Fodors Northern California 2014: with Napa, Sonoma, Yosemite, San Francisco & Lake Tahoe

Great dining is a staple of the California lifestyle, and a new young generation of chefs is challenging old ideas about preparing and presenting great food. Food-truck frenzy has created a movable feast up and down the state. Esteemed chefs and urban foodies follow the trucks on Twitter as they move around cities 24/7 purveying delicious, cheap, fresh meals. The Spencer on the Go truck hangs out in SoMa in San Francisco, dishing such delicacies as escargot puff lollipops. California chefs continue to shop locally for produce and farmer-sourced meat.

California wine culture is alive and well and continues to grow beyond the traditional wine country of Napa and Sonoma. Winemaking is expanding in the Central Valley and Shasta Cascade areas. The Turkovich Family Winery opened in the Central Valley town of Winters just west of Sacramento. The Truckee River Winery, near Lake Tahoe, claims to be the highest and coldest winery in the nation.

Hotels are coming back to life in a big way. Visitors to Yountville in the Napa Valley have another lodging choice, the Bardessono, a LEED-certified hotel that sports an eco spa and an underground geothermal system.

Riding the rails can be a satisfying experience, particularly in California where the distances between destinations sometimes run into the hundreds of miles. The best trip is on the luxuriously appointed Coast Starlight, a long-distance train with sleeping cars that runs between Seattle and Los Angeles, passing some of Californias most beautiful coastline as it hugs the beach. For the best surfside viewing, get a seat or a room on the left side of the train and ride south to north from San Diego to Oakland.

Things are looking up for visitors to Californias alpine recreation areas, thanks to a host of enhancements. Yosemite National Park observed its 120th birthday in late 2011 with some new ways to see the park. Yosemite Guide Service offers guided day hikes, customized driving tours, and backpacking trips. You can also take Yosemite Audio Adventures CD tours with you as you explore the park.

The Golden State is glowing green all over. Its the only state in the nation to mandate green building codes for all new construction to reduce greenhouse emissions. Santa Barbaras car-free program can save you up to 50% on lodging, meals, and, of course, transportation.

Agritourism in California isnt new (remember, Knotts Berry Farm once was a berry farm), but it is on the rise, with farm tours and agricultural festivals sprouting up everywhere.

Wine country is a particularly fertile areaspurred by the success of vineyards, the areas lavender growers and olive-oil producers have started welcoming visitors. Sonoma Farm Trail Tours include walking the land and a farm-driven dinner with paired wines.

In the Central Valley, Americas number-one producer of stone fruit, you can travel themed tourist routes (like Fresno Countys Blossom Trail) and tour herb gardens, fruit orchards, organic dairies, and pumpkin patches.

Because it offers activities indoors and out, San Francisco rates as all-season destinations. Early springwhen the gray-whale migration overlaps with the end of the elephant-seal breeding season and the start of the bird migrationis the optimal time to visit Point Reyes National Seashore. Yosemite is ideal in the late spring because roads closed in winter are reopened, and the parks waterfallsswollen with melting snowrun fast. Autumn is crush time in all the wine destinations, from Napa/Sonoma in the north and the central coast. Snowfall makes winter peak season for skiers in Mammoth Mountain and Lake Tahoe, where runs typically open around Thanksgiving. (They sometimes remain in operation into June.)

Its difficult to generalize much about the states weather beyond saying that precipitation comes in winter and summer is dry in most places. As a rule, inland regions are hotter in summer and colder in winter, compared with coastal areas, which are relatively cool year-round. Fog is a potential hazard any day of the year in coastal regions. As you climb into the mountains, seasonal variations are more apparent: winter brings snow (at elevations above 3,000 feet), autumn is crisp, spring can go either way, and summer is sunny and warm, with only an occasional thundershower in the southern part of the state.