Holiday to California - need advice

Come by Westchester around Los Angeles international and I'll throw ya a bbq!

Do the tour of Alcatraz in SF. You often need to buy tickets a few days ahead, so be sure to pick them up in time. It's a typical tourist thing, but worth it.

Head out to Napa (a couple hours north of SF) and tour the wineries. There are more wineries than you can possibly visit spread out over some very beautiful countryside in that area. Some of the wineries sell some specific wines only at their tasting centers. I have a soft spot for the winter harvest Chardonnay by Kendall-Jackson (it's a sweet desert wine without being cloying).

A couple of restaurants that I can highly recommend:

Baker St. Bistro (French/SF)
Zeyno's Grill(Mediterranean/Birlingame - down the peninsula from SF)
Trattoria Volare/SF-North Beach - Excellent Sicilian style food Their main web page seems to be down. Here is reviews and address
Also
WWW Stella's is just down the street. Do NOT buy anything other than a cannoli here. It's just a block or two away from Volare's though. Down a restaurant row.
Gullivers/English style prime rib - Good food,but the decor is the biggest draw. Everything is done up based upon Gulliver's travel. They have a guy playing the piano most of the week (check dates with them) and they all dress up in english style dress :)

I know more, but that should be you started and I have to run.

Take some time to drive through Yosemite.

I agree, very beautiful there.

Call me crazy, but a few times when I still lived in SF I actually walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. It depends on the weather of course, since it tends to get windy, but it's pretty interesting. Shame you're not going to catch the Blue Angels flying when you go, though - from what I remember they like doing interesting things around the bridge

OK, wanted to add a few more.

First, all the standard tourist stuff in SF is worthwhile (I'm assuming you know what that is, if not, I can drop them in here). If you do Pier 39, there is one thing a lot of people miss...Namely an old WW II sub is permanently docked down there ( a pier or two over), buy a ticket and do a walk through on it. It will not take that much time and I thought it was pretty enjoyable.

I would also mention the Winchester house. It's reasonably well known around here, but it doesn't get the kind of fame Lombard st or the Golden Gate bridge get. Basically when winchester (of gun manufacturer fame) died, his window went crazy. She thought the ghosts of all the people killed by winchester rifles were out for revenge. So, she built a house designed to trick them into walking into walls, etc. It's basically a crazy house built by a rich crazy person. It's technically in San Jose, but that is only an hour from SF.

winchestermysteryhouse

I wanted to also point out the San Diego zoo. Out of my area a bit, but it's absolutely impressive. If you start as soon as it opens and spend all day there, you will leave feeling like you saw a lot and still missed a lot. Not a bad way to spend a day.

Also in the San Diego area, the Wild Animal Park - which is between Escondido and Ramona on highway 78.

If you have kids you could take them to LegoLand. My kids love it. Everything is made from Lego's, and they have some impressive displays for the rides.

I have to ask...

The other bakery stuff there is mediocre, not bad, but nothing special (coffee is good)...But SF is THE best city to eat at on the west coast (why I started with food). The average here would be the best in many cities. The biggest problem is that there are so many restaurants that it can be tough to find the wheat for the chaff (so to speak) and get to the really good places.

A couple of years ago I did a search of all the north beach bakeries with a visiting friend who had spent a few years of his childhood in Sicily looking for the best cannoli in north beach (Italian quarter of SF)...Yes, every bakery in north beach, and there are more than I had previously thought (I felt a bit sick afterwards even splitting cannolies four ways at the time). I understand you can get better in Sicily and New York (he has friends from New York and they mutually bring cannolies back), but it compares well and you will have a tough time finding better anywhere else...Plus there were definitely a few nasty cannolies out there!

I'll dispute that. There's a Thai and Japanese place in the Santa Cruz area that I've never seen beat.

Check out San Diego and area surronding it. They've got a ton of stuff to do. Awesome beaches, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, The Midway, the list goes on. If you're feeling adventurous, you can cross the bordor into Tijuana, Mexico. It's an interesting place. Just be sure to bring your passport. Damn Homeland Security laws...

If you want more ideas if you want to visit San Diego, feel free to PM me.

Etrius

If you can drive a ways, the Grand Canyon isn't too far off. Not a lot to see in California aside from the redwoods, plenty to do, but really not much to see.

Sorry, you're wrong. Outside of NYC, the SF Bay Area has the best fine dining in the US. And some might consider it better than NYC. That's assuming you can afford it though.

As for San Diego, I'd go for the Wild Animal Park over the San Diego Zoo... unless you really prefer the Zoo experience.

Have to dispute that too... aside from stuff mentioned above, we also have Lake Tahoe, which is gorgeous year-round, and a state's worth of incredible coastline. Hearst Castle at San Simeon. Monterey Bay and the world-class aquarium. Big Sur. I could go on, but you get the idea...

California is probably the greatest state for sight-seeing, over all in these United States.

And I agree with Brillig that the Wild Animal Park is better than any zoo.

Thank you guys for all the great info, really helpfull. I will visit the Monterey aquarium and not Sea World I guess. By Midway you mean the aircraft carrier right? I defintely will go to some fine restaurants in SF. I plan to visit the Grand Canyon another time, as it deserves more time than one or two days. I also plan to drive along the whole coast from San Diego to the north (Redwoods).

What's the coolest movie park in LA, Universal studios?

What's the best strategic location to stay in LA for a couple of days, as it is so big. Any suggestions to avoid the traffic?

The US is als known for its fast food culture, which company and which meal do you recommend?

What's the best casino (to see) and place to eat in Las Vegas?

Other west coast cities have their dining jewels, but no other place on the west coast has the depth or breadth of SF dining.

On the upside, coming over from the Netherlands (the OP) should give you a nice boost in real spending with the current exchange rate. None of the places I listed are super expensive. A full dining experience (Appetizers, meal, bottle of wine for two, dessert and an after dinner drink) should stay under $50 a head at the most expensive of them.