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California coastal highway- California coastal highway
California coastal highway -
All you need to know to plan your California coastal highway road trip, including the best places to stop, how long the drive takes, and our tips for making the trip safe and enjoyable! The California coastal highway road trip is consistently ranked as one of the best road trips in the whole world. This coastal highway, also known as Route 1, is jam-packed with incredible views. From sprawling vineyards to cliffs that tower hundreds of feet above the Pacific Ocean, the drive is nothing short of stunning.
What is the California Coastal Highway. It is a highway that stretches the entire coast of California. For the majority of the drive, it hugs the coastline, providing incredible views over the Pacific ocean. The route along the California coast follows both Route 1 and Route , as they often merge together. Because of the incredible views and the world-class stops along the drive, the California coastal highway road trip is considered to be one of the best road trips in the United States , and the whole world.
The short answer is that the California coastal highway road trip starts and ends wherever you want it to. The most common thing to do is set your northern endpoint as San Francisco and your southern endpoint as either Los Angeles or San Diego, but this is completely flexible - you can make the drive much longer or much shorter if you wish, depending on your interests and how much time you have. We drove from San Francisco to San Diego and to us it felt like the perfect stretch.
This makes sense because being closer to the edges naturally gives you more ability to see down into the cliffs and towards the water. The views are still good, and being on the inside puts an extra 10 feet between you and the several hundred-foot drops that line the outside of the road. This question depends entirely on where you choose to start and end, clearly. If you choose to drive from San Francisco to San Diego, expect to spend at least 12 hours on the road. This is pretty much the bare minimum.
While the views along the road are incredible, one of the best parts of the California coastal highway road trip is all of the awesome stops along the way. We did the trip in a very short amount of time because of other time constraints that we had, and it is definitely possible to do this trip in two or three days.
Not really. We had an incredible time, but having a few more days can only enhance the experience. If you stretch it out over a week, you can expect to drive anywhere between 2 and 3 hours per day. If you do what we did, expect to be on the road from the crack of dawn until dinner. Like every other section so far in this post, the answer depends fully on how much time you have. As I said, we knocked this drive out in two days. In fact, the day before we started the road trip we had another long drive from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco, and we had just driven all the way from Napa Valley to Lake Tahoe.
If you want to add a stop in Napa Valley to your California coastal highway road trip, definitely check out my Napa Valley Travel Guide. Arrive in Ragged Point around am for lunch 2hr. Continue directly to Santa Barbara, arrive at pm 2hr. Arrive in Malibu at am and grab breakfast 1hr. Drive through Beverly Hills and visit the Hollywood sign at am 45min. Arrive at San Juan Capistrano for lunch and sightseeing at am 1hr. Day 3: Drive to somewhere in Big Sur and spend a night there.
I recommend the Ragged Point Inn. Day 5: Drive to Los Angeles or Malibu and spend two nights there. Day 6: Explore Los Angeles. Monterey is an adorable coastal town just south of San Francisco that was the muse of many 20th-century writers. There is a town called Big Sur, but the term Big Sur can also refer to everything along the coast from Monterey to a bit south of Ragged Point.
The hiking and camping here are incredible, and the area is also known for luxury boutique hotels. The Ragged Point Inn that I mentioned is not luxury at all, but it is an awesome and lively place to stop for a bite to eat or absorb some great views. Santa Barbara is a high-end, adorable city on the coastline and is definitely worth a stop.
For us, it was a natural breakup of our drive and we really enjoyed the city. Malibu is a high-end beach town north of Los Angeles and is known for its surfing and its popularity with celebrities. San Juan Capistrano is a town built around an old, Catholic, Spanish mission.
The mission has now been turned into a museum and is a beautiful property to walk around in. This is a great place to stop for a while and grab lunch. This road trip is seriously epic, but it is definitely long - especially if you cram it into just a couple of days as we did. If you leave at the crack of dawn you can beat almost all of the traffic and spend less time bumper to bumper on a one-lane road. Driving early is only good around the cities, though.
Driving early through Big Sur is not a good idea! You want to be driving through Big Sur in the afternoon because until about noon there is normally a massive cloud of fog that almost completely obstructs your view. The higher you go into the cliffs, the worse the fog gets. While the early bird gets the worm around the cities, the early bird is disappointed by clouds of fog in Big Sur.
Do yourself a favor and relax and grab breakfast before heading into the Big Sur stretch of the drive. Finally, you really need to bring a jacket or sweatshirt. We did it in July and thought it would be warm; we were very wrong. It was definitely chilly until we got to Santa Barbara, and even then it was chilly in the mornings and evenings.
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Otherwise, have a wonderful day, and Stay Present! There are very few things that I love more than traveling and experiencing new places and cultures.
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North America. Jul 30 Written By Greg. What Is the California Coastal Highway? Arrive in San Diego at pm 1hr. Day 4: Drive to Santa Barbara and spend the night there.
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