Yes we are staying in Santa Clara Saturday and Sunday. My friend lives in grass valley and is meeting me Saturday. I will check Berkeley area.

Yeah if it's a choice of Rt. 1 vs. 395 take Route 1. Not even close. You could take 395, cut through Yosemite, then head west for the coast.

That's a pretty good trip. If you have time to take a detour you could head south on 395 and see Mammoth and/or the Bristlecone Pine Forest.

For the drive from SF to Portland and the stuff in northern CAlifornia, I posted this a couple years ago in the travel section:

Its all still relevant except there is no snow.

Ok just saw this. Sounds like you could just take the coast the whole way with detour to Crater Lake, or if you want to head east out of LA and partly do Yosemite or 395 + Yosemite coming in from the east route that could work. You could also hit Joshua Tree and even Death Valley if you want to get adventurous.

The only boring highway you're going to be tempted to take is I-5, and it's never not boring until it gets up to Oregon. Go for the 101 or 1 to the West or 395 or 99 to the east. The 99 is still boring, and smells like cow ****, but it's close to Yosemite, Sequioia, and King's Canyon NPs.

One cool thing you could easily do on this trip is see the world's oldest living thing (Bristlecone Pine Forest), biggest living thing (General Sherman tree in Sequoia) and tallest living thing (Tall Trees Grove in Redwood NP). They won't tell you the exact tallest and oldest trees because they're afraid people will mess with them - also the tallest tree seems to be up for debate, but it's definitely a redwood in that area. But you can still say you saw them.

Arcata. Arcadia is in SoCal. If interested I recommend Prairie Creek, Del Norte redwoods, Lady Bird Johnson Grove and the drive from south fork up Bull Creek in Humboldt Redwoods state park.

This sounds super cool (oldest/biggest/tallest), but looking at the map it seems that the Bristlecone is pretty far away. Maybe I google mapped it wrong.

Thinking something along:

San Diego -> Monteray (rt1) -> Sequoia NP -> Yosemite -> SF -> Redwood NP -> Crater Lake -> Portland

Is that way too much for two weeks? I also haven't read up on Yosemite at all and I realize I can probably spend two years there and not see all of it.

Oh yeah, don't go do Arcadia - nothing to see there.

Bristlecone pine forest is about a 40 minute each way detour from 395.

I was searching General Sherman to Schulman Grove and it gave me a 7 hours detour.

I guess there's easy way to see both Big Sur and 395 in the same trip.

Nope. The coast > 395 if you have to pic one. Avoid 5/99. 395 also lands you nowhere near SF or PDX.

As far as scenic alternatives 1>395>flying>101>>>>>5/99. Unless you want to drive past cow death camps in 110 degree heat.

Yeah give your constraints I would just stick to the coast. If you have extra time one kinda cool detour you can do is to the Lost Coast in Norcal.

I haven't been to Capetown but I've been to Petrolia. It's pretty wild, you really feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere. Cow fields come literally right to the ocean.

I do have this mapped out as an option. Probably will see what time it is when we reach Mono. On paper that feels like a busy day already.

Starting this 15d trip today:

SF -> HWY1 -> Monterey -> HW1 -> Paso Robles -> Sequoia/Kings -> Yosemite -> Lake Tahoe -> Sonoma -> Marin/Sausilito (halr day) -> Fly out

Sorry if this has been addressed, but is Mariposa -> Groveland via 49? That's a nice drive, but I would recommend Mariposa -> 140 into the valley floor, loop through there then swing up Big Oak Flat Road to 120 -> Groveland if you're staying there or something.

This. what's so special about groveland? Motorcycle riders like 49 but other than that, just skip groveland entirely and do mariposa-valley-120 and out to mono lake.

I want to pick one super high end restaurant to eat while in Bay Area.

Meadowood, Saison, Quince or Benu? Other option? Probably not gonna go with French Laundry because their dress code seems harsh and I don't want to carry a fancy jacket through a 3 weeks road trip just for that.

I know Meadowood is not in SF, but we'll have a car and can do a day in Napa.

So I made reservations at Hilton Garden Inn which is at 1800 Powell St. Emeryville. Will I be able to get to Bart or other transportation easily from there? I can cancel until like the 21st or something.

Yuv,


If you're baller enough that you can make a French laundry res happen in a couple of weeks, you should do that and just buy a jacket for the day and throw it away after! Seriously, if you have a way to get in to French laundry, I'd def recommend that. Been there three times and loved it every time.

I haven't been to saison since they became super high end (I went soon after they opened when they were a ~$100 pretty experimental tasting menu). I live a couple blocks away from there and they are on my list to check out next time I have some thin excuse for justifying a $1000 per person dinner. They are prob going to have the most out-there food and are the most expensive out of this whole group (not that any of them are cheap).

Benu is excellent, but I dunno, I personally don't love the environment that much (feels kinda cold/sterile). I'd go here if you especially love Asian-influenced cuisine.

Quince I think is overrated and would not pick.

Meadowwood is great.

Prana,

It does not appear to be anywhere near a Bart station. I don't know about other transit options over there.

I'll be in the area 9 weeks from now. That's not enough to get a reservation? I'm def not balla enoguh then.

Any other once-in-a-lifetime type experiences restaurants within SF? Looking at the Michelin two-star list there's Acquerello, Atelier Crenn and Coi (I'm not gonna be able to go south to Manresa or Baume). Thoughts on them?

Yuv,

I thought you were coming sooner than that. They take reservations two months in advance and book up instantly. Google French laundry reservations for info. Lots of articles like this: http://independenttravelcats.com/201...rench-laundry/

One time I went there with a friend who had some connection for getting a reservation. The other two times I found a cancellation on opentable for the same day or or day after.

I am not a big fan of coi. I've been there three times and each time there is at least one item on the tasting menu which didn't hit the mark. I don't expect every course to blow me away, but at these prices I don't think there should be any complete misses.

Again, this is just my personal opinion, lots of people ****ing love quince and Coi.

Acquarello is awesome, but I would not pick that for you. It's great food and great service, but it's just very well executed high-end Italian food as opposed to all the other places on your list that do way more creative/modern/unique stuff.

Atelier crenn is great. It's pretty out there in terms of creativeness with some "molecular gastronomy" elements. The dessert course is really great here too.

As an aside, I haven't been to baume, but manresa is excellent.

I'd also consider taking a look at Michael Mina.

French laundry
Meadowwood
Benu/crenn/saison
Michael Mina
Acquarello
Quince
Coi

This really largely comes down to the type of cuisine/experience you are looking for. It's a bunch of highly rated places with ~$200-400 tasting menus, so anything you pick is going to be excellent. The ones I rated "lowest" are still great.

Bay Area is really amazing for food ranging from food trucks and burritos to fine-dining. Peruse the thread and feel free to ask about other food plans too. Where are you visiting from?

Two of my favorite tasting menus I think are amazing deals:

Commonwealth: $75/$120 with wine pairing
www.commonwealthsf.com

Flour and Water pasta tasting: $70/$120 with wine pairing
www.flourandwater.com

Awesome stuff ElD, thanks.

We're visiting from Israel. I ended up using this thread to steal SL_72 trip plan and we'll be doing something similar (starting from SFO->Monteray->San Louis Obispo->Yosemite->Tahoe->Napa->SF)

In general I'd rather stay away from Italian/Mediterranean or classic French and European food. So you're exactly right in regards to the high-end Italian place.

I will most defiantly read this thread and nag with some other questions. I wanted to focus on one place that I'll book in advance. Usually when we have a few nights in a big culinary destination we try to go for one super high-end place and then search the intraweb for great low-mid priced places.

I'm leaning towards Benu at the moment looking at the menus and considering that we'll be a bit too tired when we get to Napa to fully enjoy a 4 hours tasting menu.

In general I've learnt that Asian food (dirt cheap to super expensive) in the US is a billion times better than what I can find back home. While american "diner" food is pretty much inedible. Not sure what american cheese or red sauce are made of, but they shouldn't qualify as food...

I read a yelp review that there is a shuttle to a station and I can always Uber I guess. Anything right in San Francisco or Berkeley is ridiculous for that weekend. I'd jump on the prices you listed earlier.

Found this post going through the thread.

The last time I was in SF was 11 years ago. A 21 year old broke ass 'foodie' on a roadtrip with friends who ate nothing but jack in a box for 30 days.

I snuck out of the hostel we were all staying in to go to Swan Oyster Depot. Spent 20 bucks on like two oysters and a cup of clam chowder and felt more balla than I did eating at Louis XV in Monaco 3 years later.

Not sure if it's still a recommended place, but if it is I'll go for the nostalgia factor.

prana: If there's a shuttle to BART, then NBD. Or you can take a cheap cab/uber there. And it's not like you need to go back and forth to the hotel much. Pride weekend is a super huge event, not surprised at all re: hotel prices.

Yuv: Swan Oyster Depot is exactly as you remember it. Everyone says it is unchanged and still raves about it. Only reason I haven't been is I'm highly allergic to waiting in lines. Given the additional info, I think Benu is the clear choice for you and I'm sure you'll love it. I'm actually planning to go again in the near future myself, as people have said they have just been getting better and better.