After a packed day trip to Big Sur on Saturday with my mom for her weekend trip, we decided to keep things just a litttttle bit more relaxed on Sunday. Off we went to Sonoma!
Details
Sonoma Valley
Sonoma Valley is located in Sonoma County in California’s Wine Country north of San Francisco (and about 30 minutes to an hour southwest of Napa Valley depending on where you are in Sonoma). Is it still a well-known area of wine county that is littered with wineries making every type of wine imaginable. There is the Sonoma Town Plaza that is loaded with shops and restaurants and some other historical sights as well. Sonoma was hit with the wildfires in October 2017 but is recovering well.
Tiburon
Tiburon is a small waterfront city in Marin County, California, located north of San Francisco. It is the lesser known waterfront town (to Sausalito) but is also easily and quickly accessible via car by crossing the Golden Gate Bridge or via ferry from San Francisco. There is a downtown area along the water that has shops and restaurants but also has some incredibly beautiful homes that we saw when driving through.
Itinerary
To kick things off – both Sonoma and Napa came highly recommended and I would love to make my way to Napa one day as well. Since we were planning to spend a little more than half a day in one of these spots, we decided to stick to the closer (and cheaper) option. There are enough wineries to spend days at each location, so for a more detailed itinerary, come back in a few years 🙂 I went to facebook for winery suggestions and, of course, received enough to keep us occupied for several days so we had to narrow down to a couple of selections. I’ve shared the full list of suggestions that I received below!
Sonoma
For this more laid-back day, we had a much later start and left the hotel around 9:00 am with a one-hour drive ahead of us. On the way into Sonoma, we stopped at Cornerstone Sonoma, which is a wine country marketplace with lots of boutique shops, restaurants, wine tasting rooms, and a craft distillery tasting room. When we told people we were going there, everyone seemed to know it as “the place with the giant chair” because (you guessed it) there is a giant Adirondack style chair out front. We used this stop as a break to look through some of the stores and I found this amazing spring floral jumpsuit at The Loop Cornerstone. After we spent some time walking around and shopping, we made our way to the first winery of the day, which was just down the street.
Cline Cellars
At Cline Cellars, there is a large outdoor space for sitting and this massive lake (or some sort of contained water structure) with a barn house style white house. We went inside for a tasting, which was $10 for 5 wines. We were able to select any five items off the pretty large list to sample. Also, if you purchased a bottle of wine, your tasting fee would be waived! If you were planning to buy a bottle to enjoy and spend more than about an hour or so per winery, that would be a great way to give a few options a try before settling on your favorite. You can also reserve a picnic table to use and go on the free tours of the winery that are offered hourly. They also had a wide assortment of snacks (think cheese and crackers) available for purchase along with your wine, so this is definitely a good spot to camp out for a few hours on a longer visit. This winery is definitely geared towards tourists, but with such little time, we were okay with that.
Jacuzzi Family Vineyards
After we wrapped up our tasting at Cline Cellars, we literally drove across the street (the entrances are directly across from one another) to Cline Cellar’s sister winery – Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. We were excited when we saw that in addition to wine tastings, they also offered free oil tastings! [I am still unsure how I feel about flavored oils like mango and blood orange.] This winery has a main building that is very Italian style building, honoring the Jacuzzi family and as a tribute to the Jacuzzi Family home in Casarsa, Italy. Similar to Cline Cellars, there is a $10 tasting fee to try five wines, which is waived with the purchase of a bottle. This time, we did our tasting in the outdoor plaza in the back and loved Bill, who served us and let us try a sixth wine and then didn’t charge us the tasting fee! I preferred a lot of the wines that I tried at Jacuzzi to the Cline Cellars, so I guess I prefer the Italian style more! This winery was also clearly a large tourist stop – again with only a half-day in Sonoma, we were fine with it.
Sonoma Town Plaza
I made reservations for lunch at the Girl and the Fig, which came highly recommended by multiple people. By the time we were seated for lunch, we were starving and our mouths were watering just reading the menu. Mom ordered the quiche and I had the biscuit sandwich and the food was just amazing! I personally was full after about half of my meal and continued to eat every last bite due to pure deliciousness.
Even though you could have probably rolled us through the street because we were so full, we immediately went for ice cream at Sweet Scoops, which had a line out the door! I ordered the banana pudding ice cream, which is always one of my favorite flavors! I loved the vibe and decor in the shop; it was just the cutest.
Scribe Winery
After lunch, we made our way to Scribe Winery, which ended up being a bit of a letdown ONLY because I didn’t plan appropriately. What I didn’t know beforehand is that Scribe is a winery that you buy a bottle of wine to go with your meal, purchased from Scribe. Even the tasting option included food (at a price of $69 per person). Since we had literally just eaten and didn’t want to buy a whole bottle (and they wouldn’t sell just a glass) we sat and took in the views for a few minutes and then got back on the road.
Since we were still in the southern part of Sonoma and were going to be driving further south, there weren’t a lot of other winery options that we were going to pass. Most that we found were exclusively red wine wineries and I don’t drink reds. We realized that we were going to be passing the Cornerstone Sonoma again, so we popped back in for one more glass at the Meadowcroft Wines tasting room.
Other Sonoma/Near Sonoma Suggestions
- Kunde Family Winery
- Gundlach Bundschu
- Simi Winery
- Benziger Winery
- Imagery Winery
- Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar
- French Laundry Cafe
- Jack London State Park
- Lake Country (about an hour north of Sonoma) – Laujor Estate, Brassfield Winery, Gregory Graham Winery, Boatique Winery, & Chacewater Winery
Tiburon
Once we sufficiently had our wine on (but me not so much since I was driving), we made our way to Tiburon, where our first stop was Hippie Tree.
Hippie Tree is not that difficult to find if you know where to go. You’ll want to park along the street near 100 Gilmartin Drive, Tiburon, CA 94920. Once you park, if you look up and follow the road, you’ll see a fire road off to the left (essentially a dirt road that is available for emergency vehicles if needed to get up this mountain or hill? I don’t even know!). After a couple of minutes of walking, you’ll be at a clearing and can see Hippie Tree to your left. It’s a giant eucalyptus tree, on which two swings have been hung. From this spot, you have an amazing view of the city of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, and all of the surrounding towns. This was definitely a fan favorite on our trip!
We then went downtown to Shoreline Park, the small boardwalk along the water and to the Elephant Rock Pier (at least I think because we never saw an actual pier), again, admiring the views of the bay. We looked at some of the shops and had planned to eat dinner at Luna Blu, but after such a big meal at lunch, ended up passing on dinner in Tiburon altogether.
Other Stops
One thing that I would have loved to do that was cut out of the itinerary due to lack of time would have been to visit Angel Island from Tiburon. There is a ferry that takes you to the island, which is a national park. During our visit, we were still on “winter hours” so the last ferry from Tiburon was at 3:00, which departed before we even left Sonoma!
There are a few other highly recommended Golden Gate Bridge viewing spots to see if you are on this side of the bridge, that are just a short car ride from Tiburon and largely on your way back to San Francisco before crossing the bridge.
Transportation
Self-guided via car – I recommend taking this trip via car since Sonoma is at least an hour drive and the wineries are extremely spread apart. Tiburon is also most easily accessible by car from Sonoma. With that being said, if you are driving, please plan accordingly and have a designated driver.
Self-guided via other modes of transportation – You could also opt for several different modes of public transportation (I consulted this guide when making a plan originally) or Uber/Lyft to get you to Sonoma. The wineries did have signs that said the allow plenty of time when calling an Uber or Lyft due to the average pickup time of 15-25 minutes. If you choose to use any of these modes of transportation, when leaving from Tiburon, there is a ferry that will take you back to San Francisco!
Tour c
What to Bring
Make sure you have your wallet/ID and bring yourself! I also highly recommend having your phone to take pictures because some of the views are out of this world! If you decide to pick one or two wineries to stop and spend a lot more time, you may want to pack a picnic basket with food and a blanket and pray for a beautiful day!
What to Wear
Dress for Sonoma is completely up to your discretion. We definitely saw a lot of dresses, skirts, or other outfits that took some effort because why not? Mom and I both wore booties, but there can be a little bit of walking so I would ensure you have good shoes that you can walk well in, especially around Sonoma Town Plaza! [Also, if you’re planning on making the stop at Hippie Tree, throw a pair of flats/sneakers in the car just because the dirt road is pretty uneven and steep to get to the tree.]
Thanks for visiting! Check out my other San Francisco day trip itineraries below and come back soon for even more California adventures!
- San Francisco Day Trip Muir Woods and Sausalito
- San Francisco Day Trip Santa Cruz
- San Francisco Day Trip Yosemite
- San Francisco Day Trip Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur
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