Hello,

Getting to the nitty gritty for our travel plans in early April - we have a day trip planned to Napa/Sonama while we are in San Fransisco. During the rest of our trip between Santa Barbara and Carmel we plan on putting one other day aside for wineries. Need advice whether the Paso Robles wine country or Santa Ynez area would be best. If both should not be missed then we can try to cut a day from somwhere else.

Thank you for the help.

Eek - noticed spelling error too late.

If you are coming down Hwy 1 from Carmel to San Luis Obispo, you would have to backtrack some to visit Paso Robles. You might want to continue on to Santa Ynez instead. I would choose Santa Ynez anyway just because I'm a Pinot fan.

By the way, it's pretty hard to see both Sonoma and Napa in one day. Sonoma County is a big place with several important wine regions. In one day, you will get only a partial and very superficial look at these wine regions.

Thank you, Otis. We are driving from Santa Barbara up to Carmel and then on to San Fransisco. Each time I get advice the trip becomes longer. We have already chopped out a visit to NYC so that we can have more days in the area. I am wondering if we should drive through the Santa Ynez area and then overnight in Cambria before continuing on. Then wondering if we should plan two days in the Sonama or Napa area. Any thoughts on which would be preferable? We are not interested in wine tours but rather the opportunity to drive in the country and taste good whites and my favourite too...Pinot!

...but rather the opportunity to drive in the country
and taste good whites and my favourite too...Pinot!

Sonoma County for sure if you want to
drive in a country like setting.
Check out this website
www.wineroad.com
It covers vineyards from Santa Rosa north,
the towns of Healdsburg, Geyserville, Sebastopol
and Guerneville as well as the
Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valleys.
Lots of beautiful country here and you
could easily drive out to the Sonoma Coast.

Some of the best pinot noir can be found at
http://swanwinery.com/tasting_room.php
and
http://www.lacrema.com/about/tastingroom.html
and
http://www.coffaro.com/open.html

R5