Hey!
We’re 2 girls from Denmark going on a beer trip to California this fall. The visit will be for 3 weeks approximately and we’ll rent a car and drive along the West Coast.
We’re searching for good advices and recomendations on places to visit and places to stay over night. Off course our interest is to save as much money on places to stay over night and spent them at good beers instead 
We’ll arrive in San Diego in the beginning of november and stay there 4-5 days. The only plans right now is to visit "The Lost Abbey Brewery" and "Pizza Port".
Next stop will be San Francisco, for 5 days. The plans are "Mikkeller Bar" and to do some tourist stuff.
"Russian River" brew pub in Santa Rosa is on the list to do after SF.
Next stop is Portland, 4 days. "Cascade Brewing" is on the list.
Last stop is Seattle, 4 days. We’re open for suggestions 
We’ll be very thankful for all the help we can get and comments on the plans so far! We are also open for meeting up taking a beer and share some beer knowledge and experiences on the tour.
Cheers to you all from Tone & Thilde |
In California, you can do wild camping in BLM (Bureau Of Land Management) areas. These are cheap or free to spend the night. Camping in campgrounds is about as much as hosteling.
For bit more, "glamping" is also good.
You should see Yosemite and if time permits, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Lassen Volcanic. Getting out on the water in the San Francisco Bay should be a priority.
Be sure to get to "Faction", "Cellarmaker", "Sante Adairius", "Rare Barrel" in Northern California. North of San FRancisco you will find sunny uncrowded beaches, wilderness, goat and cow cheeses, wine, more. |
With four of five days in San Diego, you can do some serious damage. In addition to Lost Abbey and Pizza Port (there are five of them now, actually) there are so many other beer places you can go.
Basically working your way north from the airport:
In the immediate vicinity you have the downtown area so you could go to Monkey Paw, The Neighborhood (bar/restaurant), Downtown Johnny Browns (bar). There’s also Coronado Island and there is a brewpub on the island (they also have a tasting room up the freeway a little bit in the Mission Bay area). The San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park are very close by as well. A lot of cool stuff to see there.
Not far from downtown (very close by, in fact) you have Stone Liberty Station, Modern Times, and Pizza Port Ocean Beach. If you go to this Pizza Port location, you can also just wander around at the beach and in the neighborhood. The weather should be nice.
Also not far from downtown, but inland, you have the South Park and North Park neighborhoods. South Park has Hamiltons which is a bit on the divey side, but their tap list is top notch. North Park has a ton of bars, restaurants, and beer places to see like Toronado, Tiger!Tiger!, Ritual, Coin Op (arcade games and beer), and a few tasting rooms. Lots of stuff to do and see on 30th Street, basically.
If you go just a bit further north on I-5, you will get to Torrey Pines Nature Reserve which is right on the coast. You can do some hiking there and they also have tours of the park, I believe. You could easily spend several hours here, so it might be something you want to do early in the morning, particularly since it can get crowded. Along that same latitude you could easily hit in a day: O’Brien’s, Societe, AleSmith, and Green Flash.
Just another 30 minutes or so north you have all of the Vista/San Marcos/Escondido places like Stone, Lost Abbey, Rip Current, Latitude 33, and Mother Earth. And as you head back towards the coast, Pizza Port Bressi Ranch and Pizza Port Carlsbad.
Once you start heading north from Carlsbad and Oceanside, there really isn’t much until you get to the very southern tip of Orange County in San Clemente as you are driving through a stretch of land that is owned by the federal government and is one of the largest military bases in the country (Camp Pendelton). |
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The Southern part of Orange County doesn’t have much of value beer-wise other than another Pizza Port (San Clemente). There is some really nice coastline, though. There are also some really good regional parks in the area like O’Neill Park, Whiting Ranch, and Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park (inland from the freeway, but some huge parks) as well as Crystal Cove in the Newport/Laguna area (along the coast).
As you go through Orange County, the best breweries are definitely The Bruery, Noble Ale Works, Bottle Logic, Bootleggers, and Taps. These are all more inland, but still only ~30 minutes from the coast.
If you go on CA-22 East, you can hit Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach, which is a small restaurant with a great tap list. They have a larger location in Long Beach where they also brew their own beer (and still have a good guest list). You can get there by just continuing on CA-22 and it turns in to I-405. I highly recommend either one of these places.
As you continue north up to Los Angeles, there are some smaller, lesser known breweries in Torrance that are worth a stop: Monkish and Smog City. I prefer Monkish, but these two are just a couple minutes from one another so might as well do both.
Depending on what you want to do, you could easily stop in the LA area. If you just want to stay along the coast on I-405, Santa Monica is a great place to stop (prominent beer stops include Fathers Office, Daily Pint, and Library Ale House). The promenade, pier, and beach are quite nice. You’re also not far from Malibu and things like the Getty Museum.
If you want to go into LA proper, the beer places aren’t quite as good and it can be a lot of traffic, but as a tourist it would probably be fun. There are some decent to good beer places in Hollywood, such as Blue Palms, Stout, District 13...but overall beer in Los Angeles is not great so may be better to just do touristy stuff.
A little bit out of the main tourist parts of the city you have some breweries like Eagle Rock and Golden Road. Little Tokyo has some good beer places, surprisingly, like Far Bar, Wurstkuche, and Angel City Brewing. |
Once you start heading north form Los Angeles towards the Bay Area, there are some sort of "hot spots" in terms of beer (and other attractions).
I would recommend taking US-101 (or Highway 1, but this is a longer, slower drive).
Just north of LA is Ladyface Ale Companie in Agoura Hills. Really solid brewpub with good food (proper food, too, not pizzas and burgers).
After that, your next main stopping point is really Santa Barbara. There are a number of breweries there such as Telegraph, Figueroa Mountain, and Hollister. There are also some others: Pure Order (haven’t been here), The Brewhouse (okay), and Santa Barbara Brewing (meh). But overall, Santa Barbara is a wonderful city. I’d recommend spending some time here if you can. You could also find some camping spots nearby if that’s something you’re interested in. Particularly if you go a little bit further north (El Capitan, Cachuma)...
A short drive north form Santa Barbara is Buelton, which has one of the Firestone locations, including Barrelworks which is an excellent stop. Funny enough, Solvang which is a "Danish" village/town is near there as well.
From there, there isn’t much worth stopping at beer wise until San Luis Obispo unless you just want to get new ticks. Pismo Beach is a nice little stop, though. Very scenic.
Tap It Brewing a bit south of the main part of SLO is quite good, but you could try most of their beers in town. There are a lot of good bars in SLO and some decent restaurants and stuff. The other breweries aren’t all that great. But it’s a college town, so there’s a lot to do there.
From SLO, you have to decide if you want to continue on 101 as it goes more inland or go up the coast on Highway 1. I would recommend driving up Highway 1 so that you can go through the Los Padres National Forest and Big Sur. This will take you up to Monterey and then you’ll be well positioned to hit the Santa Cruz places, particularly Sante Adairius. Aptos St. BBQ is really good, too. |
G’day
A couple of notes for you
There are now almost 100 breweries in San Diego county. Here is a partial list of the Brewers guild members.
http://www.sandiegobrewersguild.org/breweries/
Also, its worth noting, based on your time frame, that San Diego Beer week kicks off on Friday Nov 7th.
http://sdbw.org/guild-festival/
There are a ton of great breweries most all of which will be part of the Beer Week Festival. Its a good way to sample them all without the tedious travel and the risk of DUI.
If you do want to hit a few more breweries put Stone, Ballast Point, Alesmith, Alpine, Coronado, Green Flash and Karl Strauss at the top of the list.
In regards to your trip north to the Bay area, I’d make Firestone Walker in Paso Robles a must visit. After visiting the brewery take hwy 46 west to the coast and then take hwy 1 north to the bay area. This is an awesome scenic drive.
While in Portland don’t miss Hair of the Dog Brewing.
Post a message in the Socal forum when you get closer to the November time frame for possible meet-up(s).
cheers
stefan |
You should copy and save this guide broken as it’s spot on and this topic comes up often. Nice job.
In Oregon, you will want to hit up De Garde brewing on the coast in Tillamook near the cheese factory, fun touristy stop. De Garde may have weird hours but call them and they sometimes open the tasting room especially for you, which is awesome.
I’d skip Rogue brewing in Newport, but definitely go to Pelican up the coast when you do the scenic route up to Canon Beach.
In Portland, don’t forget Hair of the Dog which is walking distance to Cascade. Upright it is my favorite in Portland but the tasting room is annoying to find and its cash only.
In downtown PDX you can go to Baileys beer bar and bring in awesome Mexican food from across the street. |
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The San Francisco Bay Area is seriously an embarassment of riches in terms of beer places. The issue is really picking out the good ones.
Peninsula: Redwood City has a number of good places such as FreeWheel Brewing, Gourmet Haus Staudt (German store and biergarten but they also have a number of American beers), the Harry’s Hofbrau chain has also somehow become a great beer place. Just a bit up El Camino in San Carlos is Ale Arsenal which is a great beer bar.
San Francisco: The best brewery in the City is definitely Cellarmaker. It’s not even close. They’re also about a one minute walk from City Beer. Mikkeller is not far away and a very good bar. Upcider is a cool bar if you want to try some of those. Zeitgeist is one of my favorite places in San Francisco. There are also 21st Amendment, Magnolia, and Toronado which are sort of "musts" in the City, though they may not be the best places around anymore. It’s a tiny little place, but I also like Cervecería de MateVeza a lot.
Oakland: The best place is easily Beer Revolution. It’s right near the downtown area, tons of bottles and taps. The Olde Depot is next door. The Trappist is close by as well, but is very expensive so I don’t enjoy it as much. Faction is also closeby in Alameda. Hog’s Apothecary is the Temescal area and I think it’s an excellent bar and restaurant. Huge beer list there. Not quite in Oakland, but Drakes is in San Leandro and they usually have some cool stuff on tap. There’s a BART station maybe a mile or so from the brewery, too.
Berkeley: I really like Berkely a lot. In terms of beer, there’s Jupiter, Triple Rock, Rare Barrel, and the Sierra Nevada Torpedo Room. I’d recommend taking a couple hours to wander around the University of California campus. Depending on when you are around, they may be playing a football game (typically Saturdays) if that’s something that interests you.
I recommend getting around in San Francisco by walking and public transit. Don’t try to drive and park here. Depending on price, you may want to try to stay somewhere near the Millbrae BART station and take the train into the city. Or, you could stay across the bay and take the train. This could probably be extended to all of the bay area, but I find driving and parking to be easier in Oakland and Berkeley. |
When you go up to Russian River, don’t forget to hit Lagunitas. Moylans and Marin Brewing are probably worth stops, too. It’s a bit of a detour, but Woodfour in Sebastapol is a cool spot.
As you continue north, Bear Republic is in Healdsburg.
And that’s as far north as my expertise goes...
Here in California, there are a number of discount/budget hotel chains that you might want to check: Motel 6, Super 8, Best Western, Days Inn, Comfort Inn. You can also check sites like kayak.com, booking.com, and hotels.com to try to find deals on lodging. These will give you a private room, private bathroom, etc. If you’re willing to stay in hostels, you can probably find those and they will be cheaper.
If camping is something that interests you, you can find a sporting goods store like REI, Big 5, Sports Chalet, Sports Authority and they will have camping equipment. This may be a bit of a moral gray area, but REI will take back any items you buy from them as long as they are not damaged and you have a receipt. |
All I can add is a dose of envy. With even the slightest research + the info given above, you will have NO problem having an amazing trip.
My only other comment is "do not drink and drive". Laws may well be strict enough in Denmark that you know what I mean, but when beer and renting a car are combined, it must be said. |
