Thread: Holiday in California

Just been giving this some thought for the end of the year. We have decided to take a month away in the 'fall' - prob mid October to mid November. I have started looking at holiday homes etc. to get a feel for the place. I have been in San Francisco before and stayed in Pescadero south of there as well as Yosemite. We prob will start out in Mexico for a week and then travel to SF. Thinking of staying at 3/4 places for a week each. We will include maybe 4/5 days in SF itself. Other than that nice countryside places. Want to see and enjoy wildlife and walks - a little town/village for eating out is always nice but a remote week within the four would be great.

So - just thought that the amount of knowledge about this sort of thing on this site will prob be high. Plenty of folk will either live in the area or know it intimately. Anyone got any 'must stay' places? Any links to great holiday homes would be super. We would intend just to book homes directly with owners and then hire a car when we need. Prob do a couple of internal flights if necessary.

cheers
Stephen

I'm not sure what you're specifically looking for, did you want coastal, or mountains...
I personaly would suggest looking up a town called sonora.
It's in the Sierra Nevadas, about 45 minutes from Yosemite's northern entrance.
From there it's 2-3 hours to drive to Dublin and get on BART to SanFransisco, but it's really nice.
If you want to stay coastal, I'd personally say Carmel or Monterey.

Definitely want to visit Monterey bay - sealife centre etc. I have been looking so much at it in my studies re good interpretation. I like raking about for reptiles and wildlife of all sorts so wild areas is great. I do want to get into big tree country as well - I did visit some of that before but my wife has never been. Our daughter will just be 3 by then so can't do some of the more adventurous stuff (mountains) that I may do without her.
Be really good if anyone has any particular knowledge of good cottages to stay - rental companies to try etc too. I looked at renting a motor home but that was looking like $2K all in for the month - prob prefer to base ourselves two or three nice places for the same kind of money. It's a kind of a one off chance before I have to go back in to the workplace and start earning a crust again!

cheers
Stephen

I'd let other make recommendations on places, but wanted to say about the car that it should be quite easy. The rates among companies are pretty much the same and you don't need months in advance booking. You can figure out this detail last. Depending on how you arrive you may have a discount with the airline, or sometimes the rental companies have promotions anyways. Cars are just so essential to US that it's almost like asking which fast food chain to eat at
Oh, the big companies are hertz, avis, enterprise, national. There are bunch of others like say dollar, alamo... but when I've traveled I usually get one of the first four.
Ah you'll probably want unlimited mileage (one of the hertz in town offers only with 150miles/day). And good idea to check whether your credit card provides any rental car insurance as buying it from the rental place is an additional 10-15/day.

Point Reyes as well. Its a really nice place, has some short little hikes that you could do with your daughter, and it is beautiful. When I went we saw a huge heard of dear just sitting there, and then the water was beautiful. I can't help you with any places to stay though. I live in the Bay Area though, so if you have any questions you can PM me, and I will try and help you.

Thanks Wolf.
Just got the details of this place - about $1000 for a week in october. I don't know how cottages and rentals run price/quality wise out there - does this seem about right? Anybody know the area?

http://www.napavalleycasa.com/

If this is turning into too much of a travel service just let me know. I would also add that if anyone wishes to visit Scotland - I'm your man to sort out some ideas. Worked partly (just a wee bit of my sphere of influence) in country estate rentals for 10 years in Scotland. Nice cottages in highland idylls - roaring stags, purple heather, log fire and glass of malt whisky. I can even offer a full on holiday too - a bit more adventurous if wished. That would be next year though after I finally get my small part time guiding company officially underway, instead of just to order. Treking coast to coast or mountain summit adventures - wildlife a speciality. Got to get my web design and marketing sorted too. It all takes time...
cheers
Stephen

Originally Posted by wolf13

Point Reyes as well. Its a really nice place, has some short little hikes that you could do with your daughter, and it is beautiful. When I went we saw a huge heard of dear just sitting there, and then the water was beautiful. I can't help you with any places to stay though. I live in the Bay Area though, so if you have any questions you can PM me, and I will try and help you.

A good place to see wildlife is the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area. It has one of the 3 herds of Tule Elk native to california. Here's directions copied and pasted from the websit at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lands/wa/regio...neralinfo.html

Take 1-80 north from San Francisco, or south from Sacramento. Take Highway 12 off-ramp east toward Rio Vista. Turn onto Grizzly Island Road, at the stoplight at Sunset Shopping Center. Hill Slough Wildlife Area is on both sides of Grizzly Island Road from Highway 12 to the first one-lane bridge. The Grizzly Island Complex Headquarters is 9.5 miles further on Grizzly Island Road.

Originally Posted by wopmanfixit

A good place to see wildlife is the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area. It has one of the 3 herds of Tule Elk native to california. Here's directions copied and pasted from the websit at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lands/wa/regio...neralinfo.html

Take 1-80 north from San Francisco, or south from Sacramento. Take Highway 12 off-ramp east toward Rio Vista. Turn onto Grizzly Island Road, at the stoplight at Sunset Shopping Center. Hill Slough Wildlife Area is on both sides of Grizzly Island Road from Highway 12 to the first one-lane bridge. The Grizzly Island Complex Headquarters is 9.5 miles further on Grizzly Island Road.

Another great place to go. My grandfather and father used to go duck hunting there, so there is more than just the elk. Napa valley is actually really nice as well. I live about 30-40 mins away from it, a lot of nice things to see. I kind of live in the middle of everything, not in any of it.

You might also look into Mendocino ... it's in northern California on the coast ... very nice as a get away spot. There are lots of things to do in the area ... Here are a couple of links:

http://www.mendocino.com/

http://www.mendocino.org/

I go there from time to time. Hope this helps!

Steve

Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated. It all helps me towards further work avoidance and dreams of leisure... I do like a bit of pre holiday research.