9 Days In Temecula, CA – Here’s What We Did

In February 2022, Shae and I stayed nine days in Temecula- wine country of Southern California.

It was a beautiful place with great wine, a cute downtown area and even more great wine. Here’s what we got up to during our stay there.

Where We Stayed

We booked our stay at the Staybridge Suites Temecula at the last minute after the Airbnb we’d booked didn’t work out. It was a decent hotel that’s less than a year old; there were a few ways they could improve things, but we enjoyed our stay and was great value when using points. Check out my review for more about our stay.

What We Did

Much of our time in Temecula was spent eating and drinking along with having to work (not at the same time!). We did do a few other things while there though.

Old Town Temecula

A couple of days after arriving in Temecula we headed to Old Town Temecula which was only a couple of miles from our hotel. It’s a cute area, with Old Town Front St being the main street running through Old Town. There were tons of bars and restaurants along with all kinds of boutique stores. That includes a couple of jerky stores, so we treated Truffles to some beef jerky for dogs which she loved.

COVID Booster

Shae had gotten her booster shot a few weeks beforehand, but I’d not gotten mine at the same time because she got hers done the day before we were moving to a different location. I didn’t feel great after my second Moderna shot last year, so the thought of having to load our car and unload it at the other end with a partially numb arm and general lethargy didn’t appeal to me.

After finishing work one afternoon in Temecula, I went to get my shot at CVS seeing as we didn’t have any fixed plans for the following couple of days. If I didn’t feel great then I could just rest up. If I didn’t have any side effects, we could visit more wineries.

In the end, I rested the following day as I didn’t feel 100%, but the side effects weren’t as bad as after my second shot. I suffer from vasovagal syncope, so I still laid down straight after the shot after what happened after my first COVID shot.

Bike Riding

Shae’s currently training for RAGBRAI, so she went cycling a few times while we were in Temecula. It’s a hilly area, so it was hard going at times but she did a great job getting out there even when it was hot. I think one of those rides included the longest distance she’d done at that point.

Unfortunately a bee took a liking to Shae on one of her rides and stung her leg. Her dad has a severe allergy to bee and wasp stings and it had been many years since she was last stung. She was therefore concerned that she might have a bad reaction; thankfully she didn’t have one, although she’s had a giant red patch on her leg since then.

Movie

We’ve only been to the movie theater a couple of times since COVID, but really wanted to see Spiderman: No Way Home before it left theaters. We got there just in time as we caught it at Regal Cinemas in Temecula a couple of days before they pulled it.

One of the nice things about being some of the last people to see the movie was that there were only five other people there.

Where We Ate & Drank

As I mentioned earlier, much of our time in Temecula was spent eating and drinking our way around town.

Wineries

Temecula has dozens of wineries, but with only nine days in town we didn’t get anywhere close to trying all of them. Shae, Truffles and I did visit five of them though, so check out our separate post where I shared what those five great pet-friendly wineries were.

Lazy Dog Restaurant

Lazy Dog Restaurant is a pet-friendly restaurant chain with dozens of locations around the country, with more than half of those being in California. One of those is in Temecula, so the three of us went there for lunch one afternoon.

Their cocktails were tasty…

…the people food was delicious…

…and their meals for dogs got the Truffles seal of approval.

Oscar’s Brewing Company

When arriving in Temecula, we’d driven past Oscar’s Brewing Company. It had a nice duck pond outside and reviews online were good, so we went there for a quick drink one afternoon.

Their food menu looked great, but we weren’t too hungry and so just shared their garlic breadsticks. They were good, but very bready and could’ve done with some marinara dipping sauce.

Final Thoughts

With lots of great wineries, breweries and restaurants, a cute downtown area and more, Temecula was one of my favorite places we’ve visited in California – definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in Southern California.