ltcjmramos

Which means you'll need to take the wife into the men's restroom!

Chris C.

Rain on saturday but Sunday looks good!

Pretty stops and scenery in Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and of course Monterey...

Take the 1 as far/long as you can...south of Big Sur it's amazing!!

If you have time you could head to wine country in Santa Maria/Santa Ynez before continuing on down to santa barbara - crazy pretty area with amazing GSMs, Pinot Noir, and other varietals.

DCAlbarran

The 46 from Cambria to Paso Robles right before sunset is breathtaking.

ocmacman

Hey, when are you starting you drive? What size car will you be taking.

Cabarnak

Gentlemen,

I am now back from my SF to LA road trip and wanted to thank you all for being so generous with your help, recommendations and answers to my questions!

The trip was absolutely fabulous and I completely agree that everyone should make this trip in their lifetime. I rented a 2014 Boxster S (well optioned and pdk)...while I did miss my 993TT, the 981 was perfect...convertible, great handling and pdk was fun to play with. Needless to say that the radar detector came in handy a couple of times

I listened to pretty much all of the advice you gave me. In case anyone's interested (and for others who might want to take a similar trip in the future), here's a quick report of the route I took:

- Straight out of SFO, we took the 92 and landed in Half Moon Bay, we checked out the Ritz, stopped at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and then down HWY 1 which we followed all the way to LA (except parts where we had to hop onto the 101).

- Stopped in Santa Cruz for the night (Dream Inn was very decent and seemed like the best option for lodging in the region).

- Monterey and Big Sur area (magnificent): Monterey Bay aquarium, Carmel, 17-mile drive, Point Lobos State Park, McWay Falls and hikes in Julia Pfeiffer Park. Stayed two nights at the Ventana Inn which I highly recommend..great place to unwind.

- Cambria: Nice, but our hotel wasn't that great so we were happy to only stay one night and get out of there to drive south (perhaps we had been spoiled at the Ventana Inn). Still, nice visits in the area included elephant seal breeding grounds, Hearst Castle and vineyards in Paso Robles...yes the 46 (east) right before sunset IS spectacular (!)

- Passed through Morro Bay, Pismo Beach driving down to Santa Barbara where we stayed two nights (the Belmond El Encanto was as nice if not nicer than the Ventana Inn..). Great restaurants in SB, and from there you can explore Santa Ynes, Solvang, etc..

- Driving south from SB, the 101 is not so nice and we came back to the US-1 as soon as we could (I think just past Ventura). Drove through Malibu (didn't get to drive up Kanan Rd + Mulholland Dr... ). Beautiful drive, but it was the weekend and it was a little bit busy so we just went straight to Santa Monica.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and in great part because of all the tips and recommendations I got from you guys.

Thank you!!! Pics of the trip are still in the DSLR and I'll post a couple asap.

PS. If anyone reads this in the future, feel free to ping me for recommendations (places to stay, restaurants, anything..)

ltcjmramos

Glad to hear you had a very enjoyable trip.

Quark

HWY 1 is really nice if that's the route you plan to take. Quite a bit longer that way, but worth it for the views if you have the time. The other option is about as boring as it gets.

trickybit

Sounds like a great trip. I've stayed in Cambria; kind of bed-and-breakfast for my tastes, but a nice area. You hit a lot of great stuff I'm familiar, with and the stuff I'm not sounds great.

I'll probably do this ride in the coming summer.