Carmel-by-the-Sea
South of Monterey
Monterey County, CA 93923
Phone: 888-221-1010
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A walk around this picturesque little town, with its cottages and cafes, conjures up a stroll through a quaint European village, and the secluded beach here is unmatched in its beauty and tranquility. Also here, we can take the famous 17-mile drive around the Monterey peninsula starting in Pacific Grove. Then, there's Pebble Beach, probably the most famous golf destination on the West Coast. If golf is, as Mark Twain once said, a good walk ruined, then the course at Pebble Beach is one of the best walks around. Every hole is visually stunning, and most of them give duffers ample opportunity to drop a ball in the Pacific Ocean next door.

Monterey
Monterey County, CA (south)
Phone: 888-221-1010
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The city of Monterey and the surrounding communities are all situated on a small peninsula, at the south end of Monterey Bay. Today, the area’s historical connection to the sea is still on prominent display. From the Stanton Center Maritime Museum, to the city’s own version of Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey gives visitors plenty of fish tales to tell when they get back home. Among the most popular aquatic attractions here is the Monterey Bay Aquarium, truly a world-class collection of marine life that has been showcasing the creatures of the deep for over two decades. The Aquarium itself is located in the heart of Monterey’s Cannery Row. Author John Steinbeck’s classic 1945 novel of the same name immortalized this collection of warehouses and sardine factories, as well as the rough-and-tumble men who used to work here.

San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau
900 Market Street (Visitor Information Center)
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: 415-391-2000
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This site is a great resource for meeting planners and travel professionals alike. Here you can get information on how to obtain a Fisherman's Wharf Pass and many other Discount Tickets for attractions. Two other guides to San Francisco are worth a peek as well. sfgate.com is a useful guide to the city run by the San Francisco Chronicle, and sfguide.com is a fairly decent privately run guide site with restaurant and nightclub information in addition to the once-over of the usual suspects for tourists. Additionally, visitors may want to check out the sites for the BART and the Muni Transportation Systems to investigate public transportation options to and around the city.

Wine Country
Sonoma Valley & Napa Valley, CA (north of the city)
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Though their grapes are now world famous, the Napa and Sonoma Valleys entered the vineyard business relatively recently. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that the area’s grape growing potential was recognized, and up until the 1970s there were no more than a couple dozen wineries here. Since then, however, there’s been an explosion in the number of vintners in the area. Today, in the counties of Napa and Sonoma alone, there are over 400 different wineries, ranging from industry powerhouses to small boutique labels. In addition to the lure of the grapes, there’s a lot to see in town as well, from downtown Napa and its various shops and restaurants, to downtown Sonoma, where the lovely Sebastiani Theater still stands as a monument to one of Wine Country’s most influential families. Also in Sonoma is the Mission San Francisco Solano, the last of California’s 21 mission churches. It was here in 1823 that a young priest established this small chapel, completing final link in a chain of missions that had been begun down in San Diego nearly sixty years earlier by Father Junipero Serra. But whether you come for the Merlot or the mission, the shopping or the Chardonnay, Northern California’s Wine Country is sure to go down smooth.