PCH road trip

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Hi,

We are driving PCH this summer for our honeymoon end of June/beginning of July and just looking for some suggestions on things to see & do.

We're flying into San Fran and spending a few days there before renting a car & starting our road trip. We've a night in Monterey, 2 nights in Pismo beach, 2 nights in Santa Barbara & finishing with a few nights in Santa Monica.

We've Alcatraz booked & wine tasting booked for one day in Pismo beach. We'll be in Santa Barbara for 4th of July.

So looking for recommendations on things to see & do and places to eat.

Do we need a car in LA?

Wheety

Quad bikes on Pismo Beach.

tricky D

Hearst Castle near San Simeon is worth a look. Like most attractions you should book well inadvance. Eg. Alcatraz can be booked out up to 6 months in advance.

At the moment you can't do the whole PCH through the Big Sur sector due to the recent landslides, so you might end up having to do a lengthy trackback. Information on when it will fully reopen isn't great but last time I checked, they were trying to reopen some time this summer.

Andrewf20

What's pch?

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Andrewf20 wrote: »

What's pch?

Pacific coast highway

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tricky D wrote: »

Hearst Castle near San Simeon is worth a look. Like most attractions you should book well inadvance. Eg. Alcatraz can be booked out up to 6 months in advance.

At the moment you can't do the whole PCH through the Big Sur sector due to the recent landslides, so you might end up having to do a lengthy trackback. Information on when it will fully reopen isn't great but last time I checked, they were trying to reopen some time this summer.

A quick google today suggests it won't be reopened until Sept

We run into a problem trying to go from Monterey to Pismo beach. We can go the 101 but that means missing lots of big sur. Or we can drive to Gorda and either double back to Monterey then head for Pismo (will take 6.5hrs) or take Nacimento Ferguson road across the mountain to 101. Supposedly nacimento road is lethal?

What is the must see part of big sur? Could we turn back sooner than Gorda without missing too much?

rigamincedeal

Hi there sorry to hijack the thread, just wanted to see how your trip went as iam planning something similar for mid September. Planning going from LA to SF with number of different stop offs along the way.. then after SF to Yostmite for a couple of nights from there we will head south through Death Valley for Vegas for a few days then back home. I am just wondering have you any tips suggestions.? Also was the PCH at Big Sur still closed off..? There doesn’t seem to be a massive amount of info on this available online. Thanks

él statutorio

rigamincedeal wrote: »

Hi there sorry to hijack the thread, just wanted to see how your trip went as iam planning something similar for mid September. Planning going from LA to SF with number of different stop offs along the way.. then after SF to Yostmite for a couple of nights from there we will head south through Death Valley for Vegas for a few days then back home. I am just wondering have you any tips suggestions.? Also was the PCH at Big Sur still closed off..? There doesn’t seem to be a massive amount of info on this available online. Thanks

I believe it's scheduled to reopen this month.

faceman

The PCH is great. I've done it a few times now. As previously mentioned part of it is still closed.

If you can, be flexible with your itinerary. You will find gems along the way that might inspire you to change plans. I never pre book accommodation outside of the cities.

+1 to Hearst Castle. And for the lols ask them about his influence on the 1916 rising! They talk about him as if he was Jesus Christ! Hilarious.

If you can, stay a night in the Madonna Inn or if you can't do that, even have lunch or a beer there. Its nothing to do with the singer, it's possible the most eccentric spot along the way. Its closer to the LA side of the PCH than SF.

myate

As of yesterday Highway 1 around Big Sur is open again! 14 months closed because of a huge landslide. This makes doing Highway 1 much better & easier.
McWay Falls is pretty mega to stop at...very busy though with limited parking. Carmel is pretty cool, the lone cypress tree is gorgeous (near Pebble beach).