Half Moon Bay & Pescadero
Stay Make your starting point Half Moon Bay, 30 minutes from the airport but still a secluded, underrated gem of a town. Hunker down at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay (1 Miramontes Point Rd., 650-712-7000, ritzcarlton.com) which looks like a venerable, shingle-style Nantucket resort but actually opened in 2001. It’s prettily perched among drifts of portulaca and poppies.
Play Golf is the draw here, with the old Links Course adjacent to the Ritz originally designed by Arnold Palmer in 1973. The challenging Ocean Course hosts the LPGA Samsung World Championship (halfmoonbaygolf.com).
Eat Navio restaurant at the Ritz serves a five-course pumpkin tasting menu every October. So passionate is chef de cuisine Aaron Zimmer about fresh, local food, he often sends his chefs out to pick produce. On Half Moon Bay’s quaint Main Street hit Pasta Moon Ristorante (315 Main St., 650-726-5125, pastamoon.com), where you can watch them make the delightfully eggy fresh linguini that comes with tiny, sweet steamed clams. We loved the fritto misto’s crisp calamari and slices of fried Meyer lemon with silken aioli.
Pit Stop Before heading down the coast, stop at Harley Farms Goat Dairy (205 North St., Pescadero, 650-879-0480, harleyfarms.com), to buy cheeses, like the edible flower-adorned Monet torte. Then pop into Arcangeli Grocery (287 Stage Rd., Pescadero, 650-879-0147, normsmarket.com) for a soft artichoke and pesto foccacia loaf-perfect road fodder.

Santa Cruz
Stay Adobe on Green (103 Green St., 831-469-9866, adobeongreen.net) is a tucked-away B&B where our cozy room had a four-poster bed and a pot-bellied stove.
Eat If you’re hungry for more than continental breakfast, walk a few blocks over to Center Street Grill (1001 Center St., 831-423-4745, thecenterstreetgrill.com), which is run by Canadians and has a charming walled patio and hearty breakfast and brunch fare. At the trippy, century-old restored beach boardwalk (beachboardwalk.com), complete with a 1924 wooden roller coaster, a 1911 carousel and a haunted house, sample what has been named the best corn dog in the country at Surf City Grill (400 Beach St., 831-423-8337), also famous for its deep-fried artichokes.
Play The funky, SoCal vibe here means dozens of beach volleyball courts and a Surfing Museum (701 West Cliff Dr., 831-420-6289, santacruzsurfingmuseum.org) in an old lighthouse staffed by rugged, retired boarders. Vinocruz (101-725 Front St., 831-426-VINO, vinocruz.com), is a well-edited regional wine shop with exclusive winemaker tastings, many from vineyards that aren’t normally open to the public. Owner J.T. Correa says, "We have one of the most diverse wine regions in the state but wineries are difficult to access." Just across from the store is the Museum of Art and History (705 Front St., 831-429-1964, santacruzmah.org), with a strong collection of Northern California artists. Enjoy a breather on the sunny sculpture terrace.

Monterey & Salinas
Do The formerly humble sardine fishery immortalized by John Steinbeck is now a tourist hub: Cannery Row’s strip of restaurants and shopping leads to the famed Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, 831-648-4800, mbayaq.org). It not only has critter feedings for the kids but grown-up options like wine-and-sailing adventures.
Eat The Aquarium’s sea-view Portola restaurant, where binoculars and a wildlife identification card grace every table (Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise is based on the Seafood Watch sustainable species program here), is a surprisingly sophisticated option.
Play Ken Rauh and his staff at A Taste of Monterey (700 Cannery Row, 831-646-5446, tastemonterey.com) will walk you through a regional wine tasting of this unique terroir squeezed between two mountain ranges and cooled by ocean breezes. There is a second Taste of Monterey wine shop in nearby Salinas, right by the National Steinbeck Center (1 Main St., 831-796-3833, steinbeck.org), which is surprisingly less a literary altar than a fascinating slice of Americana and agricultural history.

Carmel-by-the-Sea
Stay The toniest digs in town are at the Relais & Chateâux hotel L’Auberge Carmel (Monte Verde St. between Ocean and 7th Ave., 831-624-8578, laubergecarmel.com). Its tiny, circa-1929 dining room has a prix fixe seasonal menu ($90 for four courses) and impeccable service. We chose the nearby Tradewinds Carmel (Mission St. at Third Ave., 831-624-2776, tradewindscarmel.com), lured by its secluded, Buddha-protected meditation garden and a fireplace and calming, trickling water features in the Balinese-inspired rooms.
Eat Sit at the counter at local favourite Katy’s Place (Mission St. between 5th and 6th Ave., 831-624-0199, katysplacecarmel.com), an alpine chalet outside and a lickety-split American diner on the inside. Over breakfast read the Carmel Pine Cone weekly newspaper, where real estate transactions for humble "cottages" (worth $5 or $6 million) are avidly reported.
Pit Stop Before you double back for the two-hour drive to SFO, head a few minutes out of town to Carmel Valley Road. There are several wineries nearby, including Château Julien (chateaujulien.com), a villa-style compound that’s like a slice of France-try the 2006 Black Nova. Don’t miss the great farm stand run by Earthbound Farm (ebfarm.com), the U.S.’s biggest organic grower. Load up on cappuccinos, smoothies, veggies, produce, cold cuts and fresh-picked wildflower bunches for a heavenly drive back up the coast.