Pacfic Coast Highway Guide

As part of our California vacation last October we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH or Highway 101). We drove the first part from San Diego to LA mentioned in a post here. Then we spent a night in LA and drove from there to San Francisco. You can take Highway 5 up and get there much quicker but the drive was totally worth it for us. The views were spectacular and we got to explore new towns.

The first town we came across on our drive was Malibu. There are multimillion dollar houses with breathtaking views. Looking down on Santa Monica was beautiful. Here are some of our pictures from this part.

The drive is really pretty. One one side of the road you have rolling hills like below

And on the other side you have the ocean.

It looked like this for a long time. Then we reached Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a beautiful town. I really could fly out there and spend a weeks worth of vacation there. The views were beautiful.

We stopped at  Shoreline beach cafe for lunch and were able to sit on the beach with our feet in the sand. We ordered fish and shrimp tacos which were to die for.

After lunch, we hit the road again, which was filled with more of the same views. However, there is definitely a line between Southern California and Northern California. Southern California is flatter and full of palm trees whereas Northern California is very mountainous and full of other trees.

We got to watch the sunset over the ocean (which being East Coasters was a new thing for us). We pulled over in a very small town and hopped out of the car just in time. There was a long pier over the ocean we walked out on the get the views. 

Then the rest of our trip was made in the dark. We had to go up all sorts of crazy mountains and I'm sure the views would have been beautiful. If we had more time we would have stopped right after sunset and picked up again the next morning to see it all. But since we were on somewhat of a schedule we kept motoring. We saw Big Sur and ended up stopping for the night in right outside of Carmel, CA. We didn't book a hotel room since we were not sure how far up the coast we were going to go. It really worked out for us because we called around and got a great deal on this bed and breakfast Tickle Pink Inn. Since it was so late they discounted their honeymoon suite (the only room available). The room came with a bottle of champagne and chocolates. We were planning on getting dinner near the hotel but by the time we got settle in it was too late for the small town so we had the champagne and chocolates for dinner.

The Inn was nestled into the mountains and had a great outdoor hot tub tucked into the mountain. The lady said the room had panoramic views on the ocean but we couldn't really see them at night. But the next morning when we woke up it was like Christmas. The views are amazing. We literally saw the pics below from our bed. I wish we had better pictures from the room itself.

Then they severed us a delicious breakfast on a deck that overlooked the ocean. I would highly recommend this place and would stay here again and again!!

Once we woke up we drive through the famous 17 mile drive in Monteray, California along the Pebble Beach golf course. I don't play golf but I would here because it is breathtakingly beautiful. Here are some of the pictures.

There are also tons of homes sprinkled through out the golf course as well as scenic overlooks. It was $10 a car to drive it but totally worth it for us.

Then we hit the road again. We got to drive through all of Dole's farms and crops. We saw a sign for fried artichokes and pulled right over to this small diner. They were great.

Then after our quick snack we got back on the road. We stopped for lunch in Santa Cruz and got some great cheap authentic Mexican food. john got this crazy Mexican sandwich and I got a burrito. I wish I had gotten more pictures but we didn't spend much time in the town.

Since we were short on time we turned north and got on the highway so we could make it into San Francisco. You can continue driving up the coast and make in into San Fran and I'm sure it's beautiful but it definitely takes longer. The traffic getting into San Francisco was pretty heavy but we eventually made it. I'll be posting a guide on San Francisco as well, but do yourself a favor and drive the PCH before you die. I promise you won't be disappointed. John and I are already planning another trip that starts in SF and goes north to Portland because I just wanted to keep going.