San Francisco over to Lake Arrowhead

[NineOneSeven]

Next month I am flying out to California for a wedding with my parents and sister. Plan to fly into SF for 2 nights, then make a drive down and over to Lake Arrowhead over 4 days before finishing the trip in San Marcos (where my family lives).

Any suggestions for the SF area? Or anything along the drive south down the coast?

 

[chugg21]

Next month I am flying out to California for a wedding with my parents and sister. Plan to fly into SF for 2 nights, then make a drive down and over to Lake Arrowhead over 4 days before finishing the trip in San Marcos (where my family lives).

Any suggestions for the SF area? Or anything along the drive south down the coast?

Lived in Monterey for a while so love that area and Big Sur. Have plenty of recommendations if you wanted to make that the 1st stop, about 2.5 hrs from SF depending on traffic.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Lived in Monterey for a while so love that area and Big Sur. Have plenty of recommendations if you wanted to make that the 1st stop, about 2.5 hrs from SF depending on traffic.

I think that’s on the docket

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Tahoe is an all day trip, but worth it IMO. As mentioned, Carmel by the Sea is incredible.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Next month I am flying out to California for a wedding with my parents and sister. Plan to fly into SF for 2 nights, then make a drive down and over to Lake Arrowhead over 4 days before finishing the trip in San Marcos (where my family lives).

Any suggestions for the SF area? Or anything along the drive south down the coast?

I would stay out of the downtown area of SF if I were you. It's really become quite a pit. Soo much homeless crime etc. Big Sur/ Monterey is great. Great neighborhoods in SF like Noe Valley, Cole Valley are cool for lunch dinner, bars.

I'd go North over the Golden Gate via the Presidio which is very cool. Sausalito is touristy but work checking out. Great beaches over there as well that are worth looking into.

 

[NineOneSeven]

I would stay out of the downtown area of SF if I were you. It's really become quite a pit. Soo much homeless crime etc. Big Sur/ Monterey is great. Great neighborhoods in SF like Noe Valley, Cole Valley are cool for lunch dinner, bars.

I'd go North over the Golden Gate via the Presidio which is very cool. Sausalito is touristy but work checking out. Great beaches over there as well that are worth looking into.

Yeah, SF is well known for the high homeless population, which is quite sad. Believe staying in the union square area which is about 20' north of the airport. Whether that is downtown, not sure. But the hotel we found seems sufficient based on the reviews. I am expecting to see my fair share of homeless encampments regardless of location, to be honest.

 

[chugg21]

Yeah, SF is well known for the high homeless population, which is quite sad. Believe staying in the union square area which is about 20' north of the airport. Whether that is downtown, not sure. But the hotel we found seems sufficient based on the reviews. I am expecting to see my fair share of homeless encampments regardless of location, to be honest.

I guess my questions before recommending anything would be how old and adventurous are you? Prefer finer dining or like DDD type places, into breweries and things like that?

 

[NineOneSeven]

I guess my questions before recommending anything would be how old and adventurous are you? Prefer finer dining or like DDD type places, into breweries and things like that?

I’ll be with my parents and sister. Definitely not into fine dining. Breweries could be cool to check out although I’m probably the only one who would like the beer. We like seeing anything outdoors related, old buildings, more casual restaurants.

 

[chugg21]

I’ll be with my parents and sister. Definitely not into fine dining. Breweries could be cool to check out although I’m probably the only one who would like the beer. We like seeing anything outdoors related, old buildings, more casual restaurants.

Alright, that definitely makes things a little different. Alvarado St Brewery in Monterey works with family. It's a cool spot on the Main St and is a couple blocks from the water and wharf to walk down to. It also has really solid food. Agree with Tuttle that taking a ride down to Carmel is worthwhile. Really love the happy hour at Vesuvio on their rooftop. Think it's 3-6 or 4-6 or something like that. Prices can be wild so the happy hour prices just kind of make it semi-normalized.

Down in Big Sur you can go really big with what may be the best view in the country for a meal at Nepenthe. If it's a night or weekend, can probably forget about it unless you really aim to get there right when they open or an odd time. We always stop at Big Sur Taphouse when we're in the area. The food isn't anything spectacular but it's solid and you are in the middle of nowhere so it's a pretty cool spot to relax for a bit. Either of those spots are semi close to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park which is worth the stop to take a look at. It's actually where my wife and I got hitched as well lol.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Alright, that definitely makes things a little different. Alvarado St Brewery in Monterey works with family. It's a cool spot on the Main St and is a couple blocks from the water and wharf to walk down to. It also has really solid food. Agree with Tuttle that taking a ride down to Carmel is worthwhile. Really love the happy hour at Vesuvio on their rooftop. Think it's 3-6 or 4-6 or something like that. Prices can be wild so the happy hour prices just kind of make it semi-normalized.

Down in Big Sur you can go really big with what may be the best view in the country for a meal at Nepenthe. If it's a night or weekend, can probably forget about it unless you really aim to get there right when they open or an odd time. We always stop at Big Sur Taphouse when we're in the area. The food isn't anything spectacular but it's solid and you are in the middle of nowhere so it's a pretty cool spot to relax for a bit. Either of those spots are semi close to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park which is worth the stop to take a look at. It's actually where my wife and I got hitched as well lol.

View attachment 219181

Appreciate the info! That view looks awesome.

 

[chugg21]

Appreciate the info! That view looks awesome.

It's a little hard to tell but the one part is a waterfall that flows over the edge. It's certainly nice to look at. There are actually 2 camping spots up over the cliff there. They're exceptionally tough to get as they book out like 6 months ahead and you have to login at the exact moment the next ones open up to secure one. Got to stay up there twice and it was incredible. One of the times we were setup and the group walks up for the one spot which is about 100 feet away and it was a guy in a Cuse shirt and ended up being from 2 towns over from mine.

 

[NineOneSeven]

It's a little hard to tell but the one part is a waterfall that flows over the edge. It's certainly nice to look at. There are actually 2 camping spots up over the cliff there. They're exceptionally tough to get as they book out like 6 months ahead and you have to login at the exact moment the next ones open up to secure one. Got to stay up there twice and it was incredible. One of the times we were setup and the group walks up for the one spot which is about 100 feet away and it was a guy in a Cuse shirt and ended up being from 2 towns over from mine.

Good stuff. Anything around Union Square you'd recommend as a "site to see"?

 

[chugg21]

Good stuff. Anything around Union Square you'd recommend as a "site to see"?

If you all haven't done the Alcatraz tour then that's something worth doing once. If anyone in the family is into Kerouac or any of the beat generation guys, the place they used to hangout is called Vesuvio Cafe over by Chinatown. One of the best dim sum places in the country is a 5 minute walk away called Good Mong Kok. My wife loves Kerouac and Burroughs and all of those guys so we always grab some dim sum and bring it over to Vesuvio because they allow you to bring food in, and sit and have a drink or 2 there. Union Square is about a half mile or so from both places.

 

[NineOneSeven]

chugg21 - in Monterey now. Planning to check out the aquarium tmrw. Originally we were only thinking 1 night here but decided to push it to two. Will note your comments above- we do have Big Sur and Carmel by sea on the list.

 

[chugg21]

chugg21 - in Monterey now. Planning to check out the aquarium tmrw. Originally we were only thinking 1 night here but decided to push it to two. Will note your comments above- we do have Big Sur and Carmel by sea on the list.

Miss that place a lot. Can get some spectacular burritos at some of the small taquerias in Monterey like Baldimeros or Taqueria Zarape.