Looking for advice on trip up Highway 1

Disneygrl36

Happy DVC member!!!!
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
We are going to Disneyland Oct 28 & checking out Nov 2nd.

We are planning to drive up the PCH to San Francisco. The main point of going to San Fran is to see the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Right now on 11/2 we will be driving & seeing sites along the way & stopping overnight in San Luis Obispo & would like to have dinner at the Madonna Inn. I am looking for recommendations of the best places to stop & most fun things to see. We are a couple with no kids & looking forward to seeing the beautiful scenery with some fun stops in between.

On 11/3 we will drive from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco. Also looking for recommendations of places to stop on this stretch of the drive. I know there is the mudslide near Big Sur so that may require some planning.

I am thinking before going to San Fran we may over shoot & go visit Muir Woods to see the trees & then head back. I actually booked a hotel across the bridge in Emeryville & am now questioning if we would be better off staying somewhere close to the Presidio. Was thinking dinner somewhere in Emeryville that night, Fenton's & Trader Vic's.

11/4 Walt Disney Family Museum in the morning & then tour what we can in San Fran the rest of the day.
I have been doing some reading & realize this is not a lot of time to see much so looking for what might be a good highlights type tour.

Any & all suggestions welcome as we have never been north of Anaheim.
 
It's not technically the PCH outside of Southern California. In Northern California we call it "Highway 1".
 
Opps I better change that. Thanks!

You can call it whatever you want; it's not a big deal. I know there's a Geico commercial that refers to the entire length as the PCH. Down in Southern California they'll understand, but if you're asking for directions in Northern California then "Highway 1" is the most understood phrase. There are actually a couple of highway names, but almost nobody thinks of the highway in those names.
 


Will Highway 1 be open again by then? Thinking of both the bridge reconstruction and landslide situations.
 
Will Highway 1 be open again by then? Thinking of both the bridge reconstruction and landslide situations.

I'm assuming you mean at Big Sur? Cal Trans is hoping it will be able to install the new bridge in September which would be incredibly fast. Big Sur really is uniquely beautiful if you can fit it in. The famous 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach by Monterey is also amazing and so are the ocean views at the restaurants. San Luis is a fun downtown to walk through.
 
As mentioned, the 17-mile drive is well worth the time ($10/vehicle) as well as Muir Woods. One caution - The parking lot is not very big, and if you are not there early it can be a long walk after parking down the street. Your time frame doesn't allow for a whole lot of options, but a couple ideas would be Hearst Castle ($25 each, reservations suggested). I beleive Julia Pfeiffer State Park is currently closed due to the landslide, but the park we think is even better is Point Lobos. Check out the reviews on Trip Advisor - 88% Excellent and 9% Good. Entrance fee is $10/vehicle.
 


If 17 mile drive appeals to you you don't have to pay the entrance fee if you have reservations at one of the restaurants. The restaurants are certainly not cheap but you could splurge on a $20 sandwich/burger too so it's doable and worth it for great views and the food is great. The best time to visit Monterey is Oct/Nov too. If either of you like golf you'd definitely want to do it.
 
As mentioned, the 17-mile drive is well worth the time ($10/vehicle) as well as Muir Woods. One caution - The parking lot is not very big, and if you are not there early it can be a long walk after parking down the street. Your time frame doesn't allow for a whole lot of options, but a couple ideas would be Hearst Castle ($25 each, reservations suggested). I beleive Julia Pfeiffer State Park is currently closed due to the landslide, but the park we think is even better is Point Lobos. Check out the reviews on Trip Advisor - 88% Excellent and 9% Good. Entrance fee is $10/vehicle.

Well - while I've enjoyed my visits to Muir Woods (I had an annual pass for a couple of years and visited on a federal land annual pass for a couple of years too) I'm not generally one to recommend it if there are other options. It has its place for people already visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone already visiting the coast.

Frankly, Muir Woods is way down my list of the better places to view coast redwoods. The trees are small for old growth redwoods, it's relatively crowded, and as you noted parking is a huge pain. There are equivalent or better redwood viewing experiences all up and down the coast. Muir Woods gets its popularity solely based on location and not the quality of the experience. Of course Redwood National and State Parks is probably the best location to see redwoods, but that's 300+ miles north of San Francisco.

One place I really liked was Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in and around Felton, California - close to Santa Cruz. One of their parking lots is next to Roaring Camp Railroad, which operates a narrow gauge tourist railroad going through an old growth redwood forest. The last time I visited with my kid I took a short trip through a paved trail in state park after we went on the train ride.

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=546
http://www.roaringcamp.com

HenryCowell1.jpg


 
Will Highway 1 be open again by then? Thinking of both the bridge reconstruction and landslide situations.

The Pfeiffer Creek bridge, just south of the village of Big Sur, should be completed by mid- to late- September, according to CalTrans.

I believe that Paul's Slide, just south of there, is now open, though subject to one-way-at-a-time controls (i.e., it's not completely fixed yet, but passable). The combination of Pfeiffer Creek bridge and the opening of Paul's slide will make Highway 1 passable from Monterey all the way to Nacimiento Road, which you can then take up and over the Santa Lucia range to Highway 101.

The Mud Creek slide, south of Gorda, is still closed. Indeed, last I saw they were still waiting for the earth to stop moving to be able to start geological assessment. That means that you can't take Highway 1 all the way from Monterey to Cambria. As noted above, you can take 1 from Monterey to Lucia, and then take Nacimiento Rd over the top to US101. From there, you can go south to San Luis Obispo and then LA, or take CA46 over to Cambria.

HTH,
Bob

ETA - Oops. I got my information above from various articles, mostly in the San Jose Mercury News, and local TV news. But I see that Google Maps is showing the stretch of Highway 1 from Pfeiffer Creek to Nacimiento Rd as being closed until December. So I'm not sure which has better information.
 
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November 3 is a week day so you are going to have traffic as you head North once you get to San Jose. Personally, I would not go up to Muir Woods - if your heart is set on it, maybe go Saturday morning before you go to the WDFM. Heading to Emeryville will be a chore with traffic, but I would never dissuade anyone from going to Fenton's which is a favorite in my family. You probably don't have time for a ton of long stops on your way North from SLO. If highway 1 is open, take that so that you can see the beautiful scenery. If not, just get straight on 101 going North and then head over to Monterey on Hwy 68. Depending how early you leave SLO you could have a late breakfast or early lunch in Carmel, drive 17 mile drive and then keep heading north. Given your timing and day of the week, I would take bcla's suggestion and see the redwoods at Roaring Camp rather than going to Muir Woods. You would take Hwy 1 from Monterey to Santa Cruz and then Hwy 17 with stop at Roaring Camp and then onto San Jose where you would either take 280 north or 880 north depending on whether you were going to SF or Emeryville.

I will also be at DL on Oct 28 - it is always a really fun weekend to go.
 
Solvang is just off the 101 north of Santa Barbara and is definitely worth a visit. It's a danish village, we like to stop in there for tasty bakery items. Or abelskivers.
 
Kind of related since Muir Woods was mentioned, but there's going to be a reservation system in place by 2018 for parking and shuttles. There's no firm word on exactly how this is going to work, but it doesn't sound as if anyone walking of bicycling in will be affected. I've actually hiked in from Stinson Beach. I don't know if I specifically needed to pay an entrance fee (I had an annual federal all-park pass at the time) but I flashed it anyways when I headed back into the park. I entered from a direction without an entrance station. I'm guessing that there might be reservations already in place for tour buses.

https://www.nps.gov/muwo/planyourvisit/reservations.htm

This is going to be strange. It might only affect the actual small parking lots they have there. Parking along the side of the road is currently legal, so Marin County might need to address that if this is to work.
 
Check some of these sites.

Groupon.com
Livingsocials.com
Travelzoo.com

A lot of times Travel zoo has discount for disney museum over there. So check it every so often. 17 mile drive is very nice. You can walk out to the 18th hole at pebble beach golf course and get great pictures as well.
To pay less for the golf , there is Pacific Grove golf course, which is right near the light house, which you can tour that as well. You have cannery row. So much to see and do there. Check online for events in the area. We go to Monterey about 2x's a month.
Plus check those sites for any of the cities you visit for discounts.
 

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