As couples and families look for vacations amid winter break, these five spots within are about an hour-and-a-half drive.

From Alcatraz’s rusty cell blocks to the panoramic Golden Gate, San Francisco is a city of cable-car charm and kaleidoscopic history.

In gold panning sites, extracting gold is about digging than filling pits. The pits left by gold diggers from within and abroad scar waterways, farmlands and forests. “I need money to feed my family, ...