Big Sur
 

Would like to get away from Indiana for a few days. Would Love to see Big Sir probably mid July. How are the crowds and are car rentals a problem? Thanks for any advice.

All of the coast is very busy with huge pent up demand plus in most areas rental cars are either VERY expensive or not available. Simply because of its remoteness Big Sur wouldn't be 'crowded' by urban comparisons, but for Big Sur it will be very crowded. You have left it very late. :(

If you want the coast, maybe look into the far north coast/Redwoods - but there would still be the rental car problem.

Google will answer if you fix your spelling, sur.

We corrected the title.

I just searched compact car rentals on Kayak for 2 days beginning July 13 and the cheapest was a Kia Rio or Nissan Versa booking through Hotwire and using a "surprise" agency which I would not touch with a 10' pole costing $150 or $75 per day. So yes, that is very high. There is a lot of pent up demand, plus last year we were locked down so many agencies sold off some of their inventory. California just opened up June 15 and a lot of people, both tourists and locals are hitting the road. I'd wait until mid September if possible, after Labor Day and a good month to travel, weather wise.

I don't think $75 a day is "very high" for a car rental. Pre-Covid, where I live, renting a car for a day or so could often cost about $50, after all. If you were lucky and rented from an airport site, it was sometimes a little cheaper, but not all that much. And that was for a compact.
I checked AAA travel website as they can sometimes have a bit of a discount, and you can get a car for a week at OAK for only $480 including taxes. So that's a bit less than $70 a day. That is a legitimate car rental company also, not a surprise, you know the agency. Dollar was the cheapest and I think you can get those rates on their website.

I think people may be unrealistic if they think $70 a day is so awful to rent a car in peak vacation period in California.

Car rental would be the least of the OP's problem IMO. Places have been booking up for months. Plus - as jamie99 mentions, the weather on the coast is better in Sept/Oct.

Add airline reliability to the list of possible problems over the next few weeks. Both United and American are still trying to power up staffing to match reservations, and lots of flights are being cancelled without much notice. Our United flight last night was cancelled for lack of flight crew after we arrived at the departure gate. Rebooked for today, but we chose a refund instead. Too much uncertainty for what was supposed to be a simple weekend trip. Technical and weather issues forced Southwest to cancel 500 flights this weekend and caused delays in another 1500 flights. I don't know how things are going at Delta.

Sorry Christina, but I do think $75 per day is a bit high. I priced out of SFO but the pricing out of OAK looks much better.
My sister had to rent a car last month in an LA suburb and she had to wait 3 days before there was a free car. She paid $50 per day and used her own full coverage insurance.

Many of my friends use Costco for car rental. Usually find it lower than other rental companies

Costco can find really good rates. Especially in 'normal' times. Just so you understand Costco doesn't rent cars. They are like a broker and search various data bases for sales/coupons/deals and hook you up with whichever agency works best - assuming cars are available.

An interesting article about the causes for air travel difficulties that will take some time to resolve...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/new...qOO?li=BBnbklE

Definitely some truths in the article -- but it is so one sided it seems almost a parody. Could have been written by the SEIU press officer.

Yes it will suck this summer in California. For a variety of reasons, primarily pent up demand and short staffing. $75/day sounds like a deal. If you want to lock in a company it will be more.

Agree that July can be foggy on the Big Sur coast. It's pretty nice today, though.