I will be driving down from SF to LA on Christmas Day with my wife and 3 kids (ages 13/11/5). I realize that most stores in Carmel/Montery/FW/Cannery will be closed. Unfortunately, I will only have one day to see all the sights. Here is what I am thinking of. Drive from SF-Carmel(8:00-10:00). Point Lobos Beach, Possibly 17 Mile Drive (10:00-12:00). Drive to Pfifer Big Sur/Pfeiffer Falls/Redwoods (1:00-3:00) Drive to Julia Pfeifer Burns Park. McWay Waterfalls, Whale Watching (3:00-5:00). Pull over side of road to check out sights (possibly elephant seals near San Simeon.)Drive til 9:00 or so to get within 2-3 hour drive to LA (for following next morning). Any and all thoughts/suggestions/recommendations needed! Lastly, Any thoughts as to where to stay about 150- 200 miles north of LA? Thanks for all you help!

Morro Bay's about 210 Mi from LA. Great location. See the Rock, and have breakfast on the Embarcadero before setting out in the AM.

Hi andjenjor

It is a great drive and a full schedule.(maybe to full)Just be aware at that time of year it will be getting dark at 5 to 5:30 pm.
I was at a beach front wedding in Cambria, November 8th and the sun was meeting the sea at 5pm.
Cambria,and Morro Bay have places to stay. Morro bay will be cheaper

Have Fun
GP

Sounds like an awful lot for 1 day, esspecially with 3 kids. I would definitely do Point Lobos, but consider leaving out 17 Mile Drive. You will already be in the car a lot so I think you will want to focus on activities you can do outside the car. Also, I don't think there is much to interest the kids on 17 Mile Drive and their patience will be tested on this trip enough as it is.

As for the 2 Pfifer parks, I would play that by ear - you might have time for both, but you might not.

I would stop in the Cambria/Morro Bay/SLO area for the night. You will be more than the 2-3 hour drive from LA - more like 4 hours, but the drive down Hwy 1 is taxing for both passengers and drivers. There is so much to see that you will stop a lot, and the road is quite narrow and curvey, so the driver really has to pay attention, and the passengers get tossed around quite a bit.

All of this is contingent on the weather, of course. If there is a storm it is advisable (possible required) that you take Hwy 101 from Monterey south.

I agree that you should skip 17 Mile Drive. I did that the first time I went out there about 10 years ago. Then, I was just out there last week, staying at Inn at Spanish Bay on the 17 Mile Drive, so I was on it for free, and said to myself why would anyone want to pay to do this. You're really just driving around looking at some nice houses, but not much more. You can get all the scenery you could want on the drive down Big Sur.

Thanks alot for your help so far. I esily could skip the 17 Mile Drive. Also, guess I'll start out alittle earlier too. Any other tip???? Thanks!

Something else I thought of - bring a cooler with food and drink and something to settle stomachs if anyone in your family is prone to motion sickness.

A picnic lunch might be a nice thing to do. We had a picnic at Pfiffer/Big Sur a few months ago on our way up the coast - there is a nice little area under the trees next to the river with picnic tables.

Even if you don't do the picnic, bring snacks because there are long stretches along that road with no services for miles and Murphy's law says that is when the 5 year old will be dying of hunger

The 2 hour estimate SF to Carmel is pretty low, the only way you are going to come close to that time, in my opinion, is if you take 280, 17 to 1 or 280, 85, 101, 156 to 1 (I make better time on the latter but opinions vary) AND you go over speed limit AND the CHP is not out in force. I have made it there in about 2.3 hours but there was no traffic and I do have a lead foot.

SAB is right. Even if you take 280, 17, 1 to Montery from SF it will likely take about 3 hours. I agree with the others about skipping 17 mile drive.

You have got way too much for one day. That sounds more like a 2 or 3 day itinerary to me. I read on another of your threads that you will be in SF for 3 days. I would definitely cut down my time there to 1 or 2 days at the most (that's all the time you need to see things there) aand spend more time seeing the sights between SF and LA. It will be a much better use of your time and you will get to see so many nice places along the way: San Jose, Big Basin, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, etc.

I don't think it has ever taken me 3 hours to get to Carmel from SF but as I said I do have a lead foot (never met a speed limit that I liked). I can't remember what traffic is like on Christmas Day, but don't count on there being none. We Californians don't all leave the State on holidays. Put me in the skip the 17 mile drive camp with the limited time you have. You may not have time to see both Pffifer Big Sur and Julia Pffifer Burns (but you can determine that as you go). If memory serves, I believe there have been postings about making the choice. Also second the idea of having alternate plans should there be heavy rain, such as taking 101 all the way to Santa Barbara for example.

I drove from SF to Pebble Beach (a bit south of Monterey) last week. It was raining, and traffic was HORRIBLE--bumper to bumper almost the whole way between SF and south of San Jose--hit rush hour in San Jose. The whole trip took 3 hours. On the way back, I made it from Pebble Beach to SF Airport in 1:45. So, assuming normal traffic, I think it will take well under 3 hours.

Hwy 101 south of SJ is 4 lanes in each direction now rather than the 2 it was previously. This has basically removed the traffic jam that Abi is refering to. Traffic generally slows a bit in Morgan Hill where the southbound freeway reduces from 4 to 3 lanes and then it can be slow at the 101/156 interchange since there is some construction around there and 156 is a 2 lane road for awhile. Any traffic you encounter shouldn't be bad though.

I was just reading an article in today's San Jose Mercury News about Highway 101 south of San Jose. It turns out that the traffic jams in that area are back again despite the extra lanes. That is a familiar problem with the widening of freeways in the San Jsoe Bay Area. As soon as new lanes are added the freeway is backed up with cars just as bad as before the construction. Apparently The Metropolitan Transportation Commission doesn't have enough money to put metering lights on this strectch of highway which is what is needed to releive the backups.

Interesting Abi. I've got friends and coworkers who drive that stretch of highway every weekday and they haven't run into many backups. I personally take that road from San Jose to Morgan Hill about once a month on Fridays after work and haven't run into any problems either. You are correct that with most Bay Area freeways, adding lanes only fixes the congestion temporarily, but I believe the Mercury may have jumped the gun on this one. Maybe it was a slow news day or something.

I've had a similar experience to Abi's. Avoid 101 south of San Jose if at all possible, especially during rush hour when people are leaving the city.