Another California Highway 1 Coast Drive Itinerary Review
 

Family - 3 kids - flying out from Atlanta. July

Thinking of driving south to north just because saves some real money on rental car, and less traffic? But could reverse.

Fly into LA - stay in LA area visit with friends
Drive to Santa Barabara - 2 nights - bike./beach/eat/mission
Drive to Big Sur stopping at Hearst Castle
Realize skipping SLO etc but thinking ok?
2 nights Big Sur so can arrive late after long run from SB to Big Sur (Hearst Castle stop). Have a day to hike/sleep again and get up.
Drive to Santa Cruz - stop to see friends north of Monterey
2 nights in Santa Cruz (so that one full day there)
2 nights in San Francisco (where we have been a ton...... so really no sightseeing).

July - How busy?
We are native Californians but I've never seen Hearst Castle or ever been to Santa Barbara! We miss the Ocean. Kids have never seen Big Sur either. We want time in nature, time at the Ocean, lunches with views..... a little California history.

Usurally stay in houses/vrbo so hotels will be a little different. Assuming will be hard to find houses that will do only 2 nights in July.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hi sfmaster,

I think you would be fine going in July. Of course, if you're going around the 4th then there would likely be more crowds at your stops. Overall I think your itinerary is pretty good. The drive north to south is just as scenic as the one going south to north.

I would recommend a couple of things:

1. Check out the Piedras Blancas Northern Elephant Seal Rookery. It's just off the highway and near the Hearst Castle.

2. It would be a shame if you didn't spend some time in the Monterey / Carmel area since it's only a 45 min. drive from Santa Cruz. There's lots to do there including: Monterey Bay Aquarium, kayaking, whale watching, hiking in Point Lobos, etc.

My wife and I spent 10 days last year doing a California nature trip. 4 of those days were spent in Big Sur/Carmel/Monterey. We recently documented our time there on our site: http://ow.ly/uJr8G

I hope this helps.

Best,
Nick

Nice Photos Nick...

It's likely mid-July 15-25 sort of thing.....

Yes will have to ask the kids if they want to do the aquarium (we have been before). We were in the Santa Cruz area last summer. We weren't able to get on a boat for whale watching (sold out) this might be the year for it.

Thanks, sfmaster. Yeah, those tours fill up quickly. If you really want to go, book a couple weeks out and be prepared to do it on either of your Santa Cruz days. They can cancel at anytime due to rough seas (happened to us and had to reschedule). We went with Princess Monterey Whale Watching tour but I'm sure there's other good ones. Here's a link to the types of species that were seen last year mid July.

http://www.montereywhalewatching.com/2013/07/page/2/

What do you mean by drive to Big Sur? Hearst Castle eats up the good part of a morning or afternoon because one parks at the bottom of the hill and then there is the shuttle to and from the castle and the tour itself. That would leave little time to get to the community of Big Sur near Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

Summer time means reservations everywhere. I once picked up a new car in LA in September, expecting to take two days along the coast to get to SF. I did not find a hotel room until I reached Santa Cruz.

Skipping SLO is fine. It is a nice town, but it is fine to skip. I'd include it only if your kids are high school age and are starting their research into universities :)

For your Hearst Castle day, you'll want to get going fairly early. It is about 2.5 hours from SB up to Hearst Castle, then the tour itself takes awhile as Michael mentioned. And you will want time for lunch and sightseeing as you drive up through Big Sur. In July, it will be light fairly late, but you still don't want to be driving up through Big Sur too late in the day.

So if we left SB after breakfast and arrived say 11am at Hearst Castle - gave ourselves 3 hours for Hearst Castle and another 45 for luncy say 4 hours. That would mean hitting the road around 3pm. We'd be staying at Big Sur Lodge in Pfieffer - so we could arrive around 5-6pm if I'm right. Long day.....but possible? Then we'd have all next day in Big Sur/Pfieffer to hike and relax....stay another night and leave next day after Breakfast.

I'd have to make reservations all the way.

Curious about thoughts of heading straight to Santa Barbara from LAX. We might stay night anyway to visit friends....

It's a long drive from Santa Barbara to Big Sur, maybe drop one night from SB or Santa Cruz and stay in Cambria, about a 5 minute drive to Hearst Castle. Just a suggestion.

I've never been to Cambria and given the remoteness might not be back for some time. Seems like the town of Cambria is charming and could be fun to explore.....

Just seemed like it would be nice to stay somewhere two nights...... will have to think through.....

Cambria is a nice town, but I understand the desire to limit the 1-night-stands.

It is a couple hours from San Simeon up to Big Sur Lodge - and the road is very scenic and twisty, so it is slow going and you'll want to stop and enjoy the scenery too.

Agree about the long drive from Santa Barbara to Hearst Castle and I think making an 11 am tour would really be pushing it. Just did this in October, we left LA in the morning, stopped in Santa Barbara for lunch and then stayed in Cambria (also made a little detour to a couple of wineries). Got up in the morning and did the Hearst Castle tour, I'm thinking it was the 9:30 tour. After that drove through Big Sur and at that point we headed all the way to SF. Made it by dinner time. We didn't stop much along Big Sur since we both had been before but did stop at Nepenthe for the views and pictures.

Cambria is such a cute little town, one of my favorites. I'd probably stay in Monterey instead of Big Sur but if you want that experience, that would work, too.

The kids have been to Monterey and so we're really in for the dramatic pacific coast scenery...this is why Big Sur,... but also why Cambria might be a good add.

Just refined some logistics and it looks like we might need to North to South. Looks like I'll need to get tight on dates and make reservations....

If you decide to spend the night near Hearst Castle, the Best Western Cavalier is where we stayed the night and it's a charming place at a great value.

It's oceanfront, and they light bonfires on the beach at night, with chairs set out. My room had a metal fireplace, and a nice coffee bar with Kcups. Really comfy on the foggy night.

http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwest..._-feed-_-05173