23 Day West Coast Honeymoon Road Trip - Advice anyone?

[goleafs]

The trip is going like this:

3 nights Vegas
2 nights San Diego
3 nights L.A. area
2 nights Catalina Island
3 nights San Francisco
1 night Monterey/Salinas
2 nights Carmel
1 night Napa
1 night Redding (DAY IN LAKE TAHOE)
1 night Seattle
3 nights Vancouver (1 day Whistler)
1 night Victoria

Does anyone have any suggestions in how to make this trip as romantic, adventurous, and enjoyable as possible? We are going from July 10-August 2nd so it'll be beautiful weather!!!

[Mark Sedenquist]

1 night Napa
1 night Redding (DAY IN LAKE TAHOE)
1 night Seattle

You are driving from Napa to Lake Tahoe to Redding all in one day???

Does anyone have any suggestions in how to make this trip as romantic, adventurous,

Congratulations on the pending marriage and welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum! Sounds like an interesting trip. You may wish to adjust the schedule a little bit on the days shown above.

Mark

[PNW Judy]

Tahoe is gorgeous but you are going to be skipping over or zipping fast through other beautiful country in order to squeeze Tahoe in. I would skip it this trip as it's the only place on your itinerary that is out-of-the-way once you've made your way into California. Tahoe would make a lovely trip another time.

I'd suggest going from Napa up CA-1/101 to either Eureka or Crescent City. From either of those cities, you can take beautiful drives to hook back up with I-5. And this would allow you to enjoy an awesome coastal drive that rivals any other coast in the world. Yes, it's that gorgeous. And you will also be able to see some of the Redwood forests as well. Grant's Pass would make a good stop for the night.

This will also have the advantage of shortening the drive to Seattle.

Congratulations on the marriage. Best wishes.

[goleafs]

What if I left Napa at like 6-7am and got to Tahoe around 930-10, wouldn't that leave me the whole day there? I've heard it's absolutely gorgeous and a friend who went there said it's worth going out of the way. In fact, the reason we're staying in Redding is so we can drive from Redding to Arcata on I-299 which is supposed to have stunning views, and then from there drive up to Seattle.

[Mark Sedenquist]

What if I left Napa at like 6-7am and got to Tahoe around 930-10, wouldn't that leave me the whole day there?

OK, but then you are going to drive from Lake Tahoe to Redding -- In my view that is too much driving for one day. I drove ~700 miles yesterday, so long days are not beyond my experience.

I drove SR-299 yesterday. Yes, you are going to love the canyon -- lots of rushing rivers right now. Just watch for deer -- I just about tagged one last night!

Mark

[W. Larrison]

1 night Napa
1 night Redding (DAY IN LAKE TAHOE)
1 night Seattle

A random comment or two?

Napa a great, romantic place to stay. There are some very nice inns and restaurants in Calistoga or St Helena, right in the wine country. Cool...

But the next couple of days look pretty wild...

My recommendation would be to drop the Tahoe visit, and take your time up 101 over to the coast -- visit a coupe of places in Redwoods National park and vicinity, and slowly head up the coast. You'll be hard pressed to make much past Crescent City that day. Going from Redding to Tahoe to the coast again will be almost impossible, and then virtually impossible to go up along the oregon coast to Seattle in a day -- unless you cut inland and take I-5 -- and even from Redding its a long, full days' drive up I-5 to Seattle.

If you need to go from Napa to Seattle in 2 nights -- and this is your Honeymoon after all -- do Napa to Redwoods in on day, and stay around Crescent City. Then the next day do Crescent city back to I-5, and up to the Portland area. You can visit Eugene and perhaps the Oregon Wine County, or find a nice romantic spot in the Columbia Gorge (an hour or so east from Portland) to stay. Then the next day, take the 3-4 hours to get to Seattle, and take it slowly.

Don't push things.. this is a honeymoon, not a fanatic road trip...

There's a couple of nice romantic spots on the coast route up through Washington State near Olympic state park (Crescent Lake, for example), and then you can take the Ferry over to Victoria from Port Angeles, and from there a ferry from Victoria to Vancouver. But you'd bypass Seattle that way.

[Mom of 1]

As the previous poster said, this is a honeymoon, not a fanatic road trip. If you are dead tired at the end of the day from driving, you will lack the needed energy for, um, honeymooning.

Napa is very romantic. How about 2 nights there, skip something else further north?

Carmel and Monterrey are south of San Francisco. Not sure why they come after SF on your itinerary. Carmel is very romantic. Instead of 1 night in Monterrey and 2 nights in Carmel, why not come up the coast from L.A. and spend one night at the Madonna Inn in one of their wildly themed rooms with the round bed and the fake fur? (Assuming your spouse-to-be has a great sense of humor, this place could be lots of fun on a honeymoon.) Then just do the 2 nights in Carmel, and skip the night in Monterrey? You can tour Monterrey while staying in Carmel.

In general, my advice would be to subtract three or four destinations from this trip (save them for your first anniversary), take it slower, and allow for plenty of time in the evenings for leisurely, romantic dinners for two.

[Mark Sedenquist]

I did a road trip honeymoon (not too surprising) and my idea of a holiday is to take long walks, sit by a fireplace/campfire and wander as my whim and that of my partner/wife/bride hits us. There are some awesome and romantic places between Napa and the coast -- I would leave Tahoe for another time and slowing wend northward. I just don't quite understand the need for 15+ hour days on the road. Does your bride-to-be share this urgency?

If you reach Mendocino -- I have celebrated a wedding and a few anniversarys at the Stanford Inn.

Relax, this is the one time in your life, you don't really need to "do everything".

Mark

[goleafs]

What is Grant's Pass? What is so special about it? It seems interesting...

[PNW Judy]

To be honest, except for a fun and funky, huge blackbird statue and a Muffler Man, I can't think of anything special about Grant's Pass. It's simply a good spot on the map to make a stop where you will have ample choices of lodging. Oh, it's not a bad place. I'm not knocking it. But it doesn't stand out as a special place to visit. Of course, I could be wrong.....now you got me curious.

Well, a bit of googling turned up something interesting. I guess Grant's Pass is more special than I thought. I was a vacation destination of choice by Clark Gable and Zane Grey and it appears there is more to do there but sleep or to use as a jumping off point to other things worth seeing that are close by (like Crater Lake, the Oregon Caves, and the Oregon Vortex.) Check it out!