CA beer travel question.

1) Yes it will be hard without a car but not impossible. You could make it work with a patchwork of Amtrak, local rail (Metrolink in LA, BART in SF etc.), Uber/Lyft, car sharing (Zip Car etc.) and busses. Consider that it's more than 500 miles from Stone in Escondido to Russian River in Santa Rosa. If your goal is to see most of California and it's best breweries I'd recommend at least two weeks.

2) California is the superior choice IF you have the necessary time to enjoy it.

3) Study the threads here in the Pacific forum and you will discover many new(er) and wonderful breweries you may have never heard of.

 

Yeah, California is too broad, since it's a huge state with a lot of distance between breweries depending on which ones you're interested in. If you're doing a short trip (< 2 weeks), you will probably have to fly between San Diego and the Bay Area.

What types of beers do you normally like? What breweries were you most interested in seeing? And how long would your trip be?

 

It would be hard to travel around california without a car and without taking a plane. Even between the cities it'd be hard to get around without a car. Getting to Russian River will be nearly impossible without a car or paying a significant amount for a shuttle service from the bay area.

 

Fly Alaskan Airlines to Santa Rosa from LAX. Or take the bus shuttle from SFO to Santa Rosa.

 

Where bouts in S Korea are you from? Seoul? I was just there last year in October. Was in the Incheon area. Visited The Cinder Bar (good taps of craft>Sculpin) and the Bottle Shop #8 right next door to The Cinder Bar. Lots of great bottle/can selections from San Diego, and other Cali beers along with east coast beers. Pricey but worth the sacrifice.
You will be in shock when you visit California. And yes I think you will need a car, for the most part. Let us know when you narrow your areas down that you want to visit. That way we can point you in the right direction. In other words you want to visit the San Fran area. Or LA and San Diego. Or everything in-between. And if you do make it down to Orange County shoot me a beer mail. I'll throw some bulgolgi on the bbq. Kimchee on the side. Pan chan is extra.

 

See if you can contact @ASDFhydra here on BA. He is from Incheon area and visits Bottle Shop B# in Incheon. I think he is looking for beer geeks in SK. I met @ASDFhydra at the bottle shop last year. When I fly back this year we are going to hook up again. I sent him Pliny the Elder, Heady Topper & Grapefruit Sculpin last November after I got back from my visit.

 

Considering that all of South Korea can fit in the space between Los Angeles and San Francisco, yeah, it's going to be a little difficult to get around.

Recommended to narrow down your points of interest in where you will be vacationing. Since saying you're going to California is like me asking for beer advice and saying I will be making a trip to Europe.

Gonna have to be a bit more specific and a car is a must.

 

Completely forgot about the Alaska airlines route. Good call.

 

i would be impossible to travel without a car unless you want to make your trip a nightmare. do you really want to haul your luggage from trains to buses to cabs to breweries etc? unfortunately CA doesn't have great public transit, but within certain areas it can be good (like SF for instance)

i have a friend who lives in Seoul. visited there a few years ago. cheers!


edit - if you're really anti driving, Portland is not a good option for a beer vacation. though, in my opinion, it is slightly overhyped as a beer destination simply because of the quantity of breweries (and not necessarily the quality - though there are many gems)

 

Come to Michigan! We have great beer and its much easier to get around.

 

Your trip would definitely be way better with a car, but if you don't drive at all it could potentially still work.

You could spend about a week in San Francisco and then fly to San Diego for a few days. You can get by on public transportation in SF pretty well and you'll have a lot more than just beer to see. Lots of awesome bars and at least a couple very high quality up and coming breweries (don't miss out on Cellarmaker).

Then fly into San Diego and stay either uber to places or take brewery tour buses. I don't think I'd normally recommend the tour buses because they're pricy and it sucks being on a schedule, but in your case as a tourist from outside the country without a car it might actually make a lot of sense. Some of the tour buses hit Ballast Point and Stone on the same day.

I think most people (including me) will tell you that there's better beer to be had in California than Stone and Ballast point, but those are cool places to visit as far as iconic craft breweries go. Stone's tour inside the brewery is pretty cool and their tap list will give you a chance to try a lot of stuff from the region. Good luck on your trip man!

 

He's coming from a different starting point than many of us, though, and I think given that visiting a few of the big boys *is* pretty much required. Start with those, hit the worthy nearby places, then whittle down...

 

Fly into San Diego, use Uber/Lyft/Bus/Taxi and anything else to visit the breweries you want. Then fly direct to Santa Rosa. Alaska now has non stop between the two places. Spend a few days in the Santa Rosa area. In the area there are a growing number of breweries, countless wineries and you will never tire of the plentiful and incredible food.

Also, your friends are right, Portland is a much better place to be looking for beer without a car...

 

Cars are required for me. Given that you don't really drive, it's absolutely not allowed for you to drink even a pint and drive so you're planning the trip along major train/bus routes. LA-LBC-OC-SD should be dense enough

 

I'll be in PDX this MLK weekend for a bday & beercation weekend. Staying downtown. To rent or not to? Only 37 for 2 days. I know I know, wrong thread & region.

 

I would say don't rent a car just to avoid driving. But, quite a few of the ones you'll want to go to will definitely require an Ubur or cab ride. Even though Portland has so many breweries, they are still spread out.

I stayed in downtown last time with a car and was pretty appalled at how much our hotel charged for parking (like 40 a night). it's not like Portland is Manhattan

have fun man!