The plans are done. We'll be in Santa Cruz for graduation week-end.

Sunday visit family in San Francisco for the day and drive south of the city so we do not have to deal with traffic on Monday morning. Plan on staying at the Residence Inn in San Jose on Sunday night.

Monday leave for San Simeon. 3:20 Tour on Monday. Stay Monday night at the Sea Coast Lodge.

Tuesday drive to LA to Mission Hills to see friends.

Then on to Beverly Hills for a few days.

Anyone familiar with the hotels? I can find nothing about the Sea Coast Lodge. We need 2 rooms and it seems doable. They have a price that includes dinner. Anyone ever done that?

Anyone familiar with driving times? How reliable is Mapquest?

Any help will be appreciated.

Diane

Diance

Tuesday leave San Simeon

Mapquest is pretty accurate. Don't plan on hitting the Mission Hills area between 4pm and 7pm, traffic nightmare. I'd say leave San Simeon around 9:00 to 9:30am, a little earlier if you plan on stopping to eat.

I stayed at Sea Coast Lodge two years ago. From what I recall, it was great. The rooms were decently sized, clean, and the staff was hospitable. We didn't have the dinner deal but enjoyed the continental breakfast the next morning in their dining area.

Are you staying in a hotel while in LA, or with family?

Well going the other way we left Santa Monica around 9am and go to San Simeon around 4pm or 5pm (and we did stop in Santa Barbara for at least an hour).

Just a word of caution, the entire san simeon area is pretty empty and plain. so stay at the sea coast lodge only if you want a place to rest before moving on. i believe there is a restaurant on the property and nothing else in the immediate area. an alternative is to stay an hour or more from san simeon, like cambria or morro bay or san luis obispo. otherwise don't expect much to do after your castle tour.
hearst castle is definately worth it, you'll have a great time!

laderaranch,

Cambria is only 9 miles from San Simeon. Many places to stay and restaurants to eat at.

Morro Bay is, maybe 20 minutes from Cambria.

Curious

oh that's right... my point was to not stay in san simeon itself but to drive out instead to a nicer city. i thought the drive to those cities was a bit longer, thanks for clearing it up..