Driving advice from las vegas-monterey
 

Can anyone help with directions/advice driving from Las vegas to Monterey?

Picking up rental car early on a Saturday in May from Vegas and want to drive by Hoover Dam. Than will drive on to Monterey. Was thinking about staying maybe south of Monterey near Cambria-San Simeon on Saturday night and than driving up the coast to enjoy the view on sunday morning and spend the day in Monterey.

I have no problems driving late at night but all this talk about the curvy coast has me worried if Im going to be driving it in the dark on Saturday night even if we stop south of Monterey.

Is the coast bad near cambria.san simeon? Would it be better to stop saturday night at a town like atascadero or paso robles and finish up the drive in the morning? Highway hotel would be fine, we only plan on being there for the night and getting an early start the next day. Or maybe even drive further up 101 or 5 towards Monterey and stay near the highway and than cut over in the morning.

Sorry if this is too long or complicated, just mulling over options. Thanks again.

Hi, penne!

I'm a bit confused, so I'm going to try and unconfuse myself - lo!

First you talk of leaving Cambria in the morning, then you say you are scared of driving the "curvy" road at night.

First you want to drive along the coast, then you say you might stay in Atascadero or Paso Robles which are INLAND and not along the coast.

So here goes:

1) Hoover Dam is SOUTH of Las Vegas, so you have to make a special trip driving south of LV, see the dam, then retrace part of your route and catch Interstate 215 to get to Interstate 15 heading WEST. I would strongly suggest that you start out as early as possible on the westward drive, as it is VERY HOT in the desert. You should also bring drinking water.

2) At Barstow which is a major intersection, you will take the northern branch, i.e., Highway 58 to Bakersfield. At Bakersfield, you will change Highways and get on Highway 99 heading north. About 20 miles north of Bakersfield, you will change highways again and take Highway 46 for Cambria and the coast. You should be able to do Las Vegas to Cambria in one day if you leave Las Vegas early enough. Overnight in Cambria.

3) If you leave Cambria in the morning, you should be able to get to Monterey long before sunset, so you do not have to worry about driving along Highway 1, the coastal route, in the dark. It's really not advisable to drive that road at night if you are unfamiliar with it, even though you will be on the inland lane. So, plan on leaving Cambria as early as possible. You didn't say if you wanted to stop and see Hearst Castle.

4) From Las Vegas until Cambria, the road has been fairly flat to rolling hills, you should have no difficulty driving that portion. About 10 miles north of Cambria is San Simeon with Hearst Castle visible in the distant hills. The stretch from Cambria to San Simeon is fairly flat and easy to drive.

5) The really curvy part of Highway 1 starts north of San Simeon and extends to, oh, about Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park/Andrew Molera State Park. You should plan on going about 30 mph and budgetting about 2-3 hours, minimal, for this stretch. You will probably need more time for pulling off the road, taking pictures, relaxing, etc. At Julia Pfeiffer Burns you could also stop and take the easy hike to McVey Falls, about one hour.

6) From Pfeiffer Big Sur to Monterey, the road is not too bad a drive. You will also want to stop off at Pt Lobos before you reach Monterey. Slot about an hour at least for Pt Lobos.

There, I've unconfused myself, lo! Hope I haven't confused you!

Have a great trip!

One added bit of advice. Avoid the section of Hwy 58 between I-5 and the coast. While it may look fairly direct, it is very slow and winding (and without the coastal scenery); use the hwy 46 route from Bakersfield to Paso Robles.

Hwy 1 south of Cambria is not curvey like it is north of there. It's the section between Cambria and Monterey that is narrow and twisty.

J Correa: but, but, penne wants to go from Las Vegas to Monterey. Nowhere will it be necessary to be driving SOUTH of Cambria...or am I still confused?

Sorry didnt mean to confuse anyone. Let me try again.

Ultimately want to spend the sunday/sunday night in monterey.

Will be driving from Vegas saturday but even though it is out of the way would at least like to drive over the hoover dam than head back towards CA.

I wasnt sure if it would be better to drive straight thru to Monterey all in 1 day, wasnt sure how long it would take if didnt leave hoover dam until noonish on Saturday.

So my thinking was to maybe either stay near the highway as close to Monterey as possible and finish the drive on sunday morning. Or to make it towards someplace towards the coast on saturday night such as cambria/san simeon and finish the drive to monterey on sunday morning enjoying the scenic coast.

I was worried about Saturday night when the highway splits to local 1 to get to cambria or san simeon. Wasnt sure if to get to the coast from the highway if we had to drive down a mountain or similar. It will definately be dark by than and dont wanna worry the misses on any twisty curvy roads, she can handle it in the daylight :)

So what do you think the better idea would be and any specific place you would recommend staying on saturday night. Dont want to spend much money on the hotel saturday night since we will barely be there, that was sort of the reasoning of not going all the way to Monterey. Thanks again.

Hi, penne!

Thanks for your long explanation!

I think I got it! :)

You want to split up your travels between Saturday and Sunday and you were wondering whether you should drive the Highway 46 stretch (it's only about 30 miles) in the dark or not.

Well, it all depends on how comfortable you are driving curvy roads. 46 is a pretty easy drive. It does have some curves as it goes through some hills, but it's not really bad.

If you want to stay in Paso Robles, try the Adelaide Inn. It's fairly inexpensive and nice. There is also the Black Oak Inn, slightly more expensive and nicer, but, to me, not worth the added money as the Adelaide is more than adequate for a quick night's rest. Both of these are right at the junction of 46 and 101.

In town, there is the Paso Robles Inn which is VERY old, kind of like something out of the old West. Recently, there was an earthquake in Paso Robles and parts of the downtown were destroyed/damaged, so I don't know what the status is of the Paso Robles Inn.

If you do continue on to the coast, search this forum under "Cambria", as there have been numerous suggestions for lodging in the Cambria area. If I'm in Cambria, I usually stay with a friend, so can't help you much with lodging there.

I'd suggest leaving the Hoover Dam area no later than 11 am. You might want to check the Hoover Dam website for the times of their tours. It's also possible to visit the Dam without the tour, in which case, it's probably a quick 30 minute walk-around.

If you leave by 11 am, it means that you will be driving through the desert during the hottest time of day. Please don't forget some bottled water! And make sure the rental car's air conditioning is working!

Happy travels! :)

I mentioned hwy 1 south of Cambria because I was thinking they would be coming from the south and would probably be heading north on Hwy 101 and then switch over to hwy 1 at San Luis Obispo.

JCorrea: You're right! That was one of the possibilities - which is why I got kinda confoosed :)

easytraveler thanks for your time to post such thorough replies, i do appreciate the effort :)