We will plan on spending one night while traveling to LA from SF. We would like to spend a little time in Carmel and see the Hearst Castle. What other stops would you recommend and where do you recommend staying overnight. I was thinking that Big Sur might be a good place to stay.

If you travel from SF to Carmel and then to Hearst Castle, you'll be heading way back up north to spend the night in Big Sur. From Hearst Castle, either spend the night in Cambria/San Simeon or continue your drive to San Luis Obispo and spend the night there.

If you are going to go to Carmel and Hearst Castle in the same day then staying in Big Sur would be a back track.

Big Sur is good if you are doing the Castle the following day.

Otherwise...

Just a little bit south of San Simeon is Cambria. It is a really nice little beach town.

You could also stay in San Luis Obispo which is a bigger city and has more lodging options. From Hearst Castle it is about 40 miles away. From SLO it is about 4-5 hours to LA.

On your way to LA, you can stop and visit Santa Barbara which has a great boardwalk & beach area.

Not sure if this is what you meant - but uou can't just stop and visit San Simeon. You must book your Hearst Castle tour(s) ahead of time.

If it were me - I'd stay the night in Carmel/Pacific Grove, leave early in the a.m. to drive through Big Sur and stop at San Simeon for an early afternoon tour.

If we leave SF midmorning, would we have time to see Carmel & the Hearst Castle in the same day? If we wouldn't need to make reservations, we could just stop when we got tired of driving.

If by "see" you mean drive by the sites then I guess you could "see" both of them.

I would think that you want want to spend at least a few hours visiting Carmel.

Leave SF midmorning (10am), get to Carmel (1-2pm), leave Carmel (4-5pm), Get to San Simeon (6-7pm).

I don't know what time the Castle closes but that doesn't sound like a good idea at least in my opinion. Leave SF early if you want to do both in a day.

OK - a few comments:

No - you can't really see Carmel and Hearst Castle on the same day. Carmel takes time - you can't just drive through Carmel. And Big Sur is not a quick drive.

And what day of the week are you talking about? Along the coast, accomodations are hard to come by w/o reservations and if it is a weekend, most require a 2 night minimum.

Even the Hearst Castle web site suggests that reservations be made. We plan to leave SF on a Sunday and drive to Carmel. At first, I was planning on spending the night in Carmel. Now that I realize that the drive is so long to LA, I'm thinking we should continue driving south on the Sunday. We could spend the night in Big Sur or San Simeon, see the Castle the next day and then drive on to LA. From what I gather in other posts, the total drive could take 10 hours. How long would it take to get to Carmel from SF? From Carmel to San Simeon? The Hearst Castle web site says its 4.5 hours to LA. I wish we had more time to spend a 2nd night along the way. Is there anything else we should be sure to take the time to see?

Hi amberkat,
I think you are wise to break it up into at least one day. Carmel and the entire Monterey area is so great that it would be a shame to only spend 1-2 hours there...especially if you have more time.

SF to Carmel should take you ~ 2.5 hours (~150 miles). Carmel to San Simeon should be another 2 hours (90 miles of coastal hightway).

San Simeon to Downtown LA is about 4.5 to 5 hours and that is taking US101 and not the coastal CA-1.

If you have the time I like to take visitors to 17 mile drive along the Moneterey coast.

Santa Barbara is a great beach town with a fun artsy boardwalk area.

Solvang, while the Dutch town is not my thing I know folks who love it.

From Carmel to Cambria is
only about 100 miles, I estimate no more than 4 hours although you never know what kind of drivers you will get behind.

Between San Simeon and LA is about 5 hours. It makes no sense to cut inland south of Cambria. Cambria is not much farther than San Simeon but if time is a factor than stay in San Simeon.

I wanted to mention that Solvang is Danish, not Dutch as previously posted:
http://www.solvangusa.com/
It is touristy, but I like it anyway, LOL.

Thanks for the info!

Cambria is the place to stay--on Moonstone Drive. It is six miles from the San Simeon Castle.

FYI, I wasn't suggesting to stay in Solvang. Just stop for a break and/or meal. ITA, Cambria would be the best spot if you are visting Hearst Castle.

My recommendation would be to spend more time in Carmel, do 17 mile drive, and do Point Lobos, skip Hearst Castle, skip SLO and do SB if you have the time. The coastal drive is one of the best road trips in America and rushing through isn't the way to do it.