Being from the Bay Area, I am always excited for a chance to visit San Francisco and explore California. Our trip included two nights in San Francisco, and one night in Monterey. We made the trip in over the Fourth of July weekend, in an attempt to escape our neighborhood’s bomb-like fireworks. Follow along to see our four day itinerary, driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco & Monterey Bay!
Day 1: LA -> Kettleman City -> Hayes Valley & Bernal Heights
9:00 am: Depart LA and get on the road San Francisco. We stopped for breakfast at Obet & Del’s, a coffeeshop in Filipinotown. They had a delicious kimchi and spam croissant that I could hardly bear to let Axel have any of and an iced vanilla latte, which was yummy. No straws though so we had to stop at a 7-Eleven to grab one. I really dislike those cold drinks lids with the big opening because I feel like you have to use your teeth to filter out the ice and it’s just an inferior drinking experience. I don’t care if they’re paper or corn or what but get me a straw!
12:00 pm: In the interest of efficiency, we took the 5, which is most definitely not the scenic route, and it was kind of a struggle to find anything decent to eat. For future roadtrips, I plan on picking up a sandwich from Uncle Paulie’s (Locations in DTLA, Studio City, & 3rd St) and keeping it in a cooler until lunchtime because I hate when your only dining options are between a 2 star Subway or a 1 star Taco Bell. Fortunately, after extensive research, I discovered The Shoppe at Bravo Farms in Kettleman City (about 2.5 hours out of LA). This cute and kitschy market had everything you need to make a little cheese plate, as well as a couple restaurants. We bought cubes of cheese, crackers, a trio of spicy jams, salami, and a craft soda and had a little picnic, which tided us over until we reached SF.
5:00 pm: Arrive in SF. We wanted to try to get into Rich Table, a restaurant in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. We asked to be placed on the waitlist for seats at the bar and were told it would be about a ninety minute wait. To kill time, we walked to Arlequin Wine Merchant, a wine shop with a beautiful garden patio to have a couple glasses of bubbly.
6:30 pm: I received the text telling us that are seats were ready so we returned to Rich Table for dinner. We’d never been to this restaurant but it was on Eater’s list of essential SF restaurants and the menu looked intriguing so I was really excited to try it. I started by ordering a milk wash cocktail called the Peas & Love, which had gin, mezcal, aloe, English peas, green tea, and lemon. This was probably one of the best cocktails I’ve ever had. I tried another clarified milk cocktail at Platform 18 at Century Grand in Phoenix and I still find it hard to believe that they’re milk-based, since they’re completely clear and don’t taste like milk whatsoever. This one is definitely a must-order.
We also ordered the sardine chips with horseradish creme fraîche (another must-order), dried porcini donuts with raclette (unique and delicious), sugar snap peas with honey mustard and horseradish (so flavorful and refreshing), and the sea urchin cache e pepe (skip it, you can’t even taste the sea urchin. For dessert we ordered the pistachio cake with strawberries, which we also loved. The service was very friendly and efficient and the bar was a fun lively spot to sit at. Overall, I highly recommend Rich Table. It’s the kind of restaurant that makes me want to move to San Francisco- original and inventive without being too pretentious or expensive.
9:00 pm: We drove to our Airbnb in Bernal Heights and checked in. We really enjoyed this airbnb- it was an old general store that the owners converted into a studio. It was spacious and filled with quirky decor. It was also a 3 minute walk from Bernal Heights Park, where we hiked up the top to view the sunset (delightfully late in July). It was the perfect way to end our first day in SF.
Day 1: LA -> Kettleman City -> Hayes Valley & Bernal Heights
10:00 am: We Lyfted to Japantown to meet up with a friend at Jina Bakes. We arrived a few minutes before opening and there was already a line but it was relatively short (although it got long soon after opening). We ordered the galbijjim croissant, the chocolate kouignn amann, the chive and cream cheese scone, and the black sesame cream puff. Our favorites were definitely the chocolate kouign amann and the cream puff, both of which I highly recommend. We also ordered some coffees, which were perfectly good considering Jina Bakes has a heavy emphasis on pastries and not coffee.
11:00 am: We made our way to Chinatown, where we stopped off at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. We thought there was a tour but it seems like it’s just a chance to walk around the front area of the factory and watch the fortune cookies being folded. They did give us some samples which we enjoyed. I felt like having a cup of tea so we found Vital Tea Leaf Tea on Yelp and entered the shop with the intention of having just a cup of tea. What we got, however, was a personalized tea tasting of about five teas and answers to any possible questions we could have about tea. I had drunk my fill of tea for the moment by the time we finished tasting, but purchased a bag of their Blue People Ginseng Oolong Tea, as it was one of my favorite teas we tried. This is definitely the place to go if you’re looking for traditional Chinese teas.
12:00 pm: Our lunch plans were to eat at Hog Island Oyster Co. at the Ferry Building. Hog Island Oyster Co. has some of the best oysters around and actually took over a restaurant called Tony’s in Tamales Bay that my parents and I used to go to often when we lived in the Bay Area. While I still love Tony’s beautiful and remote location, the Ferry Building restaurant is much more convenient when staying in SF and has oysters that are just as delicious. There was a fairly long line when we arrived but we got seated after about 15 minutes because we were willing to sit inside.
We ordered: the ACME bread and butter, a mix of two different types of oysters, the chipotle bourbon grilled oysters. the clam chowder, the summer fruit salad, and the grilled cheese. This was plenty for three people to share. My personal favorites were the bread, the raw oysters, and the clam chowder, which was chockfull of clams in the shell. For seafood, Hog Island Oyster Co. can’t be missed.
2:00 pm: We rode a historic streetcar to the last stop at Fisherman’s Wharf, then walked towards Lombard Street with intent of walking down to the bottom, but when we got the street, we realized we were actually at the bottom. Since we were already pooped from the hills leading up to street, we decided just to look at it from the bottom, which was still cool.
3:00 pm: After watching all the tourists & traffic on Lombard St, we ordered a Lyft to the far end of Golden Gate Park to pick up some lyft bikes and go for a bike ride through the park. You can see all of the docks and availability easily on the Lyft app, and it’s very convenient to use the same app for rides & bikes! The bikes we used can be found outside a Safeway right next to the windmills. Last time Axel and I were in SF, we did a reverse of this bike ride, going from Haight-Ashbury and returning the bikes at the Safeway. In the future, I would definitely stick to the original route we took on our last trip. Going West to East was more strenuous, since it was much more uphill, and we had to take lots of breaks. The opposite direction was a much more enjoyable and easy bike ride. Or, if we were to go this route again, I would splurge on renting the electric bikes to help with those hills.
We still had a lovely time biking through the park, however, and it was fascinating to see how the weather turned from super foggy at the beach end to a sunny and warm as we went further East. We stopped to see the bison and the Dutch windmill and saw many people picnicking with live music in the great green expanse of the park. I wish we had a park like this in LA- huge, clean, and full of people enjoying themselves.
8:30 pm: We finished the night by going to Last Rites, a tiki bar about a 15 minute walk from Picaro. This was the fourth tiki bar I’ve visited in SF (I’ve also been to Zombie Village, Pagan Idol, and Smugglers Cove – Tiki Bar Guide) and it might be my favorite. I got the Last Rites cocktail, which came with a flaming cinnamon stick that smelled delicious. There’s a reason it says “limit 2 per guest” on this cocktail- it was a doozy. We were able to snag a booth and had a great time talking and soaking up the dark and tropical atmosphere. I don’t go to bars or drink too often anymore, but tiki bars are the exception. I love their transformative interiors and their long history. I read a book a few months ago called Tiki Pop by Sven Kiersten that detailed the fascinating rise and fall of the popularity of tiki in the US throughout the decades. The Smugglers Cove book also is a great source of information and recipes on tiki bars. I just think it’s a cool cultural moment and I’m glad it’s making a comeback.
10:30 pm: Back to our airbnb and to bed!
Day 2: Japantown, Chinatown, Oysters, & Tiki!
10:00 am: Check out of airbnb. Stopped for coffee at Pinhole Coffee, which was walking distance from the Airbnb. Very cute place; I had a nice flat white and Axel got the special drink, which had juniper and some other unusual ingredients. It was one of the oddest coffees we’ve ever tasted but it was certainly inventive.
11:30 am: Stopped for lunch at Square Pie Guys in downtown Oakland. We’d never been to Oakland before and found that the area was very hip and cute. We did a build your own pizza with their vodka sauce, which was one of the better Detroit-style pizzas I’ve had (sometimes they get way too bready).
1:00 pm: After lunch, we stopped to visit a friend who lives in the Bay Area and then headed on our way down to Carmel-by-the-Sea.
4:30 pm: Check into hotel. We stayed at Casa Munras in Monterey. It was a nice hotel but we were barely in the room since we were staying just one night so I can’t speak to any of the amenities. The location was convenient to the activities we were doing and the room was large and clean. We dropped our stuff in the room and left to our next destination.
5:30 pm: Arrive at Refuge Spa in Carmel-by-the-Sea. I saw this spa on TikTok and it was one of the activities I was most looking forward to doing on this trip. We didn’t make reservations so the wait was about 90 minutes. We decided to go have dinner in the meantime and return at 7 pm.
We also had no dinner reservations (not a ton of planning went into this part of the trip unfortunately) and it was very crowded in Carmel as it was the day before the Fourth of July. After wandering down the main streets and finding every restaurant fully booked, we stumbled upon Grasings, which luckily had plenty of availability at the bar. We shared the Caesar salad, filet mignon and chips, and a side of mac n cheese. The service was lovely and the interior felt very intimate and classy. The food was quite good as well, although not necessarily anything to write home about.
7:00 pm: Back to Refuge. We both got the regular admission, which was $55, and Axel also got a robe rental, which was an additional $12 (I brought my own robe). The admission is for unlimited time at the spa, but since it closed at 10 pm, we only had three hours to spend. We went to our separate locker rooms and met up outside, in our swimsuits and robes, holding the two towels we were each provided with. There is a prescribed circuit at the spa, which dictates that you should first go to a sauna or steam room, then take a cold plunge, head to either the Adirondack chairs around fire pits outside, or the indoor recliners to relax, and then finally enjoy the warm and hot pools they have. We probably did this circuit around 5 times. The cold plunge was quite shocking and I can’t imagine doing it in colder weather, but it felt so good afterwards. During the relaxation part of the circuit, we read books that we brought. The place was fairly busy when we arrived but gradually thinned out until there were probably fewer than five people at closing time. We took showers in the locker room, got dressed, and headed back to our hotel
We loved our time at Refuge. We are both hot tub/hot spring lovers and make it a mission to enjoy some tubbing on every vacation. Next time, I would definitely make reservations so we don’t have to wait and I would aim for 4-5 hours, rather than 3. I thought the price was fairly reasonable for not having a time limit and the facilities were very clean and well-designed. I felt so relaxed leaving, especially after watching the sky slowly transition from daylight to full of stars.
10:30 pm: Back at our hotel and time to sleep!
Day 4: Monterey Bay Aquarium before heading home
9:00 am: We woke up and checked out of our hotel quickly to get an early start to the day. We stopped at Pavel’s Backerei in Pacific Grove to pick up some breakfast. We got a chocolate croissant, a plain croissant, and peanut butter cookie. I read that the line can get very long here but it was under 5 minutes when we visited. It was cash only, which we didn’t realize prior to ordering, but fortunately I happened to have some cash on me (rare!). While I waited in line at Pavel, Axel walked down the street to Captain Stoker’s (Locations in Monterey & Pacific Grove) to get coffee. This seemed to be a popular move, as a bunch of people waiting outside were also holding pastry boxes from Pavel. I had the best flat white of my trip, while Axel ordered the special drink (his signature move), which was a rose and pistachio latte (and actually good this time).
10:00 am: We made it right on time to get to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for opening. To preface this section, I love aquariums. We’ve been to a number of great ones and I never get tired of seeing all the different species of animals that live in the sea and other bodies of water. While the Monterey Aquarium isn’t the largest in the world (that’s actually the Osaka Aquarium, which we visited in May), I think it’s the best. Firstly, the setting is beautiful. It’s right against (and partly over) the bay, with gorgeous ocean views. It was cloudy when we first arrived but it became sunny later in the day and the water near the aquarium was crystal clear. Secondly, the variety of animals. So many different types of fish, birds, mammals, and crustaceans (are those fish?), all broken up into exhibits based on what part of the world they are from. My favorites were the penguins, the otters, and the many species of jellyfish. There are plenty of volunteers on-hand to answer questions and the aquarium has a big focus on sustainability, with some neat exhibits to demonstrate how plastic pollution and overfishing pose dangers to the ocean. We spent about 3.5-4 hours here. Although there was still more to see, I felt pooped out at that point so we decided to call it for the day.
2:00 pm: Lunch at Coniglio Brothers Italian Deli, which is a sandwich shop on Cannery Row, right down the street from the aquarium. The Italian sandwiches were large enough to share and of good quality. They also sell some Italian goods like pasta sauce, condiments, and tasty sodas inside.
11:30 am: Stopped for lunch at Square Pie Guys in downtown Oakland. We’d never been to Oakland before and found that the area was very hip and cute. We did a build your own pizza with their vodka sauce, which was one of the better Detroit-style pizzas I’ve had (sometimes they get way too bready).
After finishing lunch, we got in the car for the 5 hour drive back to LA. We took the more scenic route since we were starting from Monterey, which made the drive very pleasant. I enjoyed looking out at the ocean while we drove and it was a relatively quick and easy drive, with little to no holiday traffic.
We had an amazing weekend in Northern California and I was so glad to see friends and return to some favorite spots. I can’t wait for our next trip up and am so thankful to live in this amazing state.
