Route 101 LA to SF Coastal Highway

Fozzie Bear

Myself and the Missus are going to the states in August for a friends wedding in NY.

But first we are visiting relatives of hers in LA and the Napa Valley region north of SF. We are planning on hiring a convertable and driving from SF to LA via the coastal highway (Route 101).

Question is has anybody here done this route before? We are aiming at taking 2/3 days to drive it and take it in the views. Can anyone recommend any sights or attractions along the way? We have tried Googling it but have not come up with too much at the moment.

Any help/recommendations would be appreciated.

robinph

I drove down from SF along highway 1 last August over a couple of days, highway 101 is the freeway inland and not the coast road although they do join up at a couple of points I think.

There is a lot of stunning views along that road and I ended up stopping far too often to take pictures. I made it down as far as San Louis Obispo on the first day, which was probably a bit far to have gone in one day but I think between there and Monterey there wasn't many options of where to stay for the night on a just turn up type basis so I just kept on driving until I reached a larger town. I only then went as far as Santa Barbera the next day though as past that point there was a huge forrest fire going on so just spent the day wandering round that town instead. I easliy made it back up the 101 though in one day on the return trip though.

It is potentially a slightly better option to drive north to south as you are then on the coast side of the road so it's easier to pull into all the view points, but then if your a nervous driver being on the cliff side of the road may freak you or your passenger out a bit. I did notice that the US drivers in front of me tended to be freaked out even more by the fact it was a twisty single lane road and they were not too used to non-straight roads.

There are specific highway 1 tourist maps that you can pick up and list all the different sights to stop at along the way, but a map itself is pretty irrelavent as once your on the road as long as you keep the ocean on the correct side you'll not get lost.

ChuckProphet

santa barbara is nice...u have the santa ynez valley just inland from it...nice drive, lots of wineries...where sideways was made.
san luis obispo worth a look.
monterey/carmel/17 mile drive/big sur...nice scenery
santa cruz also quite a nice town

Fozzie Bear

Cheers guys. Ill get to Googling some of those town/place names with Mrs Fozzie. The wine tasting will appeal to her!

Would not be that nervous a driver to be honest and as for narrow twisty roads sure we are Irish, we were practically raised on them:cool: I survived driving around the Lake Garda region in Italy last summer and there are some scary drivers there I can tells ya.

ChuckProphet

Fozzie Bear wrote: »

Cheers guys. Ill get to Googling some of those town/place names with Mrs Fozzie. The wine tasting will appeal to her!

Would not be that nervous a driver to be honest and as for narrow twisty roads sure we are Irish, we were practically raised on them:cool: I survived driving around the Lake Garda region in Italy last summer and there are some scary drivers there I can tells ya.

wouldn't worry bout the drive at all. piece of cake. i think slo to monterey was the nicest part of the drive

robinph

The drive is no bother at all for anyone from this side of the atlantic, it's just mentioned as being a touch tricky for nervous Americans that are not used to bends in the road in several of the guide books that I glanced through.

keefg

One piece of advice I would give is share the driving (if possible).

As folks have mentioned, Route 1 is very twisty and as a driver you will spend all your time concentrating on the bends in the road rather than on the fantastic views.

If you do have to do all the driving, when you get to your destination (as happened to me) your passengers will all say what a fantastic drive that was........you may think otherwise :rolleyes:.