Hi,

We have hired a car to pick up from LAX and drive to SFO over a few days, We plan to stay over night along the way but currently unsure what the best place to stay and best places to visit are!

Also, its my first time driving a left hand side car and on the wrong side of the road (I am from Australia) and would love to get any hints or tips on staying sane whilst doing so!

Cheers, Angie

Hi, Angie. You didn't say when you will be visiting but there is bad news. The most scenic route between the two cities is Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo (SLO) to Monterey but that has been closed for an estimated several months because of heavy rains that washed away parts of the road to the ocean far below. You can go north of SLO via Morro Bay to north of San Simeon (Hearst's Castle) but then you would have to backtrack and go north on Highway 101 to Salinas, turn west to Monterey and then head south on Highway 1 to about Big Sur where you would then have to turn around and backtrack to Monterey. Highway 101 is itself scenic through rolling hills but doesn't have the dramatic sea scapes of Highway 1. If your trip isn't until June the highway may have been reopened by then.

En route,depending on when you are leaving LA, Santa Barbara is a pretty place to overnight as is SLO, a very charming college town with an awesome Thursday night street market (try the Santa Maria tri-tip: only in CA). Monterey and near-by Carmel are also places that could be considered for an overnight (if not destinations in their own right).

Californians drive fast but are pretty disciplined so if you keep your wits about you and your co-pilot pays attention to the road signs you should do OK on the "wrong" side of the road. Your major problem will be negotiating the traffic around LAX but it is easy to get on the I-405 northbound and take it to the exit for 101 and you are on your way. I would stay in the center or right lanes since it is sometimes hard to get across the lanes in traffic if you are in the fast-moving left lane. I was able to negotiate the traffic around Heathrow without having an emotional breakdown and I'm sure you'll be able to do the same here.

You have a great trip ahead of you and I hope that you have allowed some time to visit Yosemite National Park east of San Francisco: one of the world's premier beauty spots.

How many days will you have?

My favorite places along that drive are Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and San Simeon. Santa Barbara is a wonderful beach town, but it is quite close to Los Angeles so it might not be a great overnight spot for you. Between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo there are a bunch of wineries (although I'm not sure that I would recommend wine tasting if you are just getting used to driving on the right.)

Morro Bay, which is in Highway 1 as you come out of SLO is pretty. You can rent a kayak and paddle around the bay, perhaps to see seals or sea otters. As you drive up the coast from Morro Bay you will find Cambria and Moonstone Beach. They both have lots of hotels, with Moonstone's looking right out over the ocean. We only just discovered Moonstone so no recommendations there.

San Simeon is the home to Hearst Castle, which is definitely worth the stop. If you have seen the movie Citizen Kane then you have seen the fictionalized version of William Randolph Hearst's life. After Hearst Castle it's fun to check out the elephant seals. There is a lookout to the left of the highway as you drive north where you can watch them.

Then you are on the legendary stretch of Highway 1 up through Big Sur and into Monterey. It's an incredible drive, but traffic can get slow getting into Monterey. I can't tell you as much about Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz, other than that they are quite different and interesting in their own way. Monterey has a beautiful aquarium, and Santa Cruz has a boardwalk with rides, and Carmel has lots of boutiques. Monterey is also the home to Steinbeck's Cannery Row. Hope this is a good start.

A couple of notes about driving on the "wrong" side (from our experience driving in the UK):

Don;t drive more than an hour or so after getting off a log flight

Don;t drive long enough that you're tired and start to operate on auto-pilot

Avoid driving after dark until you've had a couple of days in the car

I have driven in Australia as well as other 'wrong side of the road' countries. I have found that reminding yourself as the driver that you sit on the outside of the lane, in other words, the side closest to the oncoming traffic. That is helpful when turning corners and negotiating rotaries (round abouts).

The direction you will be traveling up the coast will put you on the inside lane, the ocean will be to your left as will be the oncoming traffic.

The good news about "driving on the wrong side of the road"; our cars are automatics. You won't have to shift with a different hand.

We don't have a lot of round abouts in California either.

What time does your plane get in? Traffic in LA is parking lot at certain times of day.

Hwy. 1 reopened this last Thursday or Friday.

Michelle, do you have a link? I just looked on CalTrans site and it still says closed in parts.

sf--the slide area near Rocky Creek has opened to controlled traffic i.e. one way, so you can make it to Big Sur and the residents can get to Carmel, but there is still an area south of Big Sur near Gorda I believe that has a slide that is not cleared, so you can't take 1 to Cambria. The slide near Rocky Creek got the most publicity and the slide to the south did not.

Tips--you're going to find the turn signals and windshield wipers reversed. So instead of signalling you'll be wiping your (dry) windshield. What's even worse, when you return home you'll be doing the same thing in reverse, only for far longer.

You'll find the passenger will at least once try to enter the car on the driver's side. This is a good opportunity to mock them by asking if they feel like driving.

I find a good to stay on the correct side is to remind yourself that the driver should be winding up just next to the center line. Do this especially when making a turn.

Be careful crossing the street, both on foot and in the car. Your instinct will be to look the wrong way for oncoming traffic. My solution is to look both ways, twice.

Good luck.

sf7307 - I was in Salinas on Thursday and the news was reporting the road was opening up that day. CalTrans shows only one way still, so maybe the TV news was jumping the gun?

Michelle, probably wishful thinking!

To clarify: The road between Carmel and Big Sur is open in both directions, which was the big concern for Big Sur residents --they tend to do more business to the North and some send their kids to school in Carmel-iand hence the news coverage. One lane is open, letting traffic go north and south in a controlled manner, so it's not just one way. However, as I posted there is a slide south of Big Sur, near Gorda, that has not been cleared to date and that prevents taking 1 from Carmel to Cambria and beyond.