Road Trip-San Francisco and Los Angeles
 

We family of 3, visiting US in early June 2017; would like to do the Pacific Coast Highway road trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

We plan to rent a car. Apart from big names any advises for a decent rent-a-car companies, and which car we should opt for this long trip etc. Will there be decent Motels/Hotels, are they safe? How many days we should set aside? Is there anything else to see apart from coastal drive?

Pls. assist us with your advises like what should we be aware of etc. If someone can give an approx price would be really great.

Thanks-JAMP

Our famous Ca Hwy #1 between Hearst Castle and Carmel is closed this year at Big Sur because a bridge was destroyed due to our recent heavy rains. You can drive from Hearst Castle to the southern sites in the Village of Big Sur, and you can drive to the northern sites in Big Sur from Carmal - but the non-existant bridge will keep you from continuing on.

Stu Dudley

Yes, you'll be able to take the coast down to Monterey/Carmel, but then need to detour inland to Hwy 101 to bypass Big Sur - you can meet back up with the coast at Cambria or any place south of that. From Monterey, you can go about 25 miles into Big Sur, so you can see some of it, but then you'll have to turn around and head back north to Carmel.

I would plan at least 2 nights/3 days for this drive - longer if you have it.

Lots of towns have budget motels - it's summer, so rates will be on the high side anyway, but you can save some money by staying in Monterey instead of Carmel or Morro Bay instead of Cambria or Pismo Beach.

The Pacific Coast Highway is only in southern California; what you want is Highway 1.

By the time you get to Highway 1 the landslide on the south side should be cleared. It might be possible and I would recommend going up the coast to Lucia and take the very narrow and twisty road over the mountains to San Antonio de Padua Mission. Or do the reverse if coming from the north and drive from the mission to Lucia. It's called the Nacimiento-Fergusson road. You might have to check at the mission to know if the road is open.

<i>I would recommend going up the coast to Lucia and take the very narrow and twisty road over the mountains to San Antonio de Padua Mission.</i>

I'm glad to learn somebody else knows about this road. I love it (going west), but I don't know anybody to whom I would recommend it.

HTtY

HTtY - Agree. I think this road should be left to those of us familiar with the territory.

You can keep checking here http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/

Caltrans is hoping to have the southern slides cleared/repaired by June but it's not a guarantee. The end dates on their map tend to be very optimistic and keep getting pushed back. They've already said the probability of public access through Paul's Slide is very low in May.

Thank you all. Great help guys.