Northern California Travel Guide

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SAUSALITO - MILL VALLEY - TIBURON

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Joinery — Sausalito ★ our pick

Food + Drink

A relaxed waterfront restaurant right on the Sausalito harbor. Order at the counter, grab an outdoor table, and watch the bay. Great burgers, rotisserie chicken, and a solid beer selection. Perfect for a casual first stop after crossing the bridge.

Hook Fish Co. — Mill Valley ★ our pick

Food + Drink

Baja-style California seafood in a laid-back beer garden just off Hwy 1. The poke, fish plates and fish and chips are exceptional, the house carrot habanero sauce is one of Cooper's favorites. Great after a hike or on its own.

Rodeo Beach — Marin Headlands ★ our pick

Nature

Our favorite hiking spot. About 10 minutes past the Golden Gate Bridge. The Coastal Trail loop is a 5.2-mile moderate loop with gorgeous views of the city.

Pelican Inn — Muir Beach ★ our pick

Food + Drink + Nature

Charming English pub tucked into a valley at Muir Beach. Walking distance from some of the best coastal hiking, with trails for all levels through the Marin Headlands. Great place to grab a pint in the sun.

Sam's Anchor Cafe — Tiburon ★ Caryn's pick

Food + Drink

A classic waterfront spot with a sunny deck, great seafood, and views of the Bay and Angel Island.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

POINT REYES & WEST MARIN

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Heidrun Meadery — Point Reyes ★ our pick

Drink

Charming meadery making sparkling mead and local honey.

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese — Point Reyes ★ our pick

Food

A working dairy farm with a tasting room. Great selection of local cheeses and an outdoor patio overlooking the pasture.

Cypress Tree Tunnel — Point Reyes

Nature

A dramatic canopy of wind-sculpted Monterey cypress lining the road. Great stop for photos. Can get busy later in the day.

Point Reyes Lighthouse — Point Reyes ★ Caryn's pick

Nature

A short, paved 0.6-mile walk down to the lighthouse perched above cliffs with elephant seals lounging on the rocks below and the Pacific crashing in every direction.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BODEGA BAY

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Spud Point Crab Company — Bodega Bay ★ our pick

Food + Drink

Working marina shack. Crab sandwiches, ocean views, outdoor picnic tables.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

JENNER & TIMBER COVE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Great spots a quick drive from Timber Cove Resort.

Cafe Aquatica — Jenner

Food + Drink

The only cafe in Jenner. Outdoor seating right on the Russian River, excellent coffee, fresh local food. Watch for river otters from the tables.

River's End Restaurant — Jenner

Food + Drink

Fine dining perched above the river. Spectacular sunset views.

Stewarts Point Store — Stewarts Point ★ our pick

Food + Drink

Old-timey general store about 20 minutes north of Timber Cove. Vintage coolers, great sandwiches and pastries, old school candy selection.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

FURTHER UP THE COAST — SEA RANCH

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A planned community designed in the 1960s by some of California's most celebrated architects. Ten miles of wild Sonoma Coast.

The Sea Ranch Lodge Dining Room — Sea Ranch

Food + Drink

Panoramic Pacific views and a menu driven by the Lodge's own farm. The bar and lounge is perfect for sunset drinks even if you're not staying.

Bluff Top Trail — Sea Ranch ★ Caryn's pick

Nature

Three miles of walking trails hugging the headlands through cypress groves and meadows to rugged beaches with harbor seals on the rocks and whales in season. Park at any of the public Highway 1 access points.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

FURTHER DOWN THE COAST

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Swanton Berry Farm — Davenport ★ our pick

Food + Nature

A beloved organic farm on Highway 1, about an hour south of the city. Farmstand selling homemade jams, strawberries by the carton, shortcake, pies and more.

Dad's Luncheonette — Half Moon Bay ★ Cooper's pick

Food + Drink

A former three-Michelin-star chef who gave it all up to serve burgers and sandwiches out of a vintage red train caboose on Highway 1. Order at the window, grab a picnic table outside, and eat with the ocean in view. Open Thursday through Sunday (get there early, they sell out).

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SONOMA

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The town of Sonoma itself is worth a stop — a beautiful historic town square, lots of wineries, restaurants and tasting rooms.

Valley Bar + Bottle — Sonoma Plaza ★ Caryn's pick

Food + Drink | Michelin Bib Gourmand

A neighborhood wine bar and bottle shop right on the plaza with a large covered back patio. Small seasonal menu that changes constantly. The mortadella sandwich is a staple and not to be missed.

El Molino Central — Boyes Hot Springs (5 min from the plaza) ★ our pick

Food | Michelin Bib Gourmand

A colorful turquoise roadside taco stand just outside Sonoma town, making stone-ground corn tortillas from scratch every day. Order at the counter, grab a picnic table outside.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

HEALDSBURG

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

One of our favorite towns in wine country. A walkable plaza ringed with tasting rooms, antique stores, excellent restaurants, and a little more laid back than Napa or Sonoma.

The Matheson / Roof 106 — Healdsburg ★ Cooper's pick

Food + Drink

Multi-story spot right off the plaza. Dinner downstairs is polished wine country cooking; Roof 106 upstairs is Healdsburg's only rooftop bar — cocktails, flatbreads, and views over the square at golden hour. Go early or reserve.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

NAPA — ST. HELENA, RUTHERFORD, & YOUNTVILLE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

St. Helena is the quieter, more grown-up side of Napa. Serious restaurants, beautiful main street, and gorgeous wineries.

Ad Hoc + Addendum — Yountville ★ Cooper’s Pick

Food + Drink

American comfort food by Thomas Keller. The best fried chicken you will ever have.

Bouchon — Yountville ★ Cooper’s Pick

Food + Drink

French bistro fare by Thomas Keller. Though The French Laundry is near impossible to dine at, you can enjoy some of Chef Keller’s fine french food at Bouchon in the cute town of Yountville.

Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch — St. Helena ★ Caryn's pick

Food + Drink

Restored barn with an open kitchen, live fire cooking, and ingredients pulled straight from the ranch's organic farm. Farm store onsite. Open for lunch and dinner.

The Charter Oak — St. Helena ★ Cooper's pick

Food + Drink

Casual-cool counterpart to the Chef's three-Michelin-star kitchen. Great courtyard for lunch. Michelin-recognized without the formality.

Alpha Omega — Rutherford ★ Caryn's pick

Winery

Gorgeous tasting room with an outdoor terrace overlooking the Mayacamas Mountains. Elegant but not pretentious. Great Cabernet Sauvignons and the best buttery Chardonnay.

The Model Bakery — St. Helena ★ our pick

Food + Drink

On St. Helena's vibrant main street. The breakfast sandwiches and cookies are not to be missed.