I know there are quite a few CA folks on the board here. The wife and I have 2 passes for free round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the continental US and we thought CA might be a fun place to go since neither of us have been there before.

Where should we go and what are the best attractions? Suggestions?

We're thinking early July for about a week.

I LOVE me some Yosemite.....ALWAYS beautiful......

Yosemite is quite nice. I think it'll be packed in July.

I could make a strong case for Santa Barbara, but I'm quite biased. In reality, rooms are expensive here in the summer, as the Asians and Europeans are onto us. But we have wine tasting and oceans and it's cheaper than Napa. And less crowded than Napa. Sheet man, Napa's a pain in the ass nowadays.

Anyhow, I actually think you should check out San Diego. There's a ton of stuff to do there. They have a lot of nice breweries, they have wineries, they have the bay where you can tour carriers (I think) and take a half day boat fishing. There's Seaworld, there's karting, you might be able to check out Miramar Air Station?

What sort of things are you and the missus interested into? I'm sure us Californians can help you out.

Jason

I'd go to either San Francisco as my first destination or LA, as you can do many things close by from either of those places. In San Fran, you can go to Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz and Golden Gate Park (scenic + many museums). Then you can cruise down Highway 1 from there and check out the beautiful coast, down to Monterey (Laguna Seca), Carmel, then Santa Cruz and Big Sur, then further on down is Hearst Castle in Cambria, a really great stop and very good to go this time of year (not the tourist season). Incredible cruise from Northern CA.

In LA you can do the amusement park things (Magic Mountain, Disneyland), Universal Studios, the beach thing, Catalina Island (must do, very scenic, go by boat), great zoos and wild animal parks in San Diego.

The Napa wine country is out by me, I'm happy to take you on a tour! I'm near Sacramento, also happy to meet you guys and show you the City (San Fran).

This is my vote. There's also lots to see north of the bay area, but they are a longer trips. Things like the redwoods, sea lion caves but thats way north. The S.F. bay & south of there is best for first trip . The Fisherman's wharf is a must.

Great choice for a place to go. If you have a week, and the airline will accomodate you, I would recommend flying to San Francisco and leaving from San Diego.

If you are a National Park type, you MUST go to Yosemite, and Sequoia. these are DO NOT MISS destinations for nature lovers or outdoorsmen. And you are going at a good time of year (warm). Spend three days. Stay in the park if possible and budget allows. Then Make your way to Santa Barbara as mentioned by someone else, then to the greater LA area (next day). Make your LA rounds (Hollywood, Newport and Laguna Beach and proceed to San Diego before going home.

If not the NP type, rent a car and drive down the coast highway real slow (Carmel, Monterey...hide your wallet). Continue to Big Sur. Follow the coast highway to San Simeon (Hearst Castle...really cool) and then on to Santa Barbara then follow a similar trail as described above. There is no drive quite like this one....it will not disappoint.

If you are a "stay in one place" type traveller, I would recommend San Francisco, with day trips out to the wine country, Berkeley etc. Good food and fun...but a little on the expensive side.

Sounds like fun.

bock (not a Californian, but been there many times) folken

Good choice.

We've only been that way a couple of times and it seems to be a typical ocean and mountain area. No matter where you go, it's spectacular.

If you go to LA, check out the Petersen Automobile Museum. They typically have an awesome display of automotive history.

July will be a problem with any of the big name tourist places - they'll be booked, so plan way ahead if that's the plan. Yosemite is great, but moreso at midnite with a full moon. San Diego Wild Animal Park is more entertaining than the amusement parks. Ca has a lot of state parks and wilderness areas - if you're into hiking pick something not in a national park. Avoid the big cities, esp LA and SF - they are dirty and crowded. Santa Cruz, on the other hand, is wonderful ;-), and is on Hwy 1 - definitely drive it from Cambria north. Take in a club race - check the schedules, hook up with someone for a ride on one of our great tracks.

Lots of good info here everyone. Thank you. We're still trying to wrap my head around all of it. Thanks for the offer on the tour, Julie.

We prefer nature over concrete, for sure (I can't stand New York, for example). Wife wants to see Hollywood, though. Breweries and Wineries are definitely at the top of the list. Hwy 1 sounds like our style. We'll have to see if the airline will let us fly into one city and out another. It sounds like Hwy 1 would be at least a 2 day trip if we want to enjoy it. It'd be nice to camp for a couple nights but it would be expensive to bring just the basic camping gear on the airplane. Or we could just stop by Walmart and spend $50 and get what we need and not bring it back with us.

Looks like Yosemite is a pretty expensive place to say. $112/ night to stay in a tent? $5xx for a hotel?

I remember seeing pictures of my Grandparents next to some of the Redwoods. That would be cool.

Laguna Seca would be sweet. Thats one track that sticks out in my mind from Grand Turismo. I gotta be careful though, cause if I'm like ReEntryRacer I might have to haul the Camaro out there once.

The wife is checking out the hotel stuff. Mom has timeshare points too, so that could help out if she has some to spare.

Generally on our vacations we like to spend most of the days being busy but save a couple days to relax. We try and avoid tourist traps ($12 here, $20 there). The free stuff like hikes and views are the stuff we enjoy the most. We'll usually make our own breakfast, pack lunch, and then have dinner at good/fun restaurant.

Does Anchor Brewing and Distilling (San Francisco) have tours and/or a tasting room?

Jim

Not sure about tours at Anchor Steam, you'd have to contact them. I do know the Bud brewery in Fairfield has an extensive tour that I would like to go on. As far as Napa, they all charge for tastings and tours generally cost something too. Some tours you need reservations to do, so if you plan to go there pick your faves or I can recommend some. I went last summer on the paid tours and it has totally made Napa a much better experience since droves of folks are no longer there.

I'd recommend staying at Big Sur. The place is very peaceful, beautiful and affordable places can be found there. There's camping too, although I think that would be hard to pull off traveling by airplane with your gear.

Stan
Some of the bigger outdoor outfitters rent camp gear too. Places like REI & a few others do. But it may be cheaper to buy from wally world, Then sell it or dump it. Or may be box upsome of your stuff & ship it to some one near were you want to camp. Then ship it home when your done. I'd be willing to get a three man( perfict for two) dome tent down there some how. Maybe if your meeting Julie, for the bay area stuff I could take it to Thunder Hill, To get it to her. If she would be willing to transfer it to you. Then maybe ship it back on the dog.
Terry

Cruise around on Google Earth, with 'places of interest' and 'geographic web' enabled. Lots of camping/hiking. Monuments/State parks that I've enjoyed: Pinnacles, Big Basin, Henry Cowell, Nisene Marks, Henry Coe. Lots of smaller wineries in the Paso Robles and Santa Cruz areas with free tasting, but limited hours. Monterey Bay Aquarium would be cool, or a 1/2day ocean fishing jaunt - any town with a harbor will have boats with all the gear for rent. In my experience, the fishing gets better the further north you go. The views of the SF bay sights are great from a boat out of Berkeley - the fishing in the bay sucked, tho, and I'm not sure I'd eat a bay fish. The swell outside of the Golden Gate is 'interesting' if you're into roller coasters.

Hiking - hot, dry, lots of elevation change, so be prepared. Driving - we're putting you on the twistiest backroads we know, hopefully no issues with carsickness. Some of the surfaces are going to crap, but the grading of a lot of CA's secondary roads is great! Smooth radii, nicely cambered, up/down makes for satisfying driving even at legal speeds. Pick your rental car accordingly.

Come on now.... You know ya want it...

Yeah, and that is EXACTLY THE PROBLEM!!!

What you did was pretty cool though, even if you didn't have the best day.

Howdy,

This isn't about CA, but its fairly close to CA...

If you haven't seen it before and like nature, I think the various canyon areas (Grand Canyon, Zion, etc.) are pretty darn cool. Fly into Las Vegas and spend a day or two there on your way in & out, coupled with a "driving vacation" around the canyon stuff & probably the Hoover Dam.

Its not CA, but you can sorta see it from there. :-)

Mark

I agree on the Yosemite trip, awesome sights! Last time I was there we stayed at a hotel outside of the park limits for something like 80 a night and walked down to the local bar and back. Those sequoias are just astounding!

Why not go to Hawaii instead of CA... I had been to Hawaii many times. There have nice beaches and watch the NICE many asses and partying...

I think the wife will really be into that!

Beside the Yosemite park you can drive through it to the Tioga pass. Theres a lot to see & do in the high Sierras.

Yes, Hawaii is very nice, but our free airline tickets are for the cont. US only and we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon last summer. Thats how we got these free tickets actually. Due to some delays it was a 24 hour trip home

Well, we've pretty much decided to stay in one city and do day trips. Its easy to think, "yeah, we'll just drive across the state to see ____" but California is one big ass state. To put it in perspective you probably wouldn't spend half of a vacation in Virginia and the other half in Florida.

Mom has extra time share points so she's hooking us up. Unfortunately the timeshare doesn't have much in the San Fran area.

So given a choice for your first trip to Cali, what's your vote? Ballot is below:

Windsor (closest choice we have to San Francisco, but still an hour away)
Ventura
Anaheim (too close to Disney, so we'd probably not choose this)
Costa Mesa
Oceanside
San Diego
Palm Springs

Or we could also split time in 2 of those cities (except Windsor, we'd probably stay the whole time there).

It sounds like no matter where we go there will still be plenty of things to do.

How long is the trip slated to be? I did a quick scan and didn't see that anywhere. I think that would have some bearing on any recommendation.

Jason

I'd pick Windsor, there are tons of fun things to do and see around Northern CA (national parks, museums, beautiful beaches and San Fran.) that won't break your wallet. San Diego there are also tons of fun things to do that will break your wallet, also consider if you are renting a car and staying in a hotel there rates are outrageous in San Diego - check those first.

We're thinking 7 nights.

If you go to the Ventura area, you can swing by several automotive-related facilities - Kenny Dutweiler's place (actually in Saticoy, but it's close by); Wilwood (may or may not get a tour, we didn't); Magnusson Supercharger (got a tour, very cool); Ventura Raceway (AWESOME dirt track); I think I mentioned the Petersen Auto Museum before; it's really good too with all the historic vehicles there. They have parking which is a bonus in LA. If you get on Sunset Boulevard, you'll see many of the famous (infamous?) bars frequented by rock musicians and movie stars. It gets very freaky there at night, so be prepared to see any and everything.

Now, if your wife is not all that excited about those places, heading south from Ventura is the Reagan Museum, along with the Getty Museum (closer to LA); if you go north you can see Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Solvang. You can also take the 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) south to see Malibu and Santa Monica, and see how the "other side" lives...you can also drive Mulholland, which can still be fun.

Head to Monterey, stay in Carmel and watch the Historic Races, I think in August. A complete blast!!

If you are in San Diego, book a day at Air Combat, real air to air combat with no previous experience required. The two of you could shot at each other.

We have reservations for San Diego and Oceanside. We're leaving next weekend.

thanks everyone

I cannot believe no one mentioned Mulholland Dr. off the coast into town.

Definitely one of my faves!

See my previous post on this page.

San Diego is nice. Some thoughts:

Stone Brewing Co. - http://www.stonebrew.com/index2.php

Shakespeare Pub - http://www.shakespearepub.com/

Miramar Speed - http://www.miramarspeedcircuit.com/

USS Midway - http://www.midway.org/visitors

Of course there is the SD Zoo and Seaworld.

Have fun.

Jason

So glad I saw this thread. The girlfriend and I are going from June 18 to the 25th. Starting in San Francisco and driving to San Diego.

The wife and I are putting a list of things to do together, we'll see how many of these things we can hit. We're planning the zoo for sure. We'll try and hit the Stone Brewing co for a drink (and dinner if they serve it).

My uncle highly recommends a winery called Roblar in Santa Ynez, so we'll try and hit that.

No NASA races the weekend that we'll be there

If you're going to Santa Ynez wineries I can recommend them based upon the type of wine you like, what you want to spend if buying, etc.... We've been to most of them over the years, and are members at 5 or 6. We're old skool Santa Ynez winos. ;-)

Jason

hehe, we usually only drink Charles Shaw since we can't tell the difference between a $3 bottle and a $12, or a $30

Merlot is probably our favorite, but in hot weather we prefer a white. I can't even think of what kind of white we like.

We'll just head up to Santa Ynez and waste time getting wasted

Somehow I totally missed that.

So, how was the vacation? We were at a couple of wineries on 06.15.09. Looking at your trip dates there was a -slight- possibility that our paths crossed. Regardless, I'm interested to hear how the trip was, what you ended up doing, see pics, etc....

Jason

Jason, we were in Santa Ynez on Friday the 19th. I was looking for a blue BMW that day but didn't see one

I have a big summary of the trip that I am putting together. Its just taking me a while to add in the pics.

I figure I own everyone a little trip summary for all the good advice given. So here it is..

Sunday: travel day. Moved into our hotel in downtown San Diego. Walked around the city a little that night and had dinner. Not much else.

Monday: San Diego Zoo during the day. Dinner in downtown San Diego walked around the city.


Tuesday: Picked up rental car (parking in downtown SD is $20+/night = screw that), visited Coronado Island, got some sun on the beach, then drove to our resort in Oceanside.

Pic is of the infamous Hotel Del Coronado, one of the oldest and largest all-wooden buildings in California and a place where many many famous people have stayed through the years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_del_Coronado
http://www.hoteldel.com/History.aspx



Wednesday: Hollywood, Beverly Hills, walked the Hollywood Boulevard walk of fame, took a van tour of celebrity homes, had Coney Dogs at Pinks http://www.pinkshollywood.com/pgz/history.htm. We only had time for the part of Mulholland dr that goes up to the famous “Hollywood” sign. Not seeing the rest of Mulholland dr is my biggest regret next to getting sunburnt on Thursday.



Thursday: Hung out around the resort/beach in Oceanside and got sunburnt, bad. Walked the Oceanside Pier. Fought off sun poisoning that night.

Friday: The highlight of my trip was driving hwy 154 from Santa Barbara up to the Santa Ynez Mountain range. Awesome curvy road and beautiful scenery. Met some nice people at a Vista Point (sight seeing stop) who told us some history behind Lake Cachuma (Spectacular clean looking lake, damned to create water supply for the region).

Had dinner at Cold Spring Tavern http://www.coldspringtavern.com/ (recommended by the nice people that we met) which is without question the most rustic place that I have ever eaten at.


Saturday: Checked out of Oceanside, drove back to the San Diego area. Stopped at La Jolla beach and saw some sea life.

The closest I’ve ever been to live seals. Stunk like a hog farm.

Then visited Cabrillo National Park / Point Loma http://www.nps.gov/archive/cabr/lighthouse.html.

Checked into our 3rd hotel in San Diego Bay (very close to airport). Didn’t have time for a tour of the USS Midway, but walked around it and took it in. Checked out some other boats in the harbor. Returned rental car to avoid $20/night parking.

Sunday: flew home.

Overall an awesome trip, but I recommend (like people already mention) doing it different than how we did since our timeshare accommodations limited us to Socal. I would have liked to have started in San Fran and progressively travel down to San Diego like others have suggested. We spent a lot of time on the road traveling North to LA and back one day then Santa Ynez, and back a couple days later. I wouldn’t expect the time spent in the car too much different if we started in San Fran and traveled south.

Like Arnold says “I’ll be back”

Who's the chucklehead standing with your wife? Is that the mail man???

looks like an awesome trip, thanks for sharing.

It's some random guy we found at the stop. He stepped in while I took the picture. douche bag isn't he?

Glad you had a good time! This is the great thing about CA, if you don't like what you have in front of you, drive 2 to 4hrs and you wil

It was 107deg today were i live, i could drive 4hrs(maybe closer) and snow ski

Come on back and see us again, maybe we can get you in a car without the wife knowing

I was in San Diego this weekend at the convention center with the big Reptile Supershow. Had some locals take us to sushi at the "best place" there, then the next night my sister and brother in law (live in 29 Palms near the Joshua Tree) took us to their favorite place and I had three kinds of crab in a big metal bucket, with gobs of butter. I CAN believe I was born there!

Thanks for your pics, looks like you had an awesome time and went to some really cool places. You can never really go to them all!