Los Angeles --> San Francisco coastal trip (LAST MINUTE!)
 

Hi all,

I am from Toronto and am planning a trip with my girlfriend to Los Angeles and to drive north to SF. We are both around 22 years old and I have done the coastal trip a while ago starting from SF and driving south but this time I wanted to bring my girlfriend. We have a pretty tight budget and are looking to stay at hostels in LA and SF and maybe something nicer inbetween.

I know that there are many places in between to see so I would just like to know which places are must sees and which places we should skip out on. The rough itinerary so far is:

Jan 4: Arrive LA, stay 2 nights
Jan 6: start driving north
Jan 9: Arrive SF, stay 3 nights

Looking to fill in the middle section! I am thinking Santa Barbara, Carmel, Monterey, Big Sur but looking specifically which to go to and where is especially nice to stay at, considering our budget. Any help and tips would be greatly appreciated!

There are no hostels in the Santa Barbara area. Hotels in that area tend to be quite expensive. For one night you could try a yurt at Lake Cachuma. (Google this).
There is a HI hostel in Monterey within walking distance of the aquarium.
About 50 miles south of San Francisco is the Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel. http://norcalhostels.org/pigeon/
There is also another lighthouse hostel at Point Montera which is a bit closer to SF.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. The places don't necessarily have to be "hostels" as cheaper end hotels will do and maybe one night can be spent somewhere nicer. I am more interested in where to stop along the way than where exactly to stay so any ideas on where to stop along the way would be of great help.

Thanks

Knights Inn my fav in carmelcalifornia.com cheapest enroute for me in the past... the neatest is treebonesresort.com in Big Sur might splurge for that. Motro Bay has some nice cheapo hotels hostels deals bidding priceline.com.

Happy Hunting!

hilosangeles.org best in LA

greentortoise.com best in SF for hostiles...

I would consider Morro Bay. Laid back beach town, not as pricey as Santa Barbara. However, it IS worth a stop in Santa Barbara to eat at the late Julia Child's favorite taco place there:

La Super Rica

http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-super-ric...-santa-barbara

And even though it isn't right on the coastal road, you might consider staying in San Luis Obispo. It is is only 13 miles from Morro Bay and a college town. I think you would find it more fun than Santa Barbara at your age. Lots of fun bookstores and independent retailers, where as SB has more high end interior shops etc. and bunches of chain store places. But SB does have its own charm as well.

Hertz has a special offer on their website to eliminate the under-25 daily surcharge.

Wilshire Motel in West Los Angeles is better than a hostel and has free parking for the car. Due to weekday traffic you should stay fairly close to your attractions...do you know what you are going to see and do on your 2 days in L.A?

Parking in San Francisco [hotels] can take a reasonably priced room and really impact the total per day cost.

Try Columbus Motor Inn or Cow Hollow - they have free parking and get good reviews.

http://www.columbusmotorinn.com/

Another thought - are you flying home out of San Francisco? If so, turn the car in as soon as you get into SF. Will save $$$ on parking and instead buy a 3 day Muni pass that will get you to almost everywhere you will want to go.

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfares/passports.htm

And if you don't have the car, consider The Mosser. A great location and super reasonable priced rooms, consider getting a room with hall bathroom. The bathrooms are spotless and cleaned constantly.

themosser.com

Thanks for all the replies!

First off, I am definitely renting to car with Hertz because of the under 25 deal. Also, to eliminate traveling back and forth, we have booked a return flight from SF.

From what I can recall, a car isn't necessary in SF but I could be wrong so we do plan on returning the car on the arrival of SF.

In LA, we plan to do all the touristy stuff and maybe check out a Lakers or now a Clippers game. I really like good restaurants that are fairly priced but yelp helps a lot for that! From what I gather, there isn't necessarily a lot for tourists to do in LA but suggestions would be helpful! We will have a car in LA so driving around will not be a problem and are willing to drive to see attractions.

I am planning on booking at Venice Beach Cotel, and while the reviews aren't amazing, they are pretty good for the price and from reading reviews, there is free parking close by.

San Luis Obispo sounds interesting as the most difficult part of this is where to go along the way. I hear this place Esalen (1-3am) is a cool experience is is near big sur so were going to plan to chekc that out. I was thinking... 2 nights, 1 night santa barbara/san luis, 1 night cambria, 2 nights monterey/carmel/etc., and 3 nights SF... that's a total of 9 nights and we only have 8 so trying to figure out where to go and where to skip out on!

thanks!

btw, also planning to stay at the Adelaide hostel in SF because it has really great reviews!

Absolutely return the car as soon as you get to SF. You can walk around easily and the passport I linked to can get you to further places as well.

To save money, use BART to go to the airport; it's easy and for 2 people the fastest, easiest way to go:

http://www.bart.gov/guide/airport/index.aspx

Check out The Mosser. For your nights, the rate for a queen room with shared bath is $89 and if you have AAA [or maybe even CAA] it's $80. I would think this is as good a deal for 2 people at that hostel. I have stayed there and it is a great rate for a great location.

Will look into the Mosser, it looks to have really good reviews and reasonably priced. Adelaide hostel also has really good reviews but its pretty much 40/night for each person so I guess it wouldn't make too much of a difference in price.

Another option for SF is the SF internation hostel which is pretty cheap and has decent reviews, anyone know anything about this one or Adelaide?

We were most pleased with The Mosser and personally, I think a hotel is preferable over a hostel. Good luck

I would skip staying in Cambria if you stay in SLO, that takes care of the extra night. It's only about an 1 hour drive at the most to Cambria from SLO.

I am just wondering, would SLO be my first stop after LA. Would I travel on highway 1 all the way to SLO without stopping anywhere along the way. We plan to leave LA early in the morning so will have time to stop at any places along the way if they're worth it. Also from SLO, would we drive straight to the Monterey area? And what areas are there in between to see. Thanks!

You could stop in Santa Barbara, Solvang and Pismo Beach on the way to SLO (you take 1 and then 101).

Then between SLO and Monterey, stop in Cambria, Big Sur, Carmel (1 all the way for gorgeous views).

So if I left LA in the morning, I would be able to stop in SB, Solvang, and Pismo beach and arrive in SLO by nighttime?

If I am spending one night in SLO and 2 nights between SLO and SF, does it really matter where I stay inbetween? I was thinking 2 nights Monterey but am open to suggestions.

Also, am looking at hostels in LA and am looking specifically at Venice Beach Cotel but i hear that Venice Beach is a little bit seedy and somewhere in Hollywood is better for tourists. Is that an accurate statement? I would like to book banana bungalow but no private rooms are available for the time we are going.

Thanks once again everyone!

http://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=los...ia=2,4&t=m&z=8

this seems like my rough map...
2 nights LA
1 night SLO
2 nights monterey/big sur/etc.
3 nights SF

Sound good?

please feel free to let me know of anything else along the way that is good...

also, I am kind of unsure of the whole 2 nights monterey/big sur/carmel thing and where exactly to stay for those 2 nights. they can be 2 different places.

if anywhere we are looking to have a nice place to stay would be those 2 nights so somewhere unique and cool would be really nice!

"There isn't necessarily a lot for tourists to do in Los Angeles". HUH? You heard wrong.

www.discoverlosangeles.com

I do think Hollywood would be better for you than Venice Beach since you are going to Staples Center and don't want to deal with that traffic all the way from the west side. The Hollywood city Inn in Hollywood is $60 that night, clean, with parking, and you can walk across the street and take the metro subway to Staples Center.

If you're coming soon, DRESS WARM! Yeah, you're laughing and thinking, "I'm from Toronto, I know cold."
You do but people expect California to be warm. Not at this time of year. And it's even colder up north. I see a lot of visitors shivering in their sweaters here in Southern California.

on the way up the coast you might want to consider Capitola. It is another cute little beach town. Also, like nearby Santa Cruz, there are lots of folks your age so hence cheap food, good coffee shops etc. Carmel is beautiful but again kind of like SB, it tends to cater to the older crowd IMO with galleries, etc. But the whole coast is full of great little stops. I know you were thinking of Esalen which is great, so you might also like Asilomar which is actually part of the state park systems

http://www.visitasilomar.com/

It has fabulous architecture designed by Julia Morgan from the Arts and Crafts era:

http://www.visitasilomar.com/discove...itecture-.aspx

You can actually stay the night there for around $120, so not cheap but might be worth it if you love architecture. Otherwise you could stop just to see it.

Near Pismo Beach, actually Grover Beach, are a grove of trees where the Monarch butterflies overwinter. Check it out. It is pretty amazing. You may also want to splurge and do a dune buggy or hummer tour of the dunes at Pismo. So much fun, but not cheap.

There is also a butterfly sanctuary in Pacific Grove, but not sure how good it is any more.

Hosteling International has 3 hostels in San Francisco. I have found that I like the HI hostels more than some of the others.
Link to the downtown HI hostel: http://sfhostels.com/downtown/

My very favorite HI hostel is at the corner of 10th & H in Sacramento.

My wife and I stopped in Monterey last year, we stayed in the Monterey Suites. Not sure of your budget, but we found it to be really good value, as the breakfast was huge and included in the price (I say huge, but that's huge to British standards!).
The restaurants nears the aquarium also we really good, something for all budgets.
SF, definitely drop the car - we had 3 days in SF and the buses were excellent. Taxi back to the airport was around $60 i seem to remember.

Don't forget Motel6 for the central coast, it started in Santa Barbara.

Quite often you can get a good rate midweek at Cambria Pines Lodge through moonstonehotels.com, I recommend the fireplace rooms which are on the upper floor. The rates include breakfast although it may not clearly state that on the website.

Try Expedia, Hotwire, Travelzoo etc. as well.

Usually you get better rates in the cities on weekends and on the coast midweek.

Good luck!

I don't know why I was so cheap when I traveled between Sacramento and Spokane, but I often stayed at Motel 6 for about $35 a might. Clean and comfortable but very basic.

bump

Thanks for the bump!

Everything is booked

2 nights Venice Cotel
1 night Madonna Inn
1 night Big Sur Campgrounds
1 night Borgs Oceanfront
3 nights Adelaide Hostel

Thoughts?

I've never stayed at the Adelaide Hostel in San Francisco and haven't seen it recommended before.

It is right on the borderline of the Tenderloin, one of the not-so-nice neighborhoods in San Francisco.

If you had to stay in the Tenderloin, I'd suggest you go with tomfuller's suggestion of the Hostelling International hostel on Ellis.

If you will have a car (and you would probably want to have a car for at least a day in San Francisco), try the Hostelling International at "Fisherman's Wharf", which isn't at FW but further west in Fort Mason and I believe it has free parking, a tremendous plus in San Francisco. Beautiful location. Safe.

http://sfhostels.com/fishermans-wharf/

Adelaide hostel had really good reviews so I thought it'd be good. Anyone been there before or heard good things about it?

duncanm: go into tripadvisor.com and look at the reviews for the Adelaide. Do the "rating" reviews in reverse, from bad to good. I always get more information from the bad reviews than from the good.

I would skip the Madonna Inn. Stay in Pismo or shell Beach. We have had good luck with Cottage inn By the Sea. They usually have good Internet rates.

http://www.cottage-inn.com/

I don't think the Tenderloin is as bad as it was years ago when we lived there, but it's much nicer over by Lombard Street and the Marina. Google away and find a good hotel there is my best advice, and you might even keep the car for a day if you want to drive over to Sausalito and up to say Napa to visit a winery. Parking is included in some of the places and there is usually also some street parking - but you might have to drive around a little.

I like the two that are closer to the Presidio and you can catch a couple of different bus lines there or on the cute little street named Chestnut. http://tinyurl.com/6ttcvzr

Try this one - Marina Motel - and there is another across Lombard. http://www.marinamotel.com/san-franc...-services.aspx

Depends what part of the Tenderloin. Where the Adelaide Hostel is is perfectly fine (it's also on the "edge " of Union Square). Tom is right though IF you want to have your car in SF, because parking downtown is extremely pricey.