San Fran - La on Highway 1
 

Hi, 3 adults are planning to drive from San Francisco to LA in April. We only have two days (1 night) to make the trip. Plan to leave San Francisco early in the morning.

1) Where would you recommend to stay for the night en-route, so as to comfortably arrive to LA by about 4pm on day 2? (Budget around about $100 ish per room per night)

2) Given the time constraints, what are the must sees en-route?

3)What is the best route from San Francisco - LA (i.e where should we join and leave the coastal road)?

I'd actually spend the night at the BigSur River Inn. See www.bigsurriverinn.com

You can take your time in Monterey and Carmel during the first day and arrive in Big Sur at this sort of rustic place along the highway before dark and have dinner there. Then get an early morning start down along Big Sur. Stop in Santa Barbara for lunch. Or you could make plans to do a late morning tour of the Hearst Castle as you leave Big Sur area.

I'd actually stay on 1 all the way until you reach San Luis Obispo where it runs into 101, then follow that. When 1 and 101 split again, just south of there, I'd then stay with 101 until you get to Ventura and then depending on where you're going, take whichever freeway is appropriate.

In order to save time and see something a little different, I would skip Hwy 1 from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. I would take 280 ( quite scenic ) down the peninsula to 85 south to 17 south into Santa Cruz.

Both Patrick's and jwc's routes are good. Taking hwy 280 will probably take about 20 minutes off your travel time and it a scenic route. Hwy 1 all the way from SF is also scenic and it is very interesting to drive all the way down the coast and see how it changes as you go along.

To be honest, I almost said to skip route 1 from San Francisco to Santa Cruz area also, just as jwc describes-- that's what I would do. But I left that in as I got the feeling you were up for a lot of scenic drive. Depends how much you want to stop as opposed to simply driving. I'm surprised that J_Correa says the 280 route would only take about 20 minutes off. I would think a lot more.

I've done both routes many times and that's been my experience. Hwy 1, although a 2 lane road for the most part north of Santa Cruz goes pretty quick, esspecially south of Half Moon Bay. It's nothing for the flow of traffic to be above 60mph. Using the 280/17 route is pretty quick, unless there is traffic or a bunch of trucks on 17 - in that case it can really slow you down.

I agree about skipping highway 1 from SF to Santa Cruz. That part of highway 1 is not nearly as scenic as the stretch south of Santa Cruz through Monerey and Big Sur. The 280 and 1 route is quite nice. Take 280 south toward San Jose. Once in the city take the 17 south exit and then connect with highway 1 in Santa Cruz. What types of site are you interested in? There's so much to see between SF and LA. Some of the highlights would include: Tech Museum, Winchester Msytery House, and Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, Big Basin Redwoods Part off of highway 17, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, and Santa Barbara. For your overnight stay I would advise somewhere in the Monterey area. PAcific Grove has a great selection of reasonably proced inns and B&Bs.