Northern California: Exploring the Great Outdoors

Thirteen nights through northern California, self-drive with the flights included, from San Francisco up the coast and back inland.

San Francisco takes the first three nights, with the Presidio and a small-group food tour of North Beach, the Italian quarter that dates to settlement in the 1850s. Bodega Bay follows for two down the Pacific Coast Highway, with hiking on the headland and the whale migration passing offshore in season.

Mendocino comes next for two, with the headlands state park and the Pudding Creek railbikes at Fort Bragg, which run on an old logging line through the redwoods. Trinidad follows for two by way of the Avenue of the Giants, with a half-day private tour of Redwood National Park, where the tallest trees reach over three hundred feet and some are more than two thousand years old, and elk graze the meadows below them. Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park come next, with fumaroles and wildflower meadows, and Lake Tahoe at the end.

Flights, fully insured car hire, all the accommodation and round-the-clock support while travelling are included, and the price is quoted per person. Fifteen days at this pace is unhurried, which the north coast rewards: the fog comes and goes, the roads are slow and the redwoods are better walked than driven past. Summer and early autumn are the seasons, since the mountain roads at Lassen carry snow into June. Lake Tahoe at the end is clear enough to see the bottom from a kayak, and sits high enough to be cool when the valleys inland are not.