My husband and I will be traveling to the San Francisco area the last weekend in October. We have never been to California and we will have Thurs. afternoon and night, Friday (have to be somewhere at 4:00 this day) and all day Saturday and Saturday night. The catch is that we already have planned a trip to this area next summer with our kids. Thus, we are trying to do things this short trip that we will not do next summer with the kids. We are considering the following but would greatly appreciate any feedback:
- Point Reyes
- Muir Woods
- Carmel/Big Sur
- Wine country

Obviously we can't do all of this. We are trying to do the main things in SF and spend a few days in Yosemite with the kids.

Thanks for any help.

How old are your kids?

Our kids are 10 and 15. Thanks.

For starters, I'd save Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Alcatraz, Muir Woods and Chinatown for when the kids are with you.

You could use the opportunity to explore some neighborhoods that would ordinarily be places people go when they've been here before, but you would just do it a little backwards -- 24th St., the Mission, Castro.

You could spend Friday in the Union Square area (shopping, eating, theatre), along with a stop at the Museum of Modern Art and Yerba Buena Center, maybe have dinner in North Beach.

You could spend Saturday either in the City (the neighborhoods mentioned above), or you could rent a car and go to Napa or Sonoma, or to Monterey/Carmel. The kids would probably like Monterey/Carmel, too, so you might want to hold off on that -- the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the town of Carmel (the main road ends at the ocean/beach), maybe Big Sur.

Type in "San Francisco" under "Search this Forum" -- there are many threads including one (I don't remember the name of it) from a woman who recently came here with her 10-year old daughter.

How wonderful. San Francisco for adults and then San Francisco for the family.

I would use Saturday, as suggested, for the wine country. (Adult activity...kids get VERY bored.) I would not rent a car, but would take one of the smaller tours. (Not a large bus, like Greyline).

Go to Trip Advisor and do a search and check for messages. I saw one just a few minutes ago which suggested taking a ferry to Vallejo, and arranging ahead of time for a certain driver who would pick you up there and takes small groups.

There are also small group day tours which leave from San Francisco. People at TA like Extranomical, for example. Again, do a search there.

These tours take you to the area and to several wineries for tasting. There is a controversy over which is best, Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley. Napa Valley is more famous, of course. I happen to prefer Sonoma Valley because it is much prettier, has plenty of wineries and lacks the terrible crowds.

However, October is "crush" so there will be crowds wherever you go. I would suggest making arrangements for the tour NOW.

On Friday I would sleep in, have a great brunch/breakfast and spend the rest of the time before your 4:00 commitment doing some walking. Chinatown, the Embarcadero, Union Square.

One night have a special dinner, at a restaurant where you would not take the kids. Check Trip Advisor. Then, maybe a drink with a view at the Top of the Mark (Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill).

When you come back with the kids, I am sure you will have time constraints.

Be sure, in San Francisco, to take them to the Exploratorium. This is a hands-on experience in the lovely Palace of Fine Arts, preserved from the 1915 Exposition. I don't know any kid you can pry out of there in less than 2 hours.

Point Reyes takes time. It has a great lighthouse with a fantastic view of the city and an "Earthquake Walk" near the visitor center which graphically shows how much the earth slipped during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. (This makes up for the educational aspect <grin>.

I would rank this ahead of Muir Woods, if you don't have much time. Some kids see a tall tree and that's all it is, a tall tree. Also, this particular redwood preserve gets plugged up with tour buses and lots of people and it isn't my kind of redwood experience.

I do hope you have time with the kids for both Yosemite and Monterey/Carmel. They should not miss the world class Monterey Bay Aquarium, with two or three story fish tanks and special exhibitions with sharks swimming in tanks above your head, etc. This is also a world class research facility on sea life. The sea otter exhibit is wonderful.

And, Yosemite is what it is. Wonderful.

Do, if you can, allow enough time next summer to really experience some of these things. I don't know where you are coming from, but California distances sometimes amaze traveler's.

Where are you staying on this first trip? Persons may have some good restaurant recommendations for you. If you don't hear on this forum, do go to Trip Advisor, California forum.

What wonderful advice!! Thank you very much. I think I will save the mentioned items for when the kids are with us and definitely go ahead and book a wine tour.

I would suggest renting a car and driving across the Golden Gate bridge and 1.5 hrs North of SF and visiting the wine country around Healdsburg (Sonoma County). There are lots of B&B's to stay in, and private vacation rentals too. Great restaurants, shopping and wine tasting around the Square in Hbg... and you can easily visit several wineries in the area.

Take several of the free walking tours offered by City Guides (sponsored by the public library). There are over 30 different tours offered each month. There are several "additional" tours offered in May & October. Kids might get bored by many of the subjects (Victorian houses, Bawdy & Naughty, Chinatown, Palace Hotel, Castro District, Nob Hill, Pacific Heights Mansions, Haight-Asbury, etc).

See details at www.SFCityGuides.org

Stu Dudley

I would suggest going to Berkeley and renting a car for a trip to Napa or Sonoma to go wine tasting (not for the kids, so it would be perfect for this). Alcatraz is also something that the kids may not be into, so you can do that (book ahead!). I would leave Monterey/Carmel for a trip with the kids since you can go to the aquarium they will probably enjoy.

I'm doing this idea in reverse--went to SF with kids last summer and can hop onto a nice (Ritz Carlton) business trip with my husband this November.

I did do a trip report of our family trip last year. Perhaps you can search for it on my name and san francisco.

One immediate thought: be sure to reserve your rooms in Yosemite NOW for next summer. I would recommend 3 nights at Yosemite Lodge.

Things my kids loved in SF:
Cable Cars
Alcatraz
Filbert Street drop off (think it's off Hyde near the Lombard windy street)
Tonga Room (we surprised them)

Have fun!