I will be in LA for a day on a Monday in May, taking in all the standard tourist sites with my wife on our way up to Lompoc, Los Olivos, etc.

We are planning on being at a winery in that area (Lompoc, etc.) on Tuesday morning and I'm seeking recommendations on where to stay that will allow us to get up there in a relatively easy fashion on Tuesday morning.

Does such a place, where traffic is manageable and there are things to do/see, good restaurant(s) hotel, exist?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: klymkev,

my recommendation would be to head up to the area Monday night, depending on time because of traffic, obviously... staying somewhere like Santa Barbara... leave you about a little over an hour drive to Lompoc in the morning

if you want recs in that area let me know

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While I have a local on the line here is the itinerary, I would love any and all help from local:

Saturday, May 16 - arrive in San Diego - stay with friends, no wine activity Sat. or Sun.

Monday, May 17 - drive to LA, spend the day doing sightseeing/peoplewatching, etc.

I was really hoping to spend most of the day in/around LA and then head to someplace north like Thousand Oaks or Ventura or elsewhere in between for a quaint dinner and B + B/place to stay. Hoping that this would minimize traffic going north on Tuesday am towards Santa Maria.

Tuesday - Santa Maria - (Foxen, Core) will either stay in Santa Maria or drive down and stay in Los Olivos. Any recs. for things to do/places to stay in either Santa Maria or Los Olivos?

Wednesday - Los Olivos/Solvang/Buellton (Beckman, Carina, Tensley, Stolpman, dinner at Hitching Post - I know, I know, but it's a non-negotiable - trust me!) Stay in Buellton - I have a place a 1/2 mile from Hitching Post

Thursday - Lompoc (Sea Smoke, Melville, Clos Pepe, possibly another such as Loring/Fiddlehead or Brewer Clifton), possibly stay at same place in Buellton or looking for a rec. in Lompoc.

Friday - Santa Barbara - looking for recommendations on places to stay, eat, things to do. Will try and sqeeze in Jaffurs.

Saturday - depart for DC out of Santa Barbara

We may also actually change the routing and go:
Tuesday - Lompoc
Wednesday - Los Olivos/Solvang/Buellton
Thursday/Friday - skip Santa Maria and go to Santa Barbara for 2 days.

Any help on drive times, least travelled routes, places to eat, stay (we aren't fancy people, hotels are where we sleep, dining is important but not breaking the budget)

Thanks for the help

This message has been edited. Last edited by: klymkev,

Where are you flying out of?

Just added that.

Flying out of Santa Barbara.

For Our 13th Anniversary:

Day #1(Oct. 28)
Flew into LAX and drove to La Purisima Mission.

Stopped at Foley and tasted:
2004 Chard, Barrel Select
2004 Chard, Clone 76
2004 Chard, Clone 96
2001 Pinot, Barrel Select
2004 Syrah, Rancho Santa Rosa
2005 Foley & Phillips Rose

Hotel-Ballard Inn @ Ballard CA
Dinner@ Ballard Inn restaurant
Wine @ Dinner-2003 Foxen-Julia's Pinot

Day #2(Oct. 29)
Tour and Tasting @ Melville-set up w/ Stephen Janes
Tasted:
2004 Chard-Verna's
2004 Chard-Estate
2005 Chard-Clone 76-Inox
2004 Pinot-Verna's
2004 Pinot-Estate
2004 Syrah-Donna's
2005 Viognier-Estate

Tasting @ Stolpman:
2004 Poetry in White
2004 Rosato
2004 Poetry in Red
2004 Nebbiolo
2004 Syrah-Estate
2004 Syrah-Hilltops

Tasting @ Ballard Inn w/ Barry Rossum (very knowledgeable & interesting)
2004 Lane Tanner Pinot
2004 Kenneth-Crawford Pinot
2004 Ken Brown Pinot
2003 Kris Curran Syrah
2003 Kenneth-Crawford Syrah
2003 Ken Brown Syrah

Hotel-Ballard Inn
Dinner @ Brothers Restaurant @ Mattei's Tavern in Los Olivos
Wine @ Dinner-2004 Tantara-Brousseau

Day #3(Oct. 30)

Tour and Tasting @ Fess Parker w/Larry Schaffer
Tasted:
2004 Chard-Ashley's
2005 Viognier
2004 Pinot-Santa Barbara
2003 Syrah-Santa Barbara
2003 Syrah-American Tradition Reserve
2003 Syrah-Rodney's
NV Frontier Red Lot #51

Then Larry took us to do a barrel tasting of his 2005's.

Tasting @ CORE
Next we did a Barrel tasting w/ David Corey @ Central Coast Wine Services in
Santa Maria. We tasted alot of barrels including Mourvedre, Cabernet, Syrah,
Grenache, Cab Franc and Merlot. The latter 2 were for a wine he is making for
some relatives.

Hotel-Villa Toscana @ Paso Robles (Sensational Bed and Breakfast @ Martin &
Weyrich Winery)

Dinner @Bistro Laurent
Wine @ Dinner-2004 Saxum-Broken Stones Syrah

Day #4(Oct.31)
Tasting @ L'Aventure with Emily
Tasted:
2005 Roussanne-Estate
2004 Optimas
2003 Syrah-Estate
2001 Estate Cuvee

Tasting @ Linne Calodo w/ Roseanne Rianda
Tasted:
2005 Contrarian-Roussanne/Viognier
2004 Outsider-Zin/Syrah/Mourvedre
2004 Nemesis-Syrah/Mourvedre/Grenache
2004 Rising Tides-Syrah/Grenache/Mourvedre
2004 Sticks & Stones-Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre

Tasting @ Zin Alley w/ Frank Nerelli
Tasted:
2005 Zinfandel
2004 Zinfandel Port
2004 Nerelli After Hours Dessert Wine

Tasting @ Villa Toscana-Martin & Weyrich Wines
Tasted:
2005 Pinot Grigio
2004 Chard-Edna Valley
2002 Sangiovese Il Palio
2002 Nebbiolo
2004 Zinfandel La Primitiva

Hotel-Villa Toscana
Dinner @ Villa Creek w/Cris Cherry
We asked Cris to pick 1 of his wines to pair with our dinner and he sent us a
flight of each of his wines:
2005 Pink-Rose
2004 Avenger-James Berry and Denner
2004 Grenache-Denner
2004 High Road-James Berry
2004 Mas de Maha -Ohana & Denner
2004 Willow Creek Cuvee-Berry & Denner

We bought a 2004 Avenger for dinner.

Day #5(Nov.1)
Tour and Tasting @ Tablas Creek with Sara
Tasted:
2005 Cotes de Tablas Blanc
2003 Roussanne
2004 Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc
2005 Rose
2004 Mourvedre
2003 Esprit de Beaucastel
2004 Esprit de Beaucastel

Tour @ Villa Creek w/ Joann Cherry
Joann showed us around the Cherry's brand new winery(still partially under
construction). The Cherry's are a wonderful family owned winery.

Tasting @ Four Vines:
2005 Chard-Naked
2004 Zin-the Sophisticate
2004 Zin-The Maverick
2004 Zin-The Biker
2004 Zin-Dusi
2004 Anarchy Rhone Blend
2002 Zin Syrah Port

Tasting @ Garretson Wine w/ Mat Garretson
This lasted about 2 hours. We had a blast talking with the Georgia bulldog's
best fan (Mat). We also met Justin Smith of Saxum who dropped by to borrow
something from Mat.

Tasted:
2005 Roussanne-The Limoid Cior
2005 Viognier
2004 Syrah-The Aisling
2004 Syrah-The Luacsain
2004 Syrah-The Bulladoir
2003 White-The Reliquary
2003 Red-The Reliquary
2005 G White
2005 Rose-The Celeidh
2004 G Red
2004 Mourvedre-The Graosta
2004 Syrah-The Craic

Hotel-Villa Toscana
Dinner @ Gaetano w/ Gaetano Marsano
Wine with dinner-2004 Domain Alfred-Califa Pinot

Day # 6(Nov.2)
Drove to San Simeon and did a Hearst Castle Tour-nice little 70000 SF summer
home for the Hearsts.

Drove to Carmel Valley.
Hotel-Bernardus Inn
Dinner @ Marinus @ the Bernardus Inn
Wine w/dinner-Billecart Salmon Brut Champagne & 1999 Forman Cab
Also had a 2003 Bernardus Sauvignon Blanc-Griva when we arrived at the Inn.

Day #7(Nov.3)
Shopped in Carmel by the Sea and then drove to San Francisco.

Hotel-White Swan Inn
Dinner @ the Dining Room @ The Ritz Carlton
Wine with dinner-Gosset Rose Champagne and 2004 Merry Edwards-Olivet Lane Pinot

Day #8(Nov. 4)
Unfortunately we had to fly back to Memphis.

Since your trip seems focused on friends (San Diego) and wine, I wouldn't bother spending time in LA. There is too much to do there and it would be a waste to try and do anything with the time that you alloted (due to the amount of time it takes to travel within LA).

It will take at least 2 hours from San Diego to LA. I recommend that you take the 405 up and stop off in Santa Monica and have lunch. (Someone else can give a restaurant recommendation as mine are out of date). You can take Highway 1 from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara. It will be at least another 2 hours to Santa Barbara via the picturesque coast road.

Staying in Santa Barbara can be expensive and as mentioned above, it's an hour from SB to Lompoc. (As long as you don't stay at Anderson's Split Pea Soup place in Buelton, you'll be OK ) Buelton, Lompoc, Los Olivos, and Santa Maria are all a short drive from each other, 20-30 minutes max. I would stay at one place in the area or split it up to spend time in Santa Barbara too.

I've stayed at the Ballard Inn, it's nice.

For restaurants in Santa Barbara, I can recommend the Wine Cask and Bouchon. Both have good food and good wine lists. Wine Cask is more formal but they also have a wine shop.

You've got some good recommendations above for wineries to visit.

Have fun!

Drooling - wish we were going - the trip sounds good to me -

We had a great dinner at Ballard Inn's restaurant - and had a nice stay there. If up in Paso I would stay at the Summerwood Inn.

Nothing to add on the winery suggestions- everywhere I would hit has been mentioned

I'd add Babcock, Andrew Murray, Carhartt, and ABC.

Inn addition to the Ballard Inn, have dinner at Brothers' Restaurant and Trattoria Grappolo.

Grab the tri tip sandwich for lunch at the Los Olivos Country Market. Don't even consider the dump known as The Hitching Post.

klymkev, for LA:

if you're driving up to LA from San Diego Monday morning (yikes!) i either would leave at 4:00 am or don't bother to leave until between 8:00-9:00...

if you only are going to spend a day and sight see, take the 405N to the 110E into downtown... there hop onto the 101 N and get off at Hollywood Blvd, go West to Highland. Make a left and head South on Highland to Sunset Blvd, etc... take Sunset to La Cienaga... take La Cienaga down to Wilshire and head West (the above will show you most of Hollywood including the sign up on the hills while on the 101, Sunset, etc...)... taking Wilshire will put you right into Beverly Hills & Rodeo Dr... after spending time there take Wilshire all the way to the coast to Santa Monica... from there if you want you can take PCH (Hwy 1) up the coast through Malibu to Ventura and meet up with 101 to Santa Barbara, etc... this is the long way, if not, just take Wilshire back to the 405 and hop on it North for about 10 miles to the 101 and head West...

i'll comment later on the Central Coast

quote:

Originally posted by kumazam:
klymkev, for LA:

if you're driving up to LA from San Diego Monday morning (yikes!) i either would leave at 4:00 am or don't bother to leave until between 8:00-9:00...

Thanks a ton, this is EXACTLY what I am looking for, to satisfy my wife's desire to do the LA thing. Now I don't need that GPS the rental place is going to try and talk me into!

I assume you mean 8 - 9 am? I am told I should set aside at least ~2 hours to get from SD to LA? What time should we target to begin heading out of LA that afternoon?

In DC, for example, 3 pm is the cutoff. Get going before or you're cooked!

quote:

Originally posted by klymkev:
I assume you mean 8 - 9 am? I am told I should set aside at least ~2 hours to get from SD to LA? What time should we target to begin heading out of LA that afternoon?

yes, 8:00-9:00 am... you'll still hit busy freeways north of San Diego but should be good for LA morning rush... as far as leaving LA, depends what time you get out of Dodge... say you leave SD @ 8:00 and to be conservative, make it to Hollywood by 11:00, i'd think, depending on how long you stay at each place, the itinerary i pointed out would take you until 4:00-ish, if you got out of the car and walked around a little at each place, counting time for a quick bite to eat... ideally, you'd be heading North before this but you're constrained by coming from SD...

the 101 W out to Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura starts to get pretty gnarly between 4:30-5:00, PCH isnt much better... if you left LA around this time i'd plan, minimum, another 2.5-3 hours to Santa Barbara, mostly dealing with traffic until Ventura and then it will lighten up... ideally, you'd be heading North out of LA by 3:30-4:00 pm at the latest