I can’t believe it took me more than 20 years of living in California, otherwise known as my entire life, to finally get myself on a California Coast road trip, but I’m so happy I did. Now I can’t stop recommending it to all my friends who have never been and I’m extending it to my internet besties now too (aka all of YOU).
My boyfriend and I spontaneously decided to make our way up to Big Sur. We’re both born and raised in Los Angeles and had never been. Plus we love to travel, so it seemed like a good last minute decision. I have to preface this blog post by saying we made a few wrong turns on our way up, which cause a little bit of an argument & a momentary bad mood from me–so the first thing I must tell you is service becomes sparse on this road trip, so make sure you have directions ahead of time! I thought I understood this, but I did not. I’m also not the greatest with direction and wasn’t driving, so I think my bad mood stemmed from somehow messing up the directions along the way, but ultimately we made it and had the BEST time, so this is really just a tiny part of the story. Just please whatever you do, learn from my mistake and figure out your route ahead of time, you’ll be very happy that you did.
All that to say our California coast road trip actually began as a long drive through the rural farmlands that are parallel to the 5 freeway. Basically we took a wrong turn and ended up driving the back way to Big Sur. I think this was because it was a faster route, so our navigation automatically bumped us to that, and we didn’t realize we were on this route until it was way too late. If you’re making this trip from LA like we did, I’m pretty sure our wrong turn was somewhere near San Luis Obispo so maybe watch out for that. Basically we were supposed to take the 101 to the 1 freeway, but somehow ended up on the 5. Personally I’d say don’t do this if you’re going for the views & wanting to be on the scenic route. We did take the coast home though, so in the end we got the full coastal road trip experience and it was amazing.
Once we got to Big Sur, that little navigation error could not have mattered less. The views were truly breathtaking, and everywhere we stopped I felt like I was looking at and living in a painting. I knew it would be beautiful, but I wasn’t expecting this level of beauty. Everywhere we went it just got better and better. There are tons of viewpoints that you can stop at along the side of the road. I didn’t keep a great track of all our stops–if I’m being honest we stopped quite a bit, because it really was all that good–but I’ll share some of my favorite spots that I did save.
We ended up driving into Carmel-by-the-Sea which is where we were spending the night, but because we missed the first part of our road trip we decided to start by driving into Big Sur. It was late afternoon at this point, but we were just enjoying the moment and the stunning views. We ended up stopping at Nepenthe, we went to check out the menu, the view from there was incredible but we ended up just using the bathroom there (not sure if that’s tmi?) and then continued on our drive just exploring around. Next we decided to stop at The Bixby Bridge. We really didn’t have much of a plan, which in hindsight would have been much better because we drove in circles a few times, but we still loved it. The Bixby was crowded but as you can see we still got some pretty amazing photos & video. There was also construction going on across the street so it made it easy to pull over there, not sure how it is at other times, but our experience was good. It looks just like the photos, but I still thought it was worth it to stop, and really incredible to see in person–driving over it was also crazy! An experience in itself.
After this we drove back to Carmel and checked into our hotel. We stayed at La Playa Carmel and being that this was a last minute trip we decided to book on hoteltonight and ended up finding a really great deal. Highly recommend checking out the site or app, even if it isn’t a spontaneous trip (I have a code ALGOULD4 that will get you $25 off your stay). La Playa gave us complimentary wine upon arrival, so we sipped that on the patio & enjoyed the beautiful grounds. Then we regrouped quickly and walked down to the beach for sunset; it’s just a few minutes away, basically a block from the hotel. It was SO cold, but the sunset was beautiful so I’d say it was worth freezing for (not literally of course, but I love a good sunset). Then we walked around the town and looked for somewhere to eat dinner. We ended up at this cute little french restaurant La Bicyclette. The street seemed to be very busy for a Sunday evening–we later found out the former President and a well known basketball coach were having dinner at the restaurant across the street when we saw them leaving. After this we called it a night as we had a long list of things we wanted to see the following day.
In the morning my boyfriend found some complimentary breakfast and coffee, I was tired so I was still asleep at this time, but I have to say aside from this hotel being so lovely visually we experienced such great hospitality here as well. We decided to walk around the town in the morning, and it was the cutest ever. All the houses have names instead of numbers, which reminded me of where I grew up–my neighborhood had both; but besides this the houses were so interesting there was a mix of beautiful architecture and landscaping, and then others that looked like they were right out of a children’s book. I was really ready to move right into this neighborhood.
Does this happen to anyone else? When I visit a place that I love, I’m always ready to move. Although I felt more strongly about it here there was something that reminded me of the east coast on the west coast and I just loved that. We stopped for a quick bite at Stationaery. Then after walking around town for a bit, we went back and checked out of the hotel, because this was a last minute trip we didn’t have a plan for where we wanted to spend our next night, but there seemed to be availability as it was now a weekday and not too crowded, so we decided we’d be spontaneous and figure it out later depending on our mood. We hopped in the car and set off on our way to spend the rest of the day exploring.
We started by driving through Monterrey to check it out. Then we drove to Pebble Beach to do 17 Mile Drive, and wow was it beautiful. Once again I was ready to move in. The entire place was so beautiful. We stopped at a bunch of lookouts throughout which you can see here. There were also some restaurants there, we weren’t hungry so we didn’t eat there, but I’d definitely like to in the future. After this we drove back into Big Sur, we did a mini hike that was really more like a walk at Soberanes Point in Garrapata State Park. Then we went to the Big Sur River Inn–this was a recommendation from one of my best friend’s and it did not disappoint! It’s a place you can stay or just come to get food/drinks. It’s nestled beneath the trees and you can eat your food down by the river. They serve it to you in a cooler which was so cute; and it honestly was such a fun experience to spend some time in nature by the water.
We continued our drive and decided to book another night in Carmel because we were having such a great time. We switched over to the Hotel Carmel, and it was another nice stay! This was located more centrally in the town and a bit further from the beach, but everything is still pretty close and walkable if you want it to be. The lobby was closed for seating at the time, but I think on a regular day you can spend some time hanging out there. We went back to the beach for sunset and then went to Vesuvio rooftop for a drink and some food. The next morning we got on the road early since we had a long drive back to la and wanted to make some stops along the way. We quickly stopped by Carmel Bakery to get coffee on our way out and then went over to see the purple sand at Pfeiffer Beach. The sand didn’t seem like anything too crazy to me, but the beach was still so beautiful–I just wish I had packed some warmer clothes. Then we drove over to Coast Big Sur for lunch. I found this online and was so excited to come here, but I didn’t realize we went on a day that it was closed. It looked so cool from the outside so I definitely hope to go back next time we’re there. If you are looking to stop here, definitely check the hours ahead of time. Since this option was off the table, we decided to continue on our way home and find somewhere else to stop later in the day. This time we made sure we were on the coast aka the right route that we wanted to be on for our drive back home. We made our next stop in San Simeon to see the elephant seals. Then we drove a little further into Cyucos where we stopped for lunch at Hidden Kitchen. It was a really cute cafe, where we got smoothies, a waffle, and a veggie taco– it was also gluten free and vegan which is always a plus for me. Honestly the food was so good I’ll probably try to find a reason to make a trip back there one day.
Overall our spontaneous last minute road trip was a success and I can’t wait to do it again! Since this trip, I’ve told all my friends about it, & always recommend. I can’t believe it took me so long to get out to Big Sur and Carmel-by-the-Sea, but I can’t wait to go back again very soon.