It's looking like I'll be flying in to California early July.
What is the best part of Highway One to Drive?
It's looking like I'll be flying in to California early July.
What is the best part of Highway One to Drive?
What Part of California will you be flying into. There are 650 miles of Hyw 1
For comparison, Grand Rapid, MI to Huntsville, AL is 650 miles
I think that's up in the air. My eldest is flying to Hawaii and I'm just making sure he gets the connecting flight (Not book yet)
The plan is to take my next youngest son, grab a rental and see the sites for a couple of days.
I know it seems easy to fly into one town and out of another but the price of rental car for the one-way trip is often SIGNIFICANTLY higher than a standard rental of pickup and drop off at the same location. Be sure to shop rental car rates.
I just posted about a trip up the 1. I think the best part is from San Simeon to Carmel. BUT, you must do it early in the morning or you'll end up stuck behind a train of RV's in no particular hurry.
Are you flying into LAX or SFO?
Do you want to drive on the "hill" side or the "cliff" side ?
Also there will be a lot of slow motorhomes you will need to get around ,
That's for the Southern part , say Pismo Beach north to Big Sur / Carmel
South of Oxnard to Santa Monica puts you along the coast, over looking the water also.
South of Santa Monica Hyw 1 becomes urban until after Long Beach. Long Beach to Dana Point puts you back on the waterfront (often) but these are straight (no curve) roads that just travel through the beach towns like Huntington Beach. These are hardly "driver's roads" but you can get out and dip your toes in the ocean.
Here is typical of South of San Francisco, specifically the Big Sur Area. Earlier mentioned as San Simeon to Carmel.
Big Hills, mountainesque.
Here is the area North of LA, specifically south of Malibu and the opening of Will Roger Park
Some hills and some water access
Here is typical of South of Long Beach (South of LA) to Dana Point, specifically through Huntington Beach
No immediate hills and easy water access
I know it's cliche but I liked the Big Sur area between Pismo and Carmel as well.
Driving in the Huntington/Longbeach area sucked. There's interesting stuff to do and see there but you're not there for the driving experience.
If you are in that area Highway 2 from Pinion Hills to La Canada is good (though it's easier to take I-15 to 138 if you're coming out of LAX.) Provided you're there on a weekday anyway.
The loop of 38 to 18 around Big Bear then out 138 in Crestline is also a pretty fun drive. If you want to play in the mountains anyway.
The Big Sur picture looks like what I wish to experience
If you want small and curvey, than south of Monterey is best (but can get rather busy with motor homes as noted). For view, almost anywhere from Monterey down past Santa Barbara can work (a bit more scenic up north). Traveling south will give you a better view of the ocean.
As noted in a recent post about driving these roads, if you want a clear road, you better leave early. Summer time will of course in general be busier. I went and visited that famous bridge you see in a LOT of car commercials that is south of Monterey 2 years ago on a weekend later in the season, and it was PACKED with people just trying to get a picture of the bridge. It was a bit silly, especially considering there were better picture to be taken just up the road.
Depending on when you are coming, it is still pretty green here, even in the south. That will be going away in probably a month. Most years everything goes brown much quicker. This mostly applies to the southern part of the 1.
Sounds like targeting leaving out of San Jose / Oakland / San Francisco is likely your best bet (depending on cost rental cars etc). You will either want to get out of there very early, or plan on getting a hotel in the Monterey / Santa Cruz area and launching out of there.
You also mention it will be in July. Staying on the coast can be comfortable due to sea breeze but traveling inland can heat up significantly, very quickly. And, even though the temps near shore can remain comfortable, be aware that top down in a convertible, mid day, could really roast you.
IMHO the nicest part of the drive is between approx Carmel and San Luis Obispo. I do like the part North of SF to and past Point Reyes a lot as well, but it's different from the more spectacular part you're looking for based on your posts.
John Welsh said:.. And, even though the temps near shore can remain comfortable, be aware that top down in a convertible, mid day, could really roast you.
Yeah, I once did the top down thing from LA to the bay area... that was a bit of a mistake, It wasn't even the heat (which wasn't too bad for that trip) but WAY to much sun!
That Hollywood thing of going top down to Vegas? NO WAY, unless maybe at night, but most convertible will not be super pleasant at the 80 mph that most drive that road.
I would go to Pismo Beach area for lunch and a little south to watch the guys driving on the beach , not sure how many dune buggies are around anymore,
Ohhh and at least in LA , the coast can be cloudy until 10 am , clear for a few hours and cloudy again at 3 or 4pm. So bring a jacket !
A few years ago we did San Francisco down through Monterey and on to Morro Bay (check out that rock!) It's a solidly amazing drive.
I'd say drive 101 in Oregon. Similar ocean views, but they have trees there, but that doesn't help you if you are starting from LAX or SFO.
Wife and I did this a few years ago. My write-up.
Kind of depends on what you like. We suck at being tourists; we don't want to be around people. We'd rather go find something not highly advertised with fewer people than fight the crowd to catch a glimpse of the highlight reel.
LA was pretty meh. Traffic. People. Not real exciting roads, though we didn't get up into the hills, that might have made a difference.
Big Sur was gorgeous. However, hellish slow traffic. We had good weather and the views made up for the hordes of RVs and rental convertible Mustangs.
Immediately north of San Fran was Fan-effing-tastic. Cannot recommend highly enough. Seriously.
To be honest, most of the rest of the 1 to the California border was pretty awesome.
If'n I were doing a trip like that, I would fly to SFO, then take a few days driving to LA in my rental, and fly from LA home. July you will want to stay along the coast, inland that time of year gets HOT. Did they fix the part that fell in the ocean?
Looks like you would be mildly to moderately boned if you go North from SF. Depending on exactly when you are coming, there may be a race you could go to in Sonoma or Monterey. As mentioned above, sun/windburn in an open car can be brutal. Wear good sunscreen
T.J. said:I'd say drive 101 in Oregon. Similar ocean views, but they have trees there, but that doesn't help you if you are starting from LAX or SFO.
I came in here to say this. My wife and I drove a big stretch of this on our honeymoon. It's more cliff/rock coast than some of the Cali stuff, but it's gorgeous and entertaining to drive. The bane of 101 (at least when we were there) was hippies in Vanagons.
One thing to be aware of is that the roads around Monterey really aren't big enough for the amount of traffic that's going there. In addition to commute backups, there'll be major backups on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons from people from the bay area going there for the weekend.
20 years ago I went to my brother's graduation from UC Santa Barbara. I had a brand-new Miata, so I decided to drive back along 1 -- everything went great until I got to Monterey and then I ran into the most horrendous backup. There's a 4-5 mile stretch of CA-156 that connects 1 over to US-101, with a metering light to get onto 101. That metering light was on, and had caused a backup that stretched all the way down 156 onto 1 and another 4 or 5 miles south of there to Marina. It took something like 90 minutes to go those 10 miles. I later found out that it was the weekend of the US Open at Pebble Beach...
Well, it looks like this plan has been shelved. Kid is going to fly direct from Chicago ( a whopping 2 hour drive for me)
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