from hearst castle to Santa Barbara
 

Is there a lot to see on this stretch of our trip down the coast. If I get tickets to Hearst Castle at 3pm we will not start the drive down to Santa Barbara until after Sunset...what will I be missing? ANy ideas for eating dinner in Santa Barbara?

The Rock at Morro Bay. And there's a nifty little Natural History museum there, as well.

Your tour will probably end at 4:30 or so and Santa Barbara is about 2 hours away. The drive is beautiful, but it will be dark at 5:00-ish assuming you are traveling soon.

Santa Barbara has tons of decent restaurants but are usually over-priced. If you like steak and are real hungry, stop in Buellton at AJ Spurs, located on 246 just east of the 101.

Great thanks for the information. I am traveling soon so maybe I should make it our tickets to Hears a little earlier so we can see some of the scenes. The beached elephant seals are they after the castle or before?

If you are travelling south on Hwy 1, I believe the beach is before the castle.

I'd make the drive to Santa Barbara before dark - there is plenty of scenery. It's not the spectacular coastline of Big Sur, but it's pretty.

The tours at Hearst Castle last an hour and 45 minutes so it would be dark when you finished. The elephant seals are a couple of miles north of the castle.