heythererena

My husband and I are planning a 7 day/6 Night road trip along the West Coast in late October. Our plan so far is to fly early into San Francisco, spend the a full day there, then rent a car and drive out to Monterrey, Big Sur, and La Jolla. We'd end our trip with two nights in San Diego and fly home from there.

At this point, we need help planning out the timing of our trip (not sure how to really map up the drive from San Francisco to San Diego stopping-wise...and are there any alternatives to the 2 night min of staying in Monterrey/Carmel by the Sea?) We'd preferably like to eat/stay cheap at local/hidden gem restaurants and splurge at least one night on a good restaurant hotel (most likely in San Diego). We'd also like to do some wine tasting/brew pub stops along the way if possible. Lastly,we're fairly active and enjoy scenic and natural beauty so any suggestions for good hiking trails or great shots are also appreciated!

Our plan so far is as follows:

San Francisco - Alcatraz night tour
Monterrey - Monterrey Bay Aquarium (w/Otter Tour)
San Simeon/Big Sur/Cambria - Bixby Bridge, Pfeiffer State Burns Park/McWay Falls
La Jolla - La Jolla Cove/Children's Pool
San Diego - Balboa Park, Gaslamp Quarter

Thanks for your help and looking forward to hearing from you all,


Rena

Underhill

Where will you be flying FROM? Hopping into a car, spending the day in San Francisco, and then driving down to Monterey--please, no! Spend one night in the City, then head south on the following day, around mid-afternoon to beat the traffic. One night in the Monterey (two rr Monterrey is in Mexico) is enough.

janisj

6 nights won't net you 7 days -- barely 6 days.

And 6 days is really REALLY rushed for SF/Monterey/Big Sur/San Simeon/La Jolla/San Diego.

>>One night in the Monterey is enough.

november_moon

When I am planning an itinerary, I like to list the days, fill in the things that are set (flights, etc.) and then go from there. It will become clear pretty quickly if the itinerary is reasonable, what the pacing will look like, etc. Based on what you have said, your initial itinerary looks like this:

Day 1: Fly into SF early, visit SF, drive 2 hours to Monterey

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5: Drive from ?, Arrive SD in the evening, overnight in SD

Day 6: Visit San Diego, overnight in SD

Day 7: Fly out of SD

My thoughts on the initial plan:

Day 1 may be VERY long, depending on where you are flying from. So consider that. If you want more than a drive-by visit to SF, you should stay the 1st night there. Also, if you haven't bought your plane tickets yet, consider flying into SJC and skipping SF all together. Your trip is tight as it is, and you don't have much time for SF anyway. Flying into SJC would put you an hour closer to Monterey and you could just go straight there.

Days 2-4 are the days you have to play with. You could do something like this:

Day 2: In Monterey/Carmel
Day 3: Drive through Big Sur, overnight in Pismo Beach
Day 4: Drive to LA, stopping in Santa Barbara along the way, overnight in LA

jamie99

Your trip is VERY rushed.
La Jolla is part of San Diego, no need to move. Stay in one or the other. Cambria to San Diego with no stop in LA will be at least 6 hours.

heythererena

Apologies for the miss but I guess this is what I get for posting late night. We actually have 8 days/7 nights so we will have a full day and 1/2 in San Francisco. Our main questions are if a 2 min night stay in Monterey is recommended (our initial thought was it might be better just to spend the day there for the aquarium and stay farther south since Big Sur was the main focus of our trip) and best places to stop after we leave Monterrey since we know that will be the bulk of our driving. Thanks for the input so far, we really appreciate it!

margotheangel

Monterey is lovely and you could easily spend a few days there. If you do two nights, that looks like:

Day 1: Arrive SF, stay SF
Day 2: Drive to Monterey, stay Monterey
Day 3: Drive to Big Sur, stay Big Sur
Day 4: San Simeon, drive to/stay in Pismo Beach
Day 5: Drive to/stay in Santa Barbara
Day 6: Drive to/stay in San Diego
Day 7: Fly out

I think this is one night less than you wanted in San Diego, but you'll miss a lot of the central coast if you want to be in SD a day earlier.

jamie99

I'd drop the stay in Big Sur, it is fairly close to Monterey and Carmel and most lodging there is rustic or pricey or both. Add it to San Diego instead.

janisj

margotheangel's itinerary has you packing and moving every single day for 7 straight days and leave almost no time to see/do things.

For instance Santa Barbara to San Diego will take about 6 hours (unless you drive it at 3AM) so you will have a few hours free in SD and then you leave the next morning.

It is like that most days . . .

Also -- I don't know what days of the week these are but most places along the coast require 2 night stays on weekends.

auntie_raine

I know you want to take a road trip, but there is really not much scenery once you hit Santa Barbara/LA on the way south to San Diego, especially compared to what you will see in Big Sur. You might consider ditching the car in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles after the central coast and then taking the train down to San Diego to avoid a tedious drive, especially if you decide to do an overnight between the central coast and San Diego. You can easily Uber/taxi for the day or two you will be in the San Diego area and save some money on the car rental and parking fees in San Diego. The main train station is right in downtown San Diego. I much prefer taking the train between Santa Barbara and San Diego (where I live) than driving. I am not sure if dropping the car further north than San Diego will affect any one-way drop off fees.

heythererena

Hi All,

Appreciate the input and we have some things filled in. We do have two days of flexibility so hoping you can help.

Saturday: San Francisco - Alcatraz Night Tour
Sunday: Leave San Francisco - Monterrey Bay Aquarium afternoon Otter Tour -Stay overnight in Carmel by the Sea
Monday: Stay overnight in Cambria

Tuesday: Stay overnight in Santa Barbara or Santa Monica?
Wednesday: TBD

Thursday: Arrive in San Diego - stay through Friday night
Saturday: Fly Home

Looking forward to your responses!

jamie99

I'd stay overnight in Santa Barbara (lots of places require a two night minimum stay on weekends) and you can go wine tasting in nearby Santa Ynez Valley.
Monterey is spelled with one "R" not two. Monterrey with two "Rs" is a city in northern Mexico.

heythererena

Thanks for all your help! We've revised as follows:

Saturday: Arrive San Francisco - Alcatraz Night Tour

Sunday: Leave San Francisco - Monterey Bay Aquarium afternoon Otter Tour - Stay overnight in Carmel by the Sea

Monday: Pt Lobos -Pfeiffer Falls - Stay overnight in Big Sur

Tuesday: Nepenthe - McWay Falls- Pidreas Blancas- Stay overnight in Cambria

Wednesday: Morro Bay - Pismo Beach - Santa Ynez Valley wine tasting (Suggestions welcome, there are so many wineries to choose from!) - Stay overnight in Santa Barbara

Thursday: La Jolla Cove/Children's Pool/Shores - Arrive in San Diego - Dinner at Juniper & Ivy - stay through Friday night

Saturday: Fly Home

DebbieDoesDulles

Unfortunately, on Thursday you can't leave Santa Barbara too early because you'll hit nothing but heavy traffic getting through Los Angeles. I wouldn't leave until about 9am.

Monday & Tuesday could be combined into one long adventurous day with an overnight in Cambria.

I don't see how you're going to sightsee all day on Wednesday, topped off with wine-tasting, and then DRIVE to Santa Barbara. Please don't. You don't have any time at all in Santa Barbara....so get there, and then go to the local wine tasting rooms.

heythererena

Ok, any recommendations on the local tasting rooms then in Santa Barbara? I don't know how much time this would add or even if it's logical but what about taking hwy 1 (Malibu, Santa Monica) as an alternative to bypass LA?

heythererena

Looked it up and Sanford Winery, Au Bon Climat, Riverbench, Corks n' Crowns and Deep Sea are all walking distance to where we're staying while in Santa Barbara. Thanks again for the tip!

mlgb

YOu actually don't need to stay in Santa Barbara city to do SB County wine tasting. There are hotels in Solvang/Buellton that are closer an cheaper. There are also tasting rooms in Los OLivos. There is also the Lompoc Wine Ghetto.
http://www.lompoc.com/LompocWineTrailMap.pdf
A good tasting/restaurant in Lompoc is Sissy's
http://www.sissysuptowncafe.com/wines.html

LOMpoc is about half way on Hwy 1, and Rte 246 is also scenic.

It's near Babcock, Sanford, Foley Estates (MY favorite). I've never been to Huber but they make some interesting reds (Dornfelder)