Officially, California Highway 1 (also known as the Pacific Coa
st Highway or the US 101) is a 130 mile stretch of road between Dana Point and Oxnard in California but, when using the name, most people are referring to a route consisting of a number of highways that run along the west coast of the USA. The most famous section of this is a 405 mile winding coastal route which stretches from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
If you hire a car in Los Angeles you can drive to San Francisco to see attractions such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf, whilst seeing some of the most beautiful views that the USA has to offer en route.
It will take you about nine hours to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco via this route if you don’t stop, but there are so many things to see along the way that it’s best to take a few days in order to experience it properly. There are plenty of places where you can stay along the way, and doing this will provide you with a fantastic contrast between Californian city life and life in some of the small, picturesque towns and villages.
If you hire a car at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), you can join the route there and drive through the beach cities of Santa Monica and Malibu towards Oxnard. The seaside city of Oxnard has restaurants, hotels, cafes and shops, and you can visit the historic Heritage Square.
Continuing along the Pacific Coast Highway in your hire car will take you to the historic city of Santa Barbara, which was originally a Mission, and on to the small community of Morro Bay. From here, you’ll head on to the most scenic section of the route, which will take you through Cambria, past the famous Hearst Castle and on through the beautiful Big Sur area, which is famous for its rugged coastline and its wildlife.
The route then takes you to the seaside town of Carmel, which is a perfect place for a stopover, past the city of Monterey and on to Santa Cruz, which is famous for its beach boardwalk. From here, you’ll enter the San Francisco Bay area, where you’ll drive through a number of picturesque coastal towns, and into San Francisco itself.
After exploring the city, you can then either drive back to Los Angeles, return your hire car and fly back to Los Angeles, or finish your holiday here and fly home.
If you’re thinking of taking a roadtrip along the Pacific Coast Highway, car hire firm Easycar will allow you to pick up your hire car in Los Angeles and drop it off at San Francisco Airport.
Image courtesy of© Alexandr Tkachuk | Dreamstime.com
Tags: car hire, holidays, Pacific Coast Highway, travel, USA
Sounds great, now all I have to do is find some time to take the trip!
I had the pleasure to take this trip a few years ago, and it was great. The 17-Mile Drive in Carmel is a major highlight. Big Sur is incredible, but it is hard for the driver to see much. San Francisco is, of course, incredible.
[...] list doesn’t include some of the world’s most famous drives, such as Route 66 and California Highway 1 in the USA, the Great Ocean Road in Australia or the Amalfi Coast road in [...]