San Fran/Napa must see/do/eat?

[mrsd2006]

Going to spend about a week in San Francisco, what area do you recommend? Restaurants, touristy things? Would like to go to Alcatraz. 

also would like to spend a couple days in Napa- any recs to stay or must visit places/tours? 

Have you been to French Laundry? We are on the wait list. Is it worth it?

thanks in advance

[mdgirl]

Do you like wine? Have you been wine tasting before? Do you have an idea of how much you'd want to buy or spend per bottle? Or would it be more for scenery and experiences? I have a bunch of Napa/Sonoma posts in my blog, and I know others on here have blog posts about it, too. That might help you narrow down what you want to do there.

We've been to French Laundry twice. If you like food and you're OK with spending $700+ on 1 meal, then yes it's worth it. If that would make you feel icky, there are plenty of other fantastic restaurants (many of them within walking distance of FL).

[definitelyO]

We've gone to both Sonoma and Napa. We used Jakes Wine Tours for both and one time had a limo in Napa. I loved the square in Sonoma and the smaller boutique vineyards/wineries. But in Napa you get the huge estates and the recognizable names. We did love sparkling wine and chocolates on the patio at Gloria Ferrer. I've heard great things about Goosecross in Napa but haven't been there yet - it's on my list based on some friend's recommendations.

San Fran - we just loved walking around downtown - and hit up the tourist stuff - Fisherman's wharf, china town, etc...

Have a great time!

[anaps28]

We went to SF and Sonoma/Napa for our anniversary one year. We did not have one bad meal while we were there, everything was amazing! We used Beau Wine Tours for a one day car service around Sonoma to about 4 or 5 different wineries. It was fantastic.

SF we ate at:
Slanted Door
Boulevard
Gary Danko
The House

Sonoma:
Girl & the Fig

Napa:
Bouchon
Ad Hoc

[boiler717]

Favorite wineries in Napa:
Artessa
Miner
Sindinsky
Stag's Leap
Frog's Leap
Domaine Carneros
Mumm

My favorite restaurant was Bistro Jeanty.

[stever]

The Ferry Building for breakfast, Caffe Trieste for coffee and a snack and Suppenkuche for dinner. If, as a PP suggested, you go see Beach Blanket Babylon I suggest going next door to Capp's Corner for dinner. Old school North Beach.

[RoxMonster]

For Napa tours, I cannot rave enough about Max Napa Tours. He takes a max of 6 people and tailors the wineries/vineyards to your tastes and preferences. He is so knowledgeable and will be able to get you in for private tours at wineries off-the-beaten path where there won't be huge vans of other tours. It was awesome!

For SF food recs, we loved Frascati. It was our favorite meal there. We also enjoyed getting a drink at Top of the Mark.

Besides Alcatraz, we liked walking through the different neighborhoods like North Beach and Chinatown, riding the cable car from Union Square to the Wharf, and our absolute favorite activity was biking the GGB into Sausalito for the day, then taking the ferry back over.

ETA: Our favorite wineries were The Terraces (the owner drove us around the vineyard in his golf cart and we tasted wine in his kitchen!) and Salvestrin.

[christy082]

Def. get Alcatraz tickets in advance, especially if you want to do the night tour. When we went to SF, we did a segway tour and had so much fun. We used City Segway Tours. We went to the de Young museum and the California Academy of Sciences, both of which I enjoyed. We rode a cable car to Lombard Street. I'll second the recommendation for The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma.

[egishere]

Feb 8, 2014 22:57:51 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For Napa tours, I cannot rave enough about Max Napa Tours. He takes a max of 6 people and tailors the wineries/vineyards to your tastes and preferences. He is so knowledgeable and will be able to get you in for private tours at wineries off-the-beaten path where there won't be huge vans of other tours. It was awesome!

I will second this rec!  We used MNT last yr on our trip after RoxMonster recommended them here and I plan to use them again this spring when I go back to SF for work...going to do another day trip with my co-workers!  They get great reviews on Trip Advisor.

For seafood at the Wharf we liked Scomas.  Tra Vinge in Napa was so good.

[zitiqueen]

If Alcatraz still offers the self-guided tours, pay the extra money. So worth it.

[valetgirl]

I adore San Francisco!

Dining: Gary Danko and Slanted Door. Reserve as early as you can for GD - like months in advance, if possible.

I love pretty much everything about this city. Even the major tourist attractions are worth the hype, EXCEPT for bike riding over the GG Bridge. It takes waaaay longer than you might think and you could spend the time seeing/doing so much more.

I think it's better to get around by foot and just soak everything in. I love the Marina (cute shops), the Presidio (a wilderness respite right in the city), the Mission (amazing burritos and cool graffiti murals walking tour in the alleys - totally safe - just google), Nob Hill (majestic architecture), Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, and so many others. It's definitely a neighborhood city.

Check out the Ferry Building for great food boutiques. From there, take the ferry to Sausalito (half a day is enough). So quaint for walking around and grabbing a drink/bite.

Have fun!

[mrsd2006]

Great info, thanks so much ladies.

We are going to be there for six nights, should we pick one hotel for all nights, or try and stay in two areas?

[Deleted]

Feb 11, 2014 19:04:29 GMT -5 mrsd2006 said:

Great info, thanks so much ladies.

We are going to be there for six nights, should we pick one hotel for all nights, or try and stay in two areas?

San Francisco is pretty small - no reason to move hotels in the city, but you might do 4 nights in the city and 2 nights in Napa/Sonoma if you want to spend time in wine country.

[christy082]

Feb 11, 2014 20:07:39 GMT -5 @heyitsme said:

Feb 11, 2014 19:04:29 GMT -5 mrsd2006 said:

Great info, thanks so much ladies.

We are going to be there for six nights, should we pick one hotel for all nights, or try and stay in two areas?

San Francisco is pretty small - no reason to move hotels in the city, but you might do 4 nights in the city and 2 nights in Napa/Sonoma if you want to spend time in wine country.

I agree. If you do decide to stay in wine country, I highly recommend The Inn on First in Napa. It's a luxury bed and breakfast, and our stay there was wonderful. 

[valetgirl]

It's a fairly compact city with excellent public transportation. Staying put shouldn't be an issue, other than if you want an extended trip to wine country, as mentioned. Most hotels are in the Union Square or Fisherman's Wharf area, both well located. Don't forget comfy shoes for the hilly streets!

[honeybadger]

Do a day in Healdsburg if you can. Great wine tasting, less pretentious than Napa. You could also do a day doing beer tasting/brewery hopping in the North Bay if you wanted to.  Sol Food in San Rafael is good if you are driving/heading up that direction.  

[wanderlustfoodie]

I haven't been to SF in years but I never loved that city. It's a combination of socal bias plus my parents making me go into one of the cells in Alcatraz thinking it would make for cute photos; instead it just gave my poor young, impressionable young mind horrible nightmares!

In wine country, I've had good meals at Redd. French Laundry was quite an experience and I'm glad I did it but (1) it was a bit of a mood killer sitting next to a table of adults who were clearly taking advantage of a night out without the kids and got rip-roaringly-loud drunk and (2) there was a significant lag between our main protein (a delicious lamb) and the first dessert during which time I started dozing off at the table (lesson learned: don't visit 5 wineries during the day before your TFL dinner reservation). MH still loves to give me grief about how he had to force me to stay awake at the TFL table