Honeymoon roadtrip

[ejaya]

Hey there,
My hubby and I are thinking of doing a roadtrip starting in Edmonton AB and making our way down the coast of CA to San Diego. We've never done a trip like this before so any and all advice would be appreciated. Here are our questions....
1) how long should we leave to do this trip? We want to take our time but would like to get all the way to San Diego
2)can anyone suggest major places to stop/stay along the way?
3) route from AB to northern Cali?

Sorry for all the questions but it is all a little overwhelming :)
eJaya

[Mark Sedenquist]

My hubby and I are thinking of doing a roadtrip starting in Edmonton AB and making our way down the coast of CA to San Diego.

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum!

1) how long should we leave to do this trip? We want to take our time but would like to get all the way to San Diego

By the shortest possible route, (Montana, Utah, Nevada to California) it would be 1810 miles (2915 km) and so if this is a round trip, you should make sure you have at least a full week for travel, 2-3 weeks would be ideal. Since you mentioned a preference routing through northern California, you should add another 700 miles.

2)can anyone suggest major places to stop/stay along the way?

Before we get to the routing -- what sorts of things, places, events do you want to see on this trip? How much money do you wish to spend?

Mark

[ejaya]

Well,
We have 15 days to travel and here are the major sites we want to visit:
Okanogan Valley in BC, Seattle, SF/Bay area, Death Valley, Yosemite, Napa Valley, Las Vegas (if we have time), LA, San Diego.
Do we have enough time to visit all of those (round trip)...I figure we take the coast of CA down (9 days) and then we make it back in 6 days going to shortest route. If we have to skip a couple of places, they would be LV, LA and Yosemite.
We are interested in touristy stuff which should be easy to find in the major cities. We would like to spend a day on the beach, maybe a couple of days in wine country and otherwise will be staying in B&B's or cheap hotels.
What I am lacking is good things to see from the drive from Seattle to SF...anything worthy of stopping at in there?
here are our likes:
wine, romance, beaches, trails, interesting things/unusual places/sites
We aren't huge fans of theme parks or museums. If it is a major museum/must-see then fine but specialty museums like aviation, etc are of no interest.
Thanks so so much!

[RoadTrippers A & R]

Believe it or not, Woodenville, near Seattle has a nice Wine Country.

The Calif Wine country seems to be mostly centered in St Helena, Napa Valley, but Sonoma and Alexander Valleys are good too & have less tourist pressure if that's what you seek.

Plenty of good quaint, almost B&B's but a tad better kinda places if ya run a search.
Lower Central Coast of Calif below Santa Barbara has a wine area too in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Mid-week motel rates are far lower than weekends BTW.

[RoadDog]

In Los Angeles, we like to stay at the Redondo Pier Inn, right on the Pacific Coast Highway. Our room last fall was $90 and we were within walking distance of the Redondo Pier which I highly recommend. We had a great time listening to the live music upstairs at Tony's. Buy a special drink in a Tony's glass and you get to keep it as a souvenir.

Of course, try to visit the Santa Monica Pier as well.

We also liked the little town of El Segundo just a little south of LAX. It is like an enclave of small-town living surrounded by the big city. We especially enjoyed the food and people at Bad Dog Ale House and Tavern on Main.

Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog

[W. Larrison]

If you're heading up and down the west coast, there are several good wine areas you can stop at...

Washington State's wine country is centered around the Yakima/ Richland area in central Washington. This is the home of several big wineries of which Chateau St Michelle is the largest, as well as several score smaller wineries. There are also smaller wineries around the state, ranging from Mt Baker winery (outside of Bellingham) to near Vancouver WA. As Ross & Alice note, there's a pocket of them near Woodenville near Bothell WA, which includes the big sales office & tasting room of Chateau St. Michelle. There are several other smaller wineries in the area, some of which produce some good wines.

Oregon State's most accessible wine country is the north Williamette Valley. If you follow 99W instead of I-5 (99W parallels the I-5) you should pass quite a few between Portland and Salem. You can do this route either heading north or south. There are also quite a few a bit west of here near Carlton and Dundee. Excellent wines, particularly Pinot Noirs and the more complex Reds.

California has several wine producing regions. The best known area is the Napa Valley north east of San Francisco. The Napa valley is pretty much set up for visiting and tasting, with scores of wineries, tasting rooms, and places to stop. Excellent wines in general, but can be a bit touristy. There are some very nice and romantic B&B's and some excellent restaurants between St Helena, Callistoga and Yontville in the valley. Sonoma, a bit more to the west, is also home of a number of excellent wineries.

But California also has several other good wine producing areas. Livermore valley (east of SF between the bay and the Central valley) has several good wineries. The Santa Cruz/ Monterey area has a number of very good wineries.

The Central Valley is where many of the wine grapes used in the other wineries are actually grown -- and while there isn't a real concentration of them, there are a number of good, small wineries around the Central Valley. Some of these are accessible from I-99, and if anywhere has a concentration it's near Fresno which is by volume, the largest wine producing area in the world. (It's home of the several major commercial wineries. If you drive through, there are some HUGE tanks of wine you can spot at some of the facilities.)

The Paso Robles area is one of the fastest growing wine regions in California Last time I drove through on US 101 and headed over to San Simeon on 46, there were an amazing number of small wineries. Last I heard there were about 120 wineries now near Paso Robles, most located along CA46 either west or east of town. From past stops, some of these wines can be excellent.

The San Ynez region north of Santa Barbara also off US 101 is home to a number of good wineries. This was the setting for the movie "Sideways" a few years ago.

And lastly, south of LA/ North of San Diego, there are a number of wineries in the Temecula area.

*laughing* (at myself). Have I really spent that much time at wineries along the west coast???? Anyway, if you're interested in stopping and tasting at a few areas, there are lots of opportunities.. Just remember you're *tasting* and you will be driving afterwards. Some places will line up to 20+ types of wine to taste, and I cringe at watching someone belt their way through them with a couple of big swallows of each, and then drive off to the next place, and the next place, and the next place.... Drive responsibly.

[ejaya]

No worries :) We will sleep right at the winery if need be.
Thanks for all the great advice. I am getting really excited about the whole thing. if I could ask people for names of:
1) B&B's/hotels they've stayed at along this route
2) places you just shouldn't miss seeing ( even if very touristy...I am a tourist afterall!)
3) odd and unusual tours/sites/museums/off-road areas that someone following a certain schedule/route would normally miss seeing.

Thanks again! I can't wait.