Cali DUers, San Fran, 5 days to kill, Road Trip

[Guy_Montag]

Hello everyone,

here's the situation:
I'm British & I'm off to San Francisco for a conference the week after next. At the end of that my girlie is flying out to meet me, we then have 5 or 6 days to kill before we go & stay with my sister who live in Sonoma County.

Anyway my girlie fancies going on a bit of a road trip (when in Rome & all that), questions:

Assuming we head south (my girlie's a warm weather girlie), how far can we realistically get?

Where is good to stop off?

Any good sleazy motels worth staying in?

Where can we go surfing/diving?

As an alternative is it worth flying down to Baja Cali for the watersports? (Please don't turn this into a sex thread)

[bemildred]

1. LA is six hours or so.

A really ambitious person could get to San Diego in one day.

OTOH, if you go down California Hwy 1 it will take two days to
get to LA, but that is a much more interesting trip.

I would recommend you check out the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel,
the Big Sur coast, and the like. Less driving, more cool stuff
to see, art shops in Carmel, nature hikes, tourist delights in
the native haunts of the wealthy.

[Guy_Montag]

2. That's just the sort of thing I need to know

I can look up distances, but I have no concept of how long trips would take.

[proud patriot]

3. 5 days to kill around the Bay Area you can

Dive for Abolone drink wine in napa see the redwoods
go snow skiing See the Giant Sequoia see the Dessert
surf the warm waters down south and see a castle
named hearst on the way back to Sonoma :-)

I love it here .

[democracyindanger]

4. You could take the Pacific Coast Highway

to LA--it's a lot longer, 10 hours if you push it. But you could stop for a night in Monterey, which is a nice seaside town. The PCH goes through Malibu before it gets to LA (Santa Monica), and there'll be plenty of surf and dive shops to ask about that stuff.

Actually, taking I-5 might be a bad idea in general. You're probably going to spend all your time at the coast--Santa Monica, Venice, Manhattan Beach, etc.--so if you take the PCH you can avoid the nightmare of LA freeways. You can always take it back though, if you're in a hurry.

[proud patriot]

5. That's an excellent suggestion

:hi:

[gardenista]

8. You can also nip out to 101 to save time on the PCH.

The PCH can get a little tiring, no matter how beautiful it is.

Be sure not to miss Point Lobos in Big Sur/Carmel area, though. Stop in Ano Nuevo State Park, if you can.

[caligirl]

6. There is lots to do in SFO, posted at link to check out.

http://sfgate.com/traveler/guide/

If you haven't seen the play Beach Blanket Babylon it is suppose to be funny. Charles and Camilla did that while they were just here.( Oh, is that a downer? Sorry)I don't think it will ever stop playing.

We did enjoy the giant Sequoia's in the Sequoia National Forest.



5 days isn't enough.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Drive to Santa Cruz and SLO

The Santa Cruz area is loaded with cheap motels. Santa Cruz is about 60-90 minutes south of the San Francisco area. One of the nicer beach motels is in Aptos, the Rio Sands. It's pricier than the ones in Santa Cruz proper but whenever we've been there Euros were among the guests. It has a hot tub, some housekeeping rooms, and it's two blocks from a fabulous beach for long walks in the AM or at sunset. There are two or three places at the beach parking lot where you can grab a coffee before heading to the sand. Santa Cruz has a hokey surfing museum on West Cliff Drive and there are always surfers there and usually otters and sea lions, sometimes dolphins and porpoises too. Good cheap eats are available all over town. I recommend Tacos Moreno on Water St.

San Luis Obispo (AKA SLO) is a college town and has cheap motels out near 101. SLO is 3-4 hours from SF.It also has the Madonna Inn, a one-of-a-kind place. Google it. SLO is near the Paso Robles wine region and near the ocean. Avila Beach is a pretty little spot.

If you should find only foggy or foul weather on the coast, head inland. There's an odds on chance the weather will be better. SLO is slightly inland, for example.