hello I'm am looking for advice on planning a trip to california in may we are started in L.A. driving north up the cost seeing as much as we can in 1 week. Would like to include Carmel, Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Francisco Please advise what to see and do. thank you

All of these places are great for a slow, relaxing and/or romantic trip. If this is part of what you want, you might want to visit fewer of them, or just hit the highlights of two and spend quality time in the others.

On the other hand, there's lots to see and do! The one thing I'll mention is to be sure and stop the car and get off the main road if you plan to tour Big Sur. Just driving along really isn't that neat, especially for the driver, who has to look at the road! But there are various beaches to park and walk into, and hikes of all lengths, and these give you a much better feel for the place, as well as a chance to appreciate the beauty.

Hopefully you won't get what we call "June gloom"-- unfortunately it sometimes comes early! Bring light jackets and long pants as well as warm weather stuff.

One thing not to skip: Big Basin Redwood State Park. By no means the best redwoods, not even close -- but if you've never seen these before, and you want at least a glance, this is as good as any place to start.

I wouldn't miss the Santa Ynez valley area (northern Santa Barbara county). The wineries are really good and have great picnic areas. There are some fun shops to browse in Solvang and Los Olivos. The scenery is beautiful.

I would still live there if there were any decent jobs.

Hi Holli
We just did a trip in Calif in Oct. Part of our trip was up the coast to Monterey from Morro Bay. Consider seeing the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. It was a great tour, we really enjoyed it. Depending when you go, consider booking tickets ahead of time. Visit their site at hearstcastle.org. Have fun planning -- we did. Cindy

I did this a lot when I lived in la---- I think the drive is more interesting towards sf--so from morro bay north is more interesting--altho hearst castle is great--big sur is magical--and carmel and monterey very interesting--it's whale watching time now if you are going soon--i'd give yourself time to stop and savor the views whenever you find something of interest--there are wineries of interest close to carmel and monterey

The evening tour at Hearst Castle is magical. I'm not sure if it's year-round, but if you can get tickets to it, it's well worth the slightly higher ticket price.

did the same trip a few years ago...LAX up rt1 to SF. if i ever did this again, i would skip the area between La and San Simeon and between monterey and SF...the real beauty (IMO) is between San Simeon and monterey. we stayed in carmel and did day trips down to big sur....the best part of our trip. don't miss point lobos(?) st park...also andrew molera (sp?) st park and all the places you can pull over on the drive up RT1.....