Hi. My husband and I will be driving up from San Diego to San Jose around August 1st. We will visit with family in SD and have a wedding in SJ on 8/4. We have to be to SJ early on 8/3, but don't really want to leave SD before 8/1. Any suggestions on where to stay the night of 8/1 and 8/2? No need for us to do LA as we've been there before. We were thinking of possibly Santa Barbara for one night and then Montecito or vicinity for another, but we can easily be swayed to another area. We just want to see the central coast area and the major sights in b/w LA and SF... Any suggestions? If so, can you also suggest lodging in the place you recommend?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Santa Barbara is nice. The drive from San Luis Obispo to Big Sur is one of the most beautiful in California, IMO.

With 2 nights, it will be a quick trip, but you will be able to see some good stuff. Santa Barbara is a good stoping point for the first night, although you might want to push farther and get to San Luis Obispo so you aren't rushed the next day through Big Sur, which is the most picturesque section of the drive. The next night I would spend the Monterey Area since you have to be in San Jose early on the 3rd, you don't want to have a long drive that day (Monterey to SJ is only an hour and a half).

Thanks for the info, it's very helpful and I think we'll go with that. Any suggestions for lodging in San Luis Obispo and/or Monterey? Anywhere from $100-$300/night?

With that budget, you should be able to find something really good on both locations. I don't have any specific recommendations though - whenever we are in either area we stay with family, so I don't have any experience with the hotels. I am sure others will have advice though.

You might consider Pismo Beach as well (in place of San Luis Obispo). It just depends on what you are looking for. Pismo is right on the beach, as you can probably guess, and SLO is inland a little bit.