My trip took 5 days in total; we had 2 nights in San Francisco, 2 nights in Yosemite and 1 night in Sonoma County, the wine region of California.
We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel Mark Hopkins on Nob Hill while in San Francisco. This is a fabulous 5 star hotel located in Nob Hill area of San Francisco, we were about a 10 minute walk to Union Square. I will warn you though the hills down to Union Square are not for the faint hearted and back up worse...so be prepared!! Taxis are very reasonable so don't let this put you off. I would highly recommend a visit to the bar in the hotel 'Top of the Mark' it has the most amazing views out over San Francisco Bay.
While we were in San Francisco we took in a city tour on board a classic cable car, this brought us around to all of the sights of San Francisco, Union Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, China Town and The Golden Gate Bridge, a really good way to get a feel for the city and get your bearings. We also did a boat trip around the bay which gave us great views of The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. San Francisco as a city has so much to offer, sightseeing, great shopping, an abundance of lovely restaurants I would certainly return.
From San Francisco we drove to Yosemite National Park. This took us the guts of 4 hours’ drive. We stayed in a hotel called Yosemite View Lodge for 2 nights. The hotel has a great location beside the Merced River and is only about 5 minutes’ drive from the park entrance. The views alone from the hotel are amazing. We were lucky enough to stay in the river view rooms, we had a lovely balcony that overlooked the river, we had a fireplace in our room and also a Jacuzzi in the bathroom and a kitchenette. Yosemite National Park is an amazing place, we took in the Valley Floor Tour of Yosemite, this is where Rangers introduce you to some of Yosemite’s most famous sightseeing points in Yosemite Valley and describe the history, geology, plant and animal life of the region. We were quite lucky with our visit as it had snowed the night before we arrived and this made the views even more spectacular.
Finally for our last night we headed for Wine Country and Sonoma Town, this journey from Yosemite was a good 5 hour drive. I have to be honest this was the highlight of my trip. We did 3 wine tastings while in this region all equally as good, Buenta Vista Winery, Paradise Ridge and also Benziger Family Winery. This area of California has more than 400 wineries, miles of rugged Pacific coastline, towering redwood forests so is well worth a few nights stay.
Sadly this was the end of our trip, we were only in California for 5 nights but we sampled loads of what this amazing part of America has to offer. If you haven’t been I would highly recommend that you plan a visit. I certainly plan on returning.
