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Mr. French Fries and I are in the midst of making an important wedding-related decision: where to celebrate and relax after the wedding is over! We’ve thrown around so. many. ideas. throughout the honeymoon planning process; here are a few locales that we considered:
We were all over the map, quite literally! I handed over the reins to Mr. French Fries for our honeymoon planning and left it up to him to come up with an idea. Once he came up with something, together we’d hash the pros and cons and make a final decision. This took a lot of pressure off of me and gave Mr. French Fries some quality Google time.
We definitely knew what didn’t work for us. We weren’t thrilled with the idea of Mexico or the Dominican Republic because we’d rather save a trip like that to escape the long Wisconsin winters. Fiji was short-lived for the reasons I stated above. While we loved the idea of London and Paris, we decided that we’d rather go to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. The cruise seemed promising, but the port dates weren’t matching up with our honeymoon dates very well. On top of all of that, we weren’t crazy about dealing with passports and exchange rates and lengthy time changes – we wanted something relatively simple, with a good mix of things to do and prime relaxation time. Oh, and we didn’t have a ton of money to spend, either! So you know… it was a pretty simple task. (ha!)
On a random Tuesday night, Mr. French Fries tossed out the idea of staying stateside and going to California. I immediately knew that it was perfect; we’d been to LA and Orange County this past spring, and I knew we’d have a great time on a trip like this! LA was intense, exciting, and a tad overwhelming, so we’d probably skip that portion for our honeymoon, but Orange County and its beautiful beaches were so relaxing.
(Image from author’s personal collection)
We knew we wanted to go back to Orange County and relax on the beach, but we also knew that we wanted to branch out and do something new. We decided to start in San Francisco and work our way south. We’ll have time to poke around San Francisco and see the sights, and then we’ll spend a day in Napa doing what else? Drinking wine! We will rent a car and drive down the Pacific Coast Highway (and other roads too, I’m sure) to Southern California, where we’ll round out our trip relaxing on the beach. I know that the drive from Northern to Southern California is going to be a tad on the long side, but we’re good navigators and it’ll give us time to chat (and me an excuse to go through wedding pics on my laptop!).
(Image from author’s personal collection)
I like that we’ll have a mix of touristy/adventuresome things along with some relaxation time. We’ve sorted out a tentative itinerary and it looks a little like this:
3 days: San Francisco
1 day: Napa Valley
1 day: Monterey
5 days: Orange County
So, here’s where you come in! If you live in any of these places, or have been to any of these places, or even just know someone that knows someone that’s been to any of these places, what are things that we should see/do? What can we skip, and what shouldn’t we miss? We’ve gotten good recommendations for hotels from our travel agent, but we’d love suggestions on places to go, things to do, great restaurants – you know the drill. In the meantime, I’ll be California dreamin’ from blustery and chilly Wisco!
How did you and your fiancé choose your honeymoon destination?
Sounds perfect! I’d love to do a trip like this sometime with the husband.
Don’t miss the Montery Bay Aquarium or Hearst Castle. They are incredible and well worth the time and money to see. If you go to Hearst Castle you might want to think about scheduling more than one tour. We did just a main introductory type tour and we didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked.
I definitely recommend taking away some time from the OC to enjoy Santa Barbara on the way down. The wineries in the Santa Ynez valley are much more relaxing than Napa, which feels like a bit of a zoo. Santa Ynez wineries are more spread apart, you are more likely to enjoy a chat with the staff and learn a thing or two about wine, and there are many beautiful grounds for photo ops without a crowd of people in the background. Options include jeep, educational, or biking tours of the wineries.
The city is just beautiful and there are all of the traditional beachy activities that you would enjoy in the OC. - take a surf lesson, rent beach cruisers, sunset sail. Plus you can take a whale watching, SCUBA or kayak trip out to the Channel Islands, the “galapagos of north america”.
Hey, this sounds a bit like our honeymoon itinerary… only we actually live in CA ;). All of those places are great, and I agree with @rachel_leigh: see Hearst Castle! It’s totally worth it. 
Napa has some great wineries, too… I definitelly recommend mapping out which ones you want to visit ahead of time!
GREAT honeymoon idea!!! I’ve had a dream to do a long (2-3 week) trip down the west coast forever (isn’t there a highway that runs all the way along it?)
We tossed around the idea of doing a trip like that but ultimately decided to save it for a few years down the road (harhar) when we have kiddies…
Sounds like an awesome trip tho!
I live in SF and you’ll love it, although June can be cold in the city, so be prepared with some hoodies and pants. hotel vitale where peep toe got married is a great place if you can swing it. there’s also a great hop on hop off bus tour that takes you to the key sights in the city. go see alcatraz for sure, but plan ahead, it’s always sold out, so get tickets on your first day. Napa will be great but try to check out sonoma too if you can, it’s a little less crowded and gloria ferrer is a beautiful winery that does champagne, take their tour, it’s super interesting! definitely check out carmel when you go to monterey and the aquarium is the best. agreed on hearst castle and pismo beach is another great stop on the way down south. sorry, loads of info here, feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions!
A gf and I just went to San Fran this past spring. I highly recommend http://www.winecountrytourshuttle.com/
for a wine tour. We went to some great wineries, didn’t have to worry about driving, and really enjoyed ourselves. You should check it out!
I live in the Bay Area and went to school in San Diego and my in-laws live there, so we spend a LOT of time doing the drive you’re describing. Tra Vigne in Napa area (I think it might technically be in St. Helena) is a great restaurant to go to … not super expensive but great food. When you’re headed down 101 you might consider stopping in Paso Robles–there’s a nice wine scene there and it’s kind of charming and quaint/antique-y feeling, and it breaks up the trip well. If you’re into the outdoors there are GREAT trails and parks in the SF Bay Area. Dottie’s (in the Tenderloin) is a really great breakfast place (but be prepared to wait). I haven’t checked, but will Wicked still be playing in SF when you’re there? That’s fun–and if it’s gone it might still be worth seeing a show. Dim sum in Chinatown is great for lunch, or on Clement St. if you’re closer to that area. The park is really nice, just to walk around in and hang out (or the CA Academy of Sciences, but it’s a bit expensive). It’s fun to hang out in the Mission District–lots of great thrift store shopping, REALLY REALLY good ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery, and a really great scene at Mission Dolores park to hang out and eat said ice cream. (The Mission itself is pretty, too, and there’s a cool cemetery behind the church.)
This might be really obvious (sorry if so, but my uncle’s family from Wisconsin said no one used it there!) but Yelp is huge in the Bay Area, so check it out for everything from restaurants to hotels to attractions to neighborhoods.
Have fun!!
San Franciscan here! When you’re in SF, make sure to visit the infamous Transamerica building. I actually work diagonally across from it, and it’s quit breathtaking each day I walk to work. After you see the building, walk about 5 blocks down to the Embarcadero Center, and have some lunch in the cute ferry building. Work your way over to the piers. You’re going to love it!
If you have some extra cash to spend, I would probably do 2 days in SF and spend a night in Sonoma/ Napa. There is a wonderful hotel called Carneros in Sonoma that my fiance and I go to annually on our anniversary. It’s very secluded and you’ll get your own “house” with a nice huge backyard and outdoors shower. You can also enjoy some couple’s massage there overlooking their infinity pool out to the vineyards! Also, our wedding site is called Jacuzzi Winery in Sonoma, it’s beautiful. Right next door, there’s Viansa winery, which is up on a hill and you can see amazing views.
Feel free to contact me if you want more advise. I’m so excited for you!
While you’re in Monterey I would definitely recommend eating either at Stokes downtown or at Tarpy’s off of highway 68. Both can be a little on the spendy side, but both are very very tasty. The FI and I ate at Stokes for our engagement dinner and at Tarpy’s for Valentine’s Day. On the cheaper side, there is Hula’s on Lighthouse Ave, which does some tasty Hawaiin style food (mmm, sweet potato fries!).
If you’re looking for cheaper food and you’re there on a Tuesday there is a GREAT market on Alvarado Street downtown. They have a lot of different foods from barbeque to falafel (and if you like Indian/ curry I recommend a chicken naan wrap). There’s also a lot of fresh produce, flowers, arts and crafts vendors, etc.
Oh, I also forgot, 17 Mile Drive is about $9.50 and is a very lovely way to spend an hour or so. Assuming you aren’t tired of driving by then.
Oh, my god, we did the PCH trip in 2007 and we have been dreaming of going back (or just moving to California) since!
We did the opposite way, starting in San Diego and ending in San Francisco. Some of our favorite places were the ones we didn’t plan to be.
San Diego: 2 days over 4th of July. Fireworks along the bay, tours of the Midway (and the bar from Top Gun), the Gaslight District all downtown. Then, Sea World is close by (we didn’t go) and Pacific Beach was the cutest little beach town where you could get arrested for leaning against the sea wall with a beer in your hand. La Jolla is gorgeous and worth a day of shopping itself! I recommend you try to get down there and skip LA because it’s so much more relaxing!
LA was a little nutty and I didn’t feel very comfortable there.
Then we did the PCH from Malibu up. Make sure you stop for gas early because it will cost you a lot on the highway and there are very few places to stop. We stopped at a little roadside bar called the Maiden Inn that had the theme of Soccer hooligans, Iron Maiden, and Philadelphia Eagles (the owners are from Philly and used to tour as the opening band for Iron Maiden). We stayed in a town called Morro Bay and got a hotel room in about 10 minutes by walking in and comparing prices. $40 a night isn’t bad.
We stopped at Hearst Castle on the way which was absolutely amazing. It was a great tour.
San Fran was great too–we stayed with a local so tourism was easier for us. If I can give you any more tips, please ask!
Go to Miir Woods. It is just outside San Fran and its awesome.
We also really enjoyed Alcatraz, the ferry over gives great views!
That sounds bit like our honeymoon - 1 day in Tahoe, 2 days in Lassen Volcanic National Park, 2 days in the Redwoods, 1 in San Fran, 1 in Reno. It was a lot of driving and personally I wish I would have driven less and relaxed more the first 2 days!
We loved spending time in San Fran - we stayed at the Fairmont - excellent everything! They have this fun famous Tiki restaurant, called the The Tonga Room - go there for some seriously awesome cocktails, live music, and a fun night of dancing. If you go early it will be crowded so we went for our night cap and it was perfect!
http://www.fairmont.com/sanfrancisco/GuestServices/Restaurants
Napa is great - but it’s really great for a longer visit than just 1 day - If you can skip it and make a trip back - look into Paso Robles near San Luis Obispo - awesome wineries there! And San Luis Obispo is a fun college town.
Monterey is a must - also look up Big Sur - something NOT to be missed. Bis Sur has always been my favorite stop along the PCH!
Sounds so fun! Enjoy your trip, make sure you don’t plan anything too much the first day or two, it’s nice to simply relax and have some good meals together!
I love it all but definitely shorten your stay in Orange County and make it down to San Diego…. much more goregous and relaxing with a bit more excitement, too, in my opinion.
We just did this trip over the summer and loved it! We spent 3 days going up to Monterey…I had wanted to go to SF and possibly Napa but I felt that I was going to be packing in too much at once. Anyway, the Monterey Aquarium is amazing so def stop there. Do the coastal ride through Big Sur and stop at as many beaches as possible because it’s just breathtaking. Hearst Castle is insane and we want to go back to do all the other tours…def set aside time for it. I say skip Solvang…biggest waste of time.
I live here in Socal and I think LA is a huge S-hole so stay out and go straight to South County.
Although I’ve never been to SF, I did want to mention that your post title is the name of a song by one of my favorite bands, Something Corporate. Just something that caught my eye.
Sounds like an awesome honeymoon! I’ve got a great driving tour of San Fran that I’d be happy to send you the link to (it’s on my wedding website for our guests to check out, pm me if you’re interested). Also, when you go wine tasting in Napa, you should consider investing in getting a driver for the day. We did when we went to Sonoma for the first time and it was so worth it to not have to worry about finding our way around and driving after a few tastings.
San Francisco is AMAZING. It’s the only one of those places I’ve been, but when I was there I did a jeep tour of the whole city. I’ll try to look up the company if you want! Sounds like fun!
Oooh love it! If you’re into tasting menus, I’d definitely recommend Cyrus in Healdsburg (Sonoma) - one of the best meals I’ve ever had!
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Mrs. French Fries, Milwaukee Age and Occupation: 27, Paralegal Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Investments Advisor Engagement Date: September 20, 2008 Wedding Date: June 2010 Venue: Ceremony: Catholic Church, Reception: Hotel Ballroom About Me: I'm a Midwestern girl who longs to live in a warmer climate (my feet would be happy in flip flops any day!). I love travel, impromptu napping, grilled cheese sandwiches, my iPhone, singing with reckless abandon in my car, and Mr. French Fries.
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