Places to visit from 95033
Close to Home
Aptos for a picnic on the tables in that area and to watch the sunset from the high parking area later in the evening.
Santa Cruz
- Aldo’s for breakfast,
- Crow’s Nest for lunch
- Johnny’s Harborside restaurant and grill
- Boat trip from harbor to see dolphins and whales
- Boardwalk
- Sea Lion viewing from Santa Cruz Pier or Moss Landing (near Sea Harvest)
- ocean kayaking in santa cruz
- Chardonnay boat cruise – Santa Cruz
- Horse riding on the beach
- Paddle boarding in Santa Cruz
- Surf museum – and to watch the surfers
- O’Neill Catamaran – Cruise from Santa Cruz Harbor
Hakone Japanese Gardens – Saratoga
Valley Fair Mall – Nice restaurant in Nordstrom’s
Henry Cowell State Park. The short hike in the redwood grove is manageable for everyone and so spectacular. A bonus is that the Roaring Camp Railroads is right next door. Another great hike is the Fall Creek Unit. Coffee at the White Raven in Felton afterwards - a great little cafe.
Roaring camp Big Trees Railroad in Felton – ride into the redwoods or to the beach.
Santana Row
Country Mama’s on De Anza, for big American pancake breakfast
Mini Golf – Sunnyvale
Bocce Ball- Los Gatos
Filoli Gardens – Woodside
Garrod Farms – Horse riding and local winery in Saratoga
Los Gatos wineries self-drive or organized tour – includes car or mini-van and lunch
Mountain winery – concert
Villa Montalvo – hike, evening concert
Heritage Park Museum – Sunnyvale
Moffett Field Museum
Google - Drive down Shoreline to see Google and all the people riding the colorful bikes.
Apple Store on Infinity Circle. They sell Apple insignia clothes there.
Mystery Spot – Santa Cruz
Big Basin
Sunol-Calaveras area for a hike.
Winchester Mystery House
The Tech
Ridge Winery in Cupertino is nice because their picnic area (bring food) has great views of the valley
Stanford Campus
Palo Alto - The garage in Palo Alto where Hewlett Packard started.
Demo Forest Flow Trail -Rent mountain bikes and go for a ride down the Flow Trail.
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Capitola – lunch at paradise beach Grill
Surfing lessons :-) We can recommend Barry from http://makingthedrop.com. He supplies boards and wetsuits, too.
Childrens Discovery Museum
Half Moon bay
The Ritz hotel, Half Moon Bay for a late lunch and then hire those two wheeled thingies for fun or just go walk and come back for the sunset and sit by the fire pit with a glass of wine and watch the Scottish Piper pipe down the sunset. They give you blankets to sit around their fire pit. You would need to call and find out what days the bag pipes are played?
Kayaking from Monterey Bay or Elkhorn Slough (ok for beginners)
Ethnic food in the valley (Indian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, etc)
Road trip up Hwy 1 (Westside SCZ, Davenport, Pescadero, Ano Nuevo, Half Moon Bay) Beach picnic / evening bonfire
Rio del Mar -Evening fire on the beach
Vasona Park
Train from San Jose to either Sacramento or over the mountains to Reno.
Raging Waters
Cali Kind A "souvenir" shopping spot across from the Safeway on Soquel. Dresses, skirts, leggings, shorts, t-shirts, pants, sweatshirts... men's and women's!
Hunters point on Fremont Older open space - Has a great view on a clear day.
Elkhorn slough - to see rare sea otters, rafts, white pelicans and lots of birds.
Campbell Creamery - won best ice cream for the south bay on KFOX
Zip Line Canopy tour – Mount Hermon http://mounthermonadventures.com/
Castle Rock state park
Sanborne county park
Nono pizza – Redwood Estates
Shadowbrook restaurant.
Alpine Pond, at the junction of Skyline Blvd and Alpine Road. This is great for anyone who cannot walk far, or even wheelchair or stroller-bound. It is a very quiet pond, edged in rushes and full of bird life. A paved trail all round makes it very accessible from the Russian Ridge car park opposite. Another very interesting feature of this place is that on the side away from the road there are some large rocks, and behind those a small area of Indian grinding holes. For anyone looking for more activity there are some good hiking trails converging at that point. One will take you up Russian Ridge for great views over Silicon Valley and up towards San Francisco Bay and another, in the opposite direction, is a good loop, taking in another small lake; Horseshoe Pond. This is a good destination if you have only two or three hours to fill in and don't have time to go far.
Peralta Fallon Historic Site-http://historysanjose.org/wp/plan-your-visit/peralta-fallon-historic-site/
San Juan Bautista Mission
Wilder Ranch - At the weekend the volunteers dress up in olde worlde costumes and the houses are open to visit, with docents to tell you about the history.
San Jose History Museum – Kelley Park
Seascape resort – breakfast/lunch/dinner/Sunday Brunch
Chaminade resort - breakfast/lunch/dinner/Sunday Brunch
Testarossa winery – Los Gatos
A little further away
The Hog Island Oyster Farm for picnic lunch near Point Reyes Station. There are also a number of great cheese tasting opportunities around Petaluma.
Carmel
Carmel River State beach
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey and the pier and hiring the 'bicycles for 4' in Cannery Row area.
Cannery Row
17 mile drive – Pebble Beach
Los Lobos – Come September the raptors migrate over Hawk Hill north of the Golden Gate. Plus the view is amazing.
Las Vegas
Lake Tahoe
- Heavenly ski resort - Ride a gondola to the top. Ropes courses http://www.skiheavenly.com/the-mountain/ropescourses.aspx
- Emerald Bay - Vikingsholm tour.
- Tahoe Queen - Paddle boat tour to Emerald Bay.
- Taylor Creek visitor center is fantastic fun with docent guided hikes and a subterranean viewing facility that takes you under the creek where you can watch the fish. And if you are there in late September / October, the salmon spawn is really cool.
Sacramento with stops in the gold mining towns along the way.
Jelly Belly and Budweiser If you like to see how stuff is made, they have great free tours of their factories. They are both on the way to Napa (or to the outlet mall in Vacaville).
Hearst Castle is worth the drive down if your visitors are over 30.
Paso Robles – Home to Tobin James Winery. They've got a rustic, quirky tasting room and the wine is decent and unpretentious.
San Luis Obispo, the mission is interesting and there are a lot of boutiques and restaurants close by.
Gilroy – outlet shopping
Missions – San Juan Bautista/Carmel
In-N-out burger – California fast food
Napa Valley
Napa Valley Wine Train
Safari Park in the wine country and you can stay overnight amongst the animals and eat at the great barbeque they have. The Safari themed tents are lovely to stay in for an overnight
Yosemite
If you go as far as Yosemite, consider Bodie and Mono lake. You could make it a 2 day trip, and stay overnight in Lee Vining. A bit easier than the valley, and you'd see the East side of the park, which is spectacular.
Sonoma – Natural mud baths/wine tasting
Big Sur – Nepenthe for lunch
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park – hike to waterfall on the beach
Calistoga (wineries, the geyser, Petrified Forest)
Pinnacles
San Simeon
Cave tour in Wine Country (ie Lancaster Estate)
Point Lobos Hike - tidepooling
Calaveras Big Trees near Murphys
Angels Camp area also great for wine tasting
Laguna Seca and Sonoma Raceway/Sears Point
Kings Canyon... Sequoia National Park is almost as breathtaking as Yosemite, nowhere nearly as crowded and commercialized with awesome caves, enormous trees (walk and drive through/over them!), rivers, hikes and lakes...
Marin Headlands
Muir Woods – You can also hike from there to Tamalpais.
Stinson Beach if there’s no fog
Pacific Grove - a very cute town and has a wonderful Museum of Natural History
A drive up Skyline is impressive
Niles Canyon Railroad
Ano Nuevo state park – to see the sea lions
San Francisco area
Coit Tower
Twin Peaks
Aquarium
Bubba Gump Restaurant -(near Aquarium)
Alcatraz – buy tickets several weeks in advance
Pier 39
Fisherman’s Wharf
Boudin bakery for typical sour bread bowl filled with clam chowder.
The Palace of the Legion of Honor
The Maritime Museum (near Ghirardelli Square )
For a view, the west end of Broadway near the Presidio
The De Young
Smittens Ice cream
Ghiradelli Square
Rocket Boat
Sausalito – can get ferry from San Francisco
Spinnaker Restaurant, Sausalito – great view of San Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge – walk, drive or ride a bike
Presidio (for some nice alternate views of Golden Gate) If you like hiking, there is a great trail inside the
Presidio Park. It goes from Crissy Field, through the Presidio over to Baker Beach and great views of the GG bridge from the ocean side.
Presidio Social Club. If you do the obligatory GG Bridge visit, there is a good restaurant for lunch just inside the east entrance to the Presidio grounds (Peaceful setting away from the madness of the Wharf. Just across the street is the (relatively) new Disney Family Museum.
San Francisco 49 mild scenic drive
Angel Island. The walk around is about 5 miles and during the summer months there is little open tram if you don't fancy the walk.
Stairways of San Francisco walks
Exploratorium
Ferry Building and/or farmers market
Chinatown
Trolley ride
Giants game
Japan Town
Beach Blanket Babylon show
Fort Point National Historic Site
Lombard St.
Height/Ashbury
Academy of Science
Humphry Slocombe ice cream
Stinking Rose Restaurant – every item on the menu has garlic in it
Free docent lead walks
Golden gate park – Japanese gardens
Ferry to Tiburon and Angel Island
Ocean Beach in SF is so so as far as beaches go, but The Cliff House restaurant is a fun place to eat and you can see the ruins of Sutro Baths next door.
Palace of fine arts
Union square
Marina
North beach
Palace Hotel – afternoon tea in the garden court
