My mother, father, wife and baby daughter (18months old) will be traveling from Monterey towards San Diego and I was wondering if this trip could be done in two days/ 1 night. They will be leaving the Pebble Beach area around 5/6 PM on Monday, August 29th. I was thinking that maybe they could reach Solvang Monday night, but realistically that may be a stretch since there is so much to see on the way down. If they were able to make it down to Solvang, could they get to San Diego by Tuesday night? By the way, my baby is a seasoned traveler and doesn't mind the driving in the car. I was hoping they could make it to San Diego by Tuesday, so they could spend 2.5 days in the San Diego area.

If that's not possible, what two stopping points would you recommend?

Thanks in advance for the recommendations!!!

FYI I'd like to find a place for less than $100 for Monday night (right now I have the Royal Copenhagen Inn reserved for $80).

It depends on which route they take and how late they want to drive.

Using Hwy 101, they could easily reach Solvang that night - I am thinking it's about 3 hours from Monterey. On Hwy 101, there isn't much to see, although it's not a bad drive. Then Solvang to San Diego would be another 4 hours, I believe.

If they want to take Hwy 1 and drive through the Big Sur coast, then the route will take longer and Solvang would be a stretch, but it will be getting dark (or already dark depending on the time of year), so it would be sort of pointless to make this drive unless they can leave earlier in the day.

Since my Dad and I will be playing Pebble Beach, they won't be able to leave Monterey any earlier than 5PM. Since it is the end of August, there should be plenty of daylight until at least 8 or 9, right? If they plan to drive Hwy 1, maybe they should spend the night in Cambria or Morro Bay? They should be able to get there by 8 or 9, even with the many stops along the way right? The next morning should they plan on driving all the way to SD, or maybe stay another night in Ventura, or somewhere therabouts? Should they rush on down to SD (get there by Tuesday night) and spend Wednesday, Thursday and part of Friday in SD, or spend a night in Ventura, and drive down to SD on Wednesday, and only have half of Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday to explore SD?

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Hey - sorry I didn't reply sooner. There must have been a lot of posts that moved your post down the list and I didn't see it.

Sunset in August in Monterey will be between 7:30 and 8:15.

Here is a link to the US Naval Observatory sun and moon tables - I love this site:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html

So, if they leave at 5, they will have 2 1/2 - 3 hours of daylight left. If the fog rolls in, it may get darker earlier, or they could get lucky and have a fog-free evenning and a great sunset, you just never know.

I think stopping at Cambria or Morro Bay is a good choice - it is about 100 miles from Monterey to Cambria, which takes about 2 1/2 hours without stops.

Whether they should take their time the rest of the route or just head on through depends on what they want to do. If it were me, I would probably opt for heading straight through to SD, although it will be a long day of driving. If memory serves, it is about 3 hours down to Ventura and then another 3 down to SD.

The drive down HIghway 1 from carmel to beyond big sur is one of life's delights. Why you would want to charge thru it after dark after playing pebble beach in the aft is way beyond me. I would vote for you to slow down. At least so you can savor the northern part. I would vote for a stay in big sur--then the drive to LA is 6-7 hours the next day, and you could decide whether to push beyond.