DIY Travel in California
The Golden Gate Bridge is a classic California landmark, and certainly not a Hidden Gem. Nevertheless, California has some of the best Hidden Gems in the world.
San Francisco
For us, perhaps the most interesting Hidden Gem in San Francisco is Chinatown. In addition to classic street scenes, and traditional stores (e,g, The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company), there is also some wonderful street art and a truly unique church, the Old St. Mary’s Cathedral and Chinese Mission in the heart of the neighborhood where the Christian paintings reflect Asian faces. If you want to check out another great Chinatown, see our post on NYC.
Half Moon Bay – a wee bit of Scotland
A long-time dream of Robin’s was to stay and play at Half Moon Bay. It is sheer gorgeousness, with it’s Scottish type cliffs and golf. It certainly didn’t disappoint, complete with early morning fog and dew.
California – Monterey Peninsula
The Monterery Peninsula includes the memorable 17-mile drive from Pacific Grove to the well-known Pebble Beach Golf Course. The Peninsula and its large artist community, Carmel-by-the-Sea, anchor the northern portion of the equally famous Pacific Coast Highway, perhaps one of the most scenic drives in the world. Equally famous, but clearly a hidden gem, is the Lone Cypress which serves as the official symbol of Pebble Beach.
A true Hidden Gem in the region is the San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission, or as it is better known, the Carmel Mission. This Mission became the headquarters for Spain’s expanding California mission system.
Pacific Coast Highway
Leaving Carmel and heading south, one will get to enjoy some of the best Hidden Gem scenes anywhere in the world. Big Sur, which is the rocky mountain region that reaches to the sea and Pfeiffer Beach State Park present some of the most beautiful coastal scenes anywhere. This region stretches from Carmel to San Simeon. For more information, please see our Best Road Trips for Couples Post.
California – San Simeon and Paso Robles
San Simeon and Paso Robles are two areas within the central coast county of San Luis Obispo. San Simeon is on the coast and best known for the famous Hearst Castle; Paso Robles is about 30 miles inland from San Simeon and about 30 miles north of San Luis Obispo. We found a Hidden Gem in the area around San Simeon, the Northern Elephant Seal Rockery. These are huge seals who obviously enjoy the protected area.
California – Wine Country
Paso Robles is the fastest wine growing region of California. We stopped in at the Justin winery, to honor Justin, our step-son. This is one of more than 150 wineries in the region, offering some great wine.
However, no section of California would be complete without mentioning the Napa and Sonoma wine regions.
Napa Valley
Napa Valley is home to many great wineries, most of which feature lush, jammy Cabernet Sauvignons. Because of its popularity, wine tasting in Napa is becoming a bit expensive. During a recent search for vineyard tastings, the top price we found was $175 per person. This motivated us to expand out tastings to the more moderate region of Sonoma. And we are glad we did, finding equally wonderful visits there.
Robin’s favorite Napa visits include (in no particular order):
Newton, Outpost, Krupp Brothers, Carmen Policy, Cade, Mumm, Grgich Hills, 2929, Celani Family, Schramsberg (and Charles Krug), Gargiulo, Gemstone and Pride.
Robin had the unfortunate experience of being in Napa on August 23, 2014. During her visit a 6.1 earthquake shook the wine region. Since then, she has been obsessed with earthquakes….
Sonoma
We found the Sonoma region to be utterly charming, feeling a lot like Napa of the old days. Two of the vinyards we visited, Hanzell Winery and Repris are located at the top of mountains. Here the wines enjoy the cool Pacific Ocean breezes. The ride up the mountain is as pleasant as is the visit. Both visits were special experiences. We were the only ones at Hanzell and we had a private tour including a 4 WD up the mountain at Repris. And the wines at both places were delicious!
We also visited Buena Vista which bills itself as an 1857 winery with historic buildings, tastings and picnic spots. Although quite commercialized, the wines were very good, and the tasting tour included sampling freshly squeezed grape juice. The last visit was to Ledson Winery & Vineyards. This featured a gorgeous castle setting. Although our tasting tour was next to the vinyards, it was our least favorite of the four.
To visit the San Francisco Wine region in either Napa or Sonoma, we recommend taking a tour. This will allow you to better enjoy the wines and keep you from driving under the influence. Check out the tours on Trip Advisor.
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