants to base herself in Sonoma, and if she plans to go into SF more than once.

Hi everybody and thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. It is kind of sad that some people get kind of offended and aggressive for the use of the word "chaos", so I'm sorry. I'm and Island girl used to quite scenarios. And no, I'm not misinformed... I won't be planning to go there if I'm not willing to enjoy the place. That being said, or clarified, we are HUGELY into wine and the outdoors. We are also celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary and would love to be, at least for a few days, in the Sonoma/Napa Valley to do what we love the most. I did write the post to get some feedback from you all, all out of curiosity. We won't be based in Sonoma, we are just weighting and exploring our options. NwebE thank you for your kind comment. We are exploring our alternatives because I wanted to avoid more packing and unpacking by being able to stay in just one place for the last portion of our trip. However, it seems like a very bad idea because we also want to explore SFO a bit and will prefer to stay in the city and take the most of our time there. Once again, thank you all.

OK, that makes sense :-) I'd advise dividing your time between the city and a town in Sonoma--just move once. We adore Healdsburg.

Enjoy!

THANK YOU very much!!!! :)

Not knowing how long you have (in total), it's hard to say, but I'd recommend 2 nights in Healdsburg and 3 nights in San Francisco.

I also agree a few nights in each location would work well. How you split the time depends on a number of things...total # of nights, budget, if you are renting a car, what you want to do/see in SF.


(You didn't give the # of nights, so it was hard to tell if you were in the area for 3 nights and wanted to spend 2 days in SF or what. )

Hello hello, it will be 4 nights. Form July the 10th, through July the 14th. We leave very late on the 14. We will have a car rental because our trip begin in San Diego.

In San Diego we want to go to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate, and the Fishers Wharf for sure... Maybe a quick stop in Stanford.

Our budget for lodging is around $200.00 per night. And we would love to have a very nice dinner on the 13th! :)

Sorry for my English. Spanish is my main language :)

"In San Diego we want to go to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate, and the Fishers Wharf for sure..."

Those are all in San Francisco.

[I wouldn't waste time going to Stanford]

On July 10th, are you driving from San Diego to San Francisco area? That will take most of the day.

That leaves you 4 nights and really only 3 1/2 days to explore and site see.

I would go to Sonoma first and end in San Francisco so that you are closer to airport for flight.

$200 a night is going to be hard. Before you book in either Sonoma or SF, ask here about the hotel and location.

Keep in mind that rooms will have an additional 15% of tax on top of the room price so your are looking at $175 a night.

[Don't worry about your English, it's way better than my Spanish! :) ]

$200 is almost impossible to find in San Francisco. I just checked the "budget hotel" I stay at near Union Square (nothing fancy) and even that is more than $200/night in July.

The budget might make it worth sticking with your original thought of just going into the city for one day?

The budget might make it worth sticking with your original thought of just going into the city for one day

Except I'm not so sure you can stay in Sonoma for $200 a night in July either!

I just looked up your dates on Kayak and see that the Chelsea Inn (a motel that will give you free parking, and is in a very good location, right in between two shopping/dining streets - Union Street and Chestnut Street - albeit on a busy street) is available in your price range if you're in San Francisco on the 10th and 11th (not available on the 12th and 13th). It's the sister hotel to the often-recommended Columbus Motor Inn (which has some availability on the 12th and 13th - also free parking and a great location). I'd grab one of those.