NEED HELP! thinking of changing our plans for California

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Now I am having a light bulb moment! I am thinking of doing something different, but I need your advice.

Friday night we fly into LAX. We are staying at a hotel nearby. We are then driving to Sequioa on Sat. We will enter through the south entrance to the north entrance and out toward Fresno. I would love to see more of the Pacific, and more of scenery in California. Originally we were going to drive straight back to LA on Sunday. I almost don’t want to drive straight back to LA. What if we headed West toward the coast? I looked on Mapquest and not sure what town on the coast to head toward. I would want a scenic drive, but not one crazy. Someone told me that HWY 1 is a great stretch and the Pacific Coast Highway (are they one and the same, or differenty highways?). Do you think we could make the coast by sunset on Sat. night? Might be pretty to see the sunset on the Pacific Ocean. I would LOVE any help on this!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I don't know how many days you have, but being so close to Fresno, you should really try to go see Yosemite. Also, if you wanted to drive back toward's the coast, Monterey Bay is beautiful and you can take the PCH1 back down towards LA.

 

[GrandBob]

The gorgeous part of Highway 1 is from Monterey to San Simeon. (Pet peeve - it's NOT PCH up here, though it seems most everyone on DIS insists on calling it that. PCH is the part of Hwy 1 from Oxnard to LA. The beautiful part of Hwy 1, past Big Sur, is technically the Cabrillo Highway. But everyone just calls it "1").

You would probably want to spend the night in Monterey/Carmel/Seaside/Pacific Grove/Marina. Fresno to Monterey is 3 hours.

The next day, take Highway 1 down the Big Sur coast until it emptys into US 101 at SLO (San Luis Obispo). Then follow 101 past Santa Barbara into LA.

Google maps puts this drive at less than 7 hours, but that's crazy. If you're doing it to sightsee, you should allow 9-10 hours for the drive, and to get out to see the sights.

As I told someone on the other Highway 1 thread, if you want to a meal with a view to die for, but prices that match, have lunch or dinner at Nepenthe's, just south of the town of Big Sur.

-Bob

 

[Judy from Boise]

As an Oxnard native, I have to say that our PCH is also very beautiful, and much easier to drive.