California
 

We are going to San Francisco and driving down to Los Angeles at the end of July. We have never been to California. Do you have any tips and would you stay in Santa Barbara or Santa Monica.

Tip 1: Search this Forum for the roughly 349,286 threads covering the drive between San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is easily one of the most frequent topics of conversation on this Forum, discussed ad nauseam on an almost daily basis. Search for "CA 1" or "California coast drive".

Tip 2: California is a state of endless variety and endless possibilities. Unfortunately you have asked an extremely open-ended question-- a bit like posting "Is there anything interesting to do in New York City during a summer weekend?" The community will need much more information like:

-- The time you have to visit the state
-- Your interests
-- Your lodging requirements
-- Your budget
-- Your food likes/dislikes

Tip 3: Start getting lodging chosen (not necessarily reserved) NOW, as July is a busy time in the Golden State.

Tip 4: Santa Barbara vs. Santa Monica? Well, Santa Barbara is at least TWO HOURS out of Los Angeles, so it's absolutely NOT a good choice for exploring the messy glory and excitement of LA, the "city" that isn't (it's well over 100 cities spread over two large counties). Santa Monica is actually surrounded by the City of Los Angeles. Santa Barbara is a gorgeous seaside resort town and the largest city in California's central coast wine country. Santa Monica is a seaside city where people live and work (I commute in to work in its downtown area); it has beach and touristy stuff, but it's MUCH more urban than Santa Barbara. If you're trying to choose a base for exploring LA, Santa Monica. If you want to relax and breathe clean air and explore superb wineries and have a taco at Julia Child's favorite place (La Super-Rica Taquería), Santa Barbara. They're apples and zinfandel grapes, really, those two cities.

Tip 5: Spread the drive out over a few days so you can at least stop and check out things. Hearst Castle is so unbelievably over-the-top it is worth the time just to remind yourself that Donald Trump didn't invent the concept of "wretched, tasteless excess" (nor, for that matter, "bad, self-deluded combovers and tacky toupées"). I myself will be going this summer to visit the Castle (if I don't hit too many wineries in the area). There are other wonderful, more spiritually-enriching sites of interest. Too many to count. Other Forum members can list them.

Give us a bit more background and we can be more helpful.

>> Search this Forum for the roughly 349,286 threads<<

You won't find any threads since early last year. The search function won't retrieve them, and Fodors does not seem interested in fixing it!!!

Stu Dudley

Choose California from the drop down. You need to spend a few days in Monterey/Carmel area on your way south.

It will also help if you define "we." You and a significant other? children?

As rjw said, letting us know what your interests are will also help us tailor an itinerary. That way, we won't be recommending tours of wineries and romantic B&Bs is you're bringing small children or your again parents with you, or spectacular hikes when you're not the outdoorsy type.

I should not post from a phone. That should be "aging" parents....and "if" you're bringing. :/

pink, that drive is magnificent. You will love it, and you're smart to post here for advice.

But, there are SO MANY things to see and do between SF and LA, posters need more information about your interests, budget, etc.

Stu there are still lots of threads about the Highway 1 drive that come up via Search that can give a new poster lots of information, even if the most recent is March 2014. It's not a bad place to start, especially with a topic that is asked about frequently.

You'll want at least two overnights and three full days to drive Highway 1, and folks here will be glad to help you plan if you come back and provide a bit more information as requested in Post #1.

add to the list of questions - how long will you have (excluding travel days), and are you flying round-trip to and from SFO or can you fly home from a different airport?

Hmmm... the search function works fine for me.

Go to the top of the page under the "search the forums" box and click on Advanced Search. Fill in your keywords.... LA SAN FRANCISCO (or los angeles SF etc..) .... choose US forum and then California, then choose your time period and voila! I had pages of results..... you can go back years. best PG

PG

Put in a FROM DATE of June 28 2014.

Stu Dudley

Pacific Grove: The search function 'works' but only locates posts/threads prior to last April or May. The data base hasn't been indexed so it can't locate later posts. Now, you CAN get recent threads by searching on google.

Pink wobbles: your question re Santa Monica or Santa Barbara shows that you need to do bunches more homework. (Hope that didn't come across as snarky - isn't meant to be)

Santa Monica is IN Los Angeles and would be a base for touring around the western LA basin and maybe Orange County. Santa Barbara is quite far up the coast and is a base for that area/vineyards/etc.

So your question is unanswerable since they are in entirely different regions and not substitutes for each other.

OOOOOhhhhh.... I get it...... PG