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Monterey and other CA road trips
Hello,
I am located in the Central Valley of California. I am planning two trips for April/May. One is 3 year anniversary trip to Monterey. Any suggestions on where to stay? We would like to be able to walk around and take public transit. Should we consider Carmel? What to do besides the aquarium. Best day to visit the aquarium? Hotels around $150 a night?
Second is a mother/daughters girls' trip. Was planning Santa Barbara, but looks like sister is going there this weekend for her anniversary trip. Any other fun places we could drive to? We enjoy wine tasting, shopping, a spa day, outdoor stuff. We have a house in SLO and go there all the time so not SLO, pismo, or paso robles. Considering Napa, but not sure, it is pretty $$$. Would even consider flying somewhere, but flights are getting too expensive. TIA!
Re: Monterey and other CA road trips
I have no Monterey advice, but for a girls' trip...
You might consider Healdsburg instead of Napa. It is cheaper, and you can walk from tasting room to tasting room. I love Healdsburg (did a mother/daughter trip there myself a year ago) and would be happy to send some recs.
You could also drive up to Tahoe and do a weekend there---you could do outdoor-stuff (depending on when you go, of course) and toss in some spa time (we got a massage at the Spa at the Resort at Squaw Creek in October which was nice). Plus, the Resort at Squaw Creek has a pretty good Groupon or Living Social deal going right now if you are planning to go before July...
We did a road trip up to Monterey last August and instead of going the hotel route we did a vacation rental thru VRBO and had a great time. The rental was literally 300 yards off the beach and had 180 degree water views. At the end of the street was a trolley stop that took us straight downtown to the aquarium, fisherman's warf, etc.. The only time we used our cars was to go get groceries. The aquarium is awesome and definately worth it but I would do during the week. We went on a Saturday and it was soo packed. Our vacation rental came with two free passes to the aquarium that could be used any day of the week. The aquarium admission is expensive and when doing research I noted that alot of the vacation rentals offer passes as a perk and most rentals were the same price as the hotels.
We were caravaning with friends and two toddlers so the vacation rental was the best option for us.
We also visited Point Lobos and loved it, It was soo beautiful! It was super cold and windy though and my two year old was freezing so I didn't get to explore as much as I would have liked. We are definately planning to go back this year.