Rita

We're planning a 7 day vacation driving up the CA coast in July. We plan to fly into LA and fly out of San Jose or San Francisco.
(Does it matter if we do the trip South to North or vice versa?) I'd like suggestions on our itinerary "must see" spots and how long to plan for each.

Millie

Be sure to see the Big Sur coast. The drive from Morro Bay or San Simeon to Carmel is very beautiful. Be sure to pull over often to enjoy where you are. Andrew Molera State Park is a great place to go for a walk and has marvelous ocean views. Carmel is a nice town to go window shopping in or eat lunch.

flora

Stop over at San Luis Obispo--the downtown is pleasant & walkable, and on Thurs. nights, they shut down the street for a big farmers market & barbeque. Nice mission there, too. Carmel also has a beautiful beach (and if it's foggy, take a turn into Carmel Valley for some warm weather and beautiful scenery. Capitola is very cute; Santa Cruz fun,with a boardwalk if you've got kids. LOTS to see up and down coast. Might want to start in LA just because after the beauty of Big Sur it can be something of a shock to drive south into the smoggy burbs. (I love LA, was born there, but it can be overwhelming.)
Have a good trip!

rob

big sur is incredible.......don't forget pt. lobos state park about 3 miles south of carmel. carmel is a good base for making day trips down to big sur. there are not many places to stay on PCH. monterey is close by for resturants, etc....

Owen O'Neill

IMHO going from south to north is preferred. I find the scenery to get more beautful as one moves north, particularly in areas such as Point Lobos. For me, making the trip in the opposite direction would be anticlimactic - SF iws a much prettier area than LA. I would also strongly encourage you to drive north of SF at the end of the trip if you can and drive through the coastal redwoods. There is an area near Big Sur where redwoods can be seen but they lack the impact of the groves nonrth of SF. BY all means avoid the "torusit train" that takes you on an old fashioned narrow gauge rail car up through redwoods (somewhere in the Big Sur area). They charged for parking at their own lot in the middle of nowhere and the trees were much smaller than those further north.