Pacific Coast Highway advice

cherabelle

Hi,

Looking for some advice if possible please. We are a family of 5 adults looking to do the Pacific Coast Highway next September.
Have spoken to Travelbag and this is a sample of what we are looking to do.

Fly to San Fran- Yosemite- Sequoia- West to Carmel & Monteray- Camera- Santa Barbara- LA inc Anaheim (1 day in park)- Hollywood- Universal (1 day at park)- Long Beach inc hopefully a night on the QM- San Diego for the last few days as we understand it's worth spending some time there. Total trip 2-3 weeks.

We would need 2 cars for the duration and either 3 rooms in most places or a standard and a family room.

We are trying to work out how much this is going to cost us inc spending money. We planned on saving £2800 each, would this be enough? I know its about £80 ($117 dollars) for Anaheim and £40 $60 for the SDZ but what else would be worth seeing? A tour of Yosemite & Sequoia or could we do this as well ourselves?

Travelbag had a 2 week sample itinerary for around £1000 but when we asked what we were looking at they said £2000-£2500. I was kind of hoping we could do this for about £1200 which would give us about £100 a day spending money for food and trips, baring in mind we wouldn't do a trip everyday.

What are the must see's/ do's out there.
Can you give us any advice on whether this would be within budget or we could make it?

Due to suitcases etc we would probably need 2 SUV's for the cars.

Thanks in advance.

Caz3121

there should be a number of tips in this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3248860/southwest-usa-the-west-coast-california-arizona-etc-general-thread&highlight=road+trip

cubegame

Some random advice.


Don't mess around with silly travel agents. Book your flights direct with an airline and your first nights hotel. You can them either book ahead on the day with a smartphone or just rock up at a chosen hotel and haggle.

You definitely want SUVs as they offer good luggage space and also better sightings.

Your won't need to use tours although National Park danger programmes are generally excellent.

LA is a hole. Avoid wasting time there and start your holiday in Seattle instead.

Finally, be aware the Pacific coast highway is hugely over rated. If you're going for the drive alone, don't bother.

cherabelle

Caz3121 wrote: »

there should be a number of tips in this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3248860/southwest-usa-the-west-coast-california-arizona-etc-general-thread&highlight=road+trip

Thanks, I'll have a good read of that and see what info I can find. :-)

heatherw_01

Just book flights, car and hotels for where you want to go, it's what I do on roadtrips over there.
MUCH cheaper than companies that do it for you.

El_Torro

I did pretty much the same trip as you some years ago, just in reverse (San Diego to San Francisco with a detour to Yosemite).


Agreed that you don't need to book much in advance. Just the first day or two then see how you go. Going in September (I did the same) is good as it won't be peak holiday season so hotels won't book up.


Definitely worth spending a day or two in Yosemite. Doing it yourself is fine, you don't need a guided tour.


Sequoia is great too, again I don't see the advantage of joining a tour for this.


San Francisco was my favourite city of the trip. I didn't go to Alcatraz but it is recommended if you like that sort of thing. Wise to book ahead.


The highlight for me was the section between San Francisco and Los Angeles, especially Big Sur. Towns like Carmel, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo are worth spending some time in.


LA, as mentioned by others, is a dump. I stayed in Santa Monica, which seems to be the only nice part of the city. I actually did a tour of LA, since it's not an easy city to get around and I wanted to see the highlights in as short a time as possible. A day here is enough.


The LA to San Diego stretch was unimpressive for me. Others might feel otherwise though.

FreeBear

If you are "doing" Yosemite, take time to go up to Tuolumne Meadows and then over to Bodie. Yosemite valley can get pretty crowded during the summer months and rather unpleasant.

Sequoia NP also gets crowded along the main tourist road - Well worth taking the side road out of Three Rivers and going up to Mineral King. A narrow, winding road up in to the mountains, but stunning views and an excellent little cafe in the village up there.

With both Yosemite and Sequoia, the best thing to do, is park the car up and walk. You don't need to go far to get away from the crush of tourists, as most of them don't want to walk more than 500 yards.

With five people in the group, I'd also suggest a large SUV rather than two cars. Don't plan out an itinerary in advance - Be flexible so that you can spend extra time in the nice places (the LA area isn't nice, nor is the run from LA to SD).

prenton01

If you like the odd glass of wine i would recommend spending a night in Paso Robles and doing a afternoon wine tour well worth it

PeacefulWaters

Make sure the highway is open.

Landslides rather spoiled it for some last year.

jackieblack

I echo those who would encourage you to book independently - adding an unnecessary layer (the travel agent) into the equation just makes things more complicated IMO. You can often book hotels that offer free cancellation up to a few hours before check in which is great if your plans change and you decide to stay in one place a bit longer

LA is VAST. Check where the various things are that you want to do/see. Universal Studios is about 40 miles NW of Anaheim (which is inland from Long Beach, so if you are travelling south it would make sense to do Universal then move south for Anaheim & Long Beach on your way to SD.

As PeacefulWaters says, check the PCH is open (http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/highway_conditions.html , https://www.pacific-coast-highway-travel.com/) it appears that a stretch is going to closed until the end of the year and the diversion could be lengthy. Have a contingency plan in case of further closes at short notice (weather happens!)

cherabelle

cubegame wrote: »

Some random advice.


Don't mess around with silly travel agents. Book your flights direct with an airline and your first nights hotel. You can them either book ahead on the day with a smartphone or just rock up at a chosen hotel and haggle.

You definitely want SUVs as they offer good luggage space and also better sightings.

Your won't need to use tours although National Park danger programmes are generally excellent.

LA is a hole. Avoid wasting time there and start your holiday in Seattle instead.

Finally, be aware the Pacific coast highway is hugely over rated. If you're going for the drive alone, don't bother.

Thank you.

I assume it's really easy to find decent accommodation at a decent price out there then?
I know if we got our flights in October when they are released we would get them for a good price so that's not a problem, i've just never done the who no hotel in advance thing.

Never heard of National Parks danger programmes before, I shall have a look into that.

Thanks for the tip re LA and Seattle.

It's more the sights than the drive, hopefully the itinerary we've planned means we'll see some pretty cool places but always open to suggestions.

Thanks