Your votes are in: These are the top 5 road trips from Sacramento, Bee readers say
Planning on hitting the road for this weekend? We asked Bee readers to tell us the best road trip spots from Sacramento.
More than 1,100 people voted and even more wrote to our team to tell us their favorite spots we missed. Here are the top picks:
1. Monterey/Carmel-by-the-Sea
This coastal getaway received 16% of the overall pool with 180 votes.
“From the dramatic panoramas of the Big Sur coastline to the fairytale cottages of the charming city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey County is a truly inspired California getaway,” according to the county’s tourism website.
Things to do:
Distance: Nearly 200 miles away; depending on where in Sacramento you’re leaving from, your drive will be roughly 3 hours and 15 minutes.
2. Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe ranked second with 15%, or 170 votes.
Nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Lake Tahoe region offers a myriad of attractions, from ski resorts and beaches to lakeside dining, hiking and camping.
The freshwater lake straddles California and Nevada and is divided into Tahoe South and North Lake Tahoe.
Distance: Whether you’re headed north or south, the drive to the west edge of the lake will likely take you just over 2 hours and 100 miles from Sacramento.
3. Coastal Marin County
Sitting just north of San Francisco, Marin County promotes itself as an “outdoor wonderland.” It had 138 votes, or 12%.
The weather allows for “mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, and sailing all year long. Plus there are more relaxed activities like whale-watching, bird-watching, garden tours, scenic painting photography and more,” according to the county’s tourism website.
Spots to see may include: Stinson Beach, Mount Tamalpais, Point Reyes Station, Tomales Point, Petaluma, Mill Valley, Muir Woods and Sausalito.
Distance: At just over 100 miles away from Sacramento, on a good day you can reach Stinson Beach in about two hours.
4. Mendocino
The Northern California coastal community had 8% of the votes, tallying 93.
“Mendocino is an enchanted place filled with real, unspoiled California opportunities and inhabited by fun-loving misfits, mavericks and makers,” according to the county’s tourism website.
Here you can find cliffside trails, wine, beaches, and art and history museums.
Distance: Just under 200 miles from Sacramento, it would take you roughly three hours and 45 minutes to get to your destination.
5. Pinnacles National Park
The mountainous national park came in fifth with 84, or 7%, of the votes.
The National Parks Service writes that Pinnacles was “born of fire” roughly 23 million years when multiple volcanoes “erupted, flowed, and slid,” forming today’s unique landscape.
“Travelers journey through chaparral, oak woodlands, and canyon bottoms. Hikers enter rare talus caves and emerge to towering rock spires teeming with life: prairie and peregrine falcons, golden eagles, and the inspiring California condor,” the parks website says.
Distance: You can expect the roughly 180-mile journey to take three hours or more.
Other votes
Santa Cruz, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco and Napa Valley were all in the top 10. Then, readers started writing to us: Sonoma, Feather River Canyon and Bodega Bay.
Reno, Nevada, came in last place with just 23 votes.
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.