Andrew Nash
Vienna Transport Strategies

Day Trips from San Francisco

Unfortunately you will need a car to make these journeys. Public transportation outside the core San Francisco area is very poorly developed compared to European regions. Here are four very nice tours:

• Wine Country,
• Wine: Napa-Calistoga-Jimtown-Healdsburg Circuit,
• Point Reyes National Seashore,
• Monterey Bay,

Wine Country: Healdsburg and Sonoma Valley

I generally recommend Sonoma County for wine tasting, it is slightly less touristy than Napa Valley and I prefer some of the wine made there. Two particularly nice trips are to the Dry Creek and Russian River areas around Healdsburg and the Sonoma Valley area north of the city of Sonoma. By the way, if you plan to purchase wine, bring along a cooler to fill with ice - you can buy one inexpensively in San Francisco - it's extremely hot in the wine country.

Healdsburg Area - Healdsburg is a beautiful town with a shady central square surrounded by restaurants and shops (seemingly) specializing in picnic supplies and wine. Some winery recommendations are: Dry Creek Winery, Lambert Bridge Winery - check out the historic bridge too!, and Preston Winery, but it's hard to go wrong in this area. Healdsburg is about 1½ hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge on Highway 101 (with no traffic).

Sonoma Valley Area - The city of Sonoma is also a wonderful place to visit. There you will find another central square surrounded by restaurants and shops (seemingly) specializing in picnic supplies and wine, but it is about 10-times bigger than Healdsburg. Especially interesting is the Sonoma Jack cheese factory on the north side of the square and the historic Mission on the northeast corner.

From Sonoma head to Arnold Drive and then north. TIP: Stop at the Glen Ellen Market (it's a large quite modern market) for picnic supplies and wine. You can frequently find excellent deals on excellent local wine here.

In Glen Ellen you can also take the road to the northwest to Jack London State Park (site of Jack London's Wolf House) and visit the Benziger Family winery. Here's Benziger's page with Glen Ellen information.

North of Glen Ellen turn north on Highway 12 towards Santa Rosa. There are many great wineries on this stretch of highway including Kunde, B.R.Cohn - they also make olive oil!, Kenwood and Chateau St. Jean.

As you continue north you will enter the city of Santa Rosa. This is Sonoma County's largest city. There are good restaurants in the downtown and adjoining railroad square area. You can take Highway 101 south to San Francisco (about one hour with no traffic) from here (avoid the southbound Golden Gate Bridge Sunday/holiday rush between 4 - 8 pm).

Wine Country Circuit: Napa-Calistoga-Jimtown-Healdsburg

One of my favorite trips is overnight to Calistoga. Start in the morning in San Francisco, drive to the city of Napa for lunch. The city is restoring its historic center and there are many fine restaurants.

After lunch drive up the Silverado Trail (this road runs parallel with the main Napa Valley wine tasting route - Highway 29 - and is a bit less crowded). There are numerous wineries where you can stop. One of the finest is Stags Leap. In a tasting during the 1970's Stags Leap cabernet was one of the wines that proved to France that California could make excellent wine too. Tours are only by appointment and fill up fast. There are many other wineries on this route if Stags Leap is full.

Further north on Silverado Trail is Mumm sparkling wine. This is a great place to stop in the late afternoon. There are tours (reserve in advance) and then tasting.

After Mumm, continue north on Silverado Trail to Calistoga. Try to get overnight reservations at the Calistoga Inn, the rooms are simple (bath on the hall), there's no air conditioning, and small, but they are inexpensive and come with a continental breakfast. The ground floor contains an excellent restaurant with large outdoor dining area, a brewery (they make their own excellent beer) and a pub (with live music, where many locals seem to hang out; note this means it's a bit noisy upstairs until the music is over). If you want to eat dinner here be sure to reserve when you reserve your room.

Calistoga is famous for its mud baths. My favorite mud bath recommendation is Indian Springs. If you have a mud bath there they also allow you to use the mineral pool. The mud bath treatment is about 2 ½ hours including steam bath, mud, soaking (with cucumbers on the eyes) and resting afterwards. Indian Springs also has great little bungalow cabins for overnight stays they are expensive, but you get a key to the mineral pool and can use it during the night!

Calistoga has many fine restaurants - like most of Napa and Sonoma county wine country! If you have one you know about and want to try be sure to make a reservation.

On the second day you should drive from Calistoga to Healdsburg in Sonoma County. The road takes you through the Knights Valley and Alexander Valley wine districts. These wineries are small and off the beaten track, so if you want to visit you need to make an appointment. Stop at the Jimtown Store for great sandwiches (and stuff).

Once you are in Healdsburg explore the wineries mentioned above. From Healdsburg you can head south to San Francisco on Highway 101 (about 2 hours - avoid the Golden Gate Bridge weekend rush into San Francisco between 4 and 8 pm Sunday/holiday evenings).

Alternatively, you can drive to the coast and drive down Highway 1 through Point Reyes (see below).

Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes National Seashore is a wonderful park located about 1½ hours from San Francisco. Drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and then take either Highway 1 up the coast or Highway __ (Sir Francis Drake Boulevard) through several Marin County towns to Point Reyes. Point Reyes is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and there are many trails. It's a good idea to stop at the Visitor Center to find out what's going on and to pick-up a free map. The Point Reyes Lighthouse has excellent views (sometimes you can see migrating whales). The hike to the far north end of the Peninsula is excellent and you will probably see the giant Tule Elk on your trip; you will also see Tomales Bay, formed by the San Andreas fault.

A little way north of Point Reyes National Seashore Visitor Center is the town of Point Reyes Station. Here you will find several good restaurants and shops for picnics. There is a very nice barn-like structure with great food shops including artisan cheese from Cowgirl Creamery (there's a branch in the San Francisco Ferry Building). There are also places to stay overnight in the area, many are of the bed and breakfast type catering to weekend get aways from San Francisco. You may be able to get a deal in the off season during the week.

Monterey

Monterey is about a three hour drive from San Francisco. It's possible to do in a day but a bit strenuous. The highlight in Monterey is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's really fantastic and worth visiting even for people who don't particularly like aquariums. The large tanks present entire environments, you can pick-up star fish, you can go outside to see the sea lions. It's really great.

My recommendation is that you break-up the trip. First drive to San Jose and stop at the Tech Museum of Innovation. This museum presents some of the history of the Silicon Valley.

From the Tech Museum, take Highway 17 over the mountains to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is a typical California beach town with a boardwalk and amusement park. The town is pretty nice (it has been significantly re-built after a recent earthquake) with lots of shops and restaurants.

From Santa Cruz, drive south to Monterey. Stay overnight in Monterey - this means you can go to the aquarium in the morning and beat the crowds a little bit. There are many nice places to eat in Monterey.

When you are finished with the Aquarium, you can head south on Highway 1 to see all the places you have heard about: Big Sur, the Hearst Castle, Malibu, Los Angeles … of course this is a real trip; or you can head back north to San Francisco.

On the way north I would recommend staying on Highway 1 through Santa Cruz and on though San Mateo County. There are many isolated beaches here (again, generally too cold to swim and be careful of the waves - they are very dangerous) and the landscape is spectacular. There are several places to stop along the route including the town of Half Moon Bay, where you can find good restaurants and shops. It will probably take about 4 hours to drive Highway 1 up to San Francisco (if you don't stop anywhere very long).