Highway 1 End-to-End

I was daydreaming a bit today. We are planning our next trip to Monterey for September 2009. I was thinking about spending a week to 10 days there. (We%26#39;ve been there three times previously and feel we would have not problem filling the time).

Anyway, back to the daydream. Suddenly today I thought why not take two weeks, fly into SFO, drive up to Leggett and do the entire highway which still spending a week in the Monterey area. So I am thinking maybe three days from Leggett to Monterey, a week in Monterey, and another three days from Monterey to Dana Point with an extra day or two thrown in where needed.

Would that make sense? Be doable? Or is it totally crazy?

Then there are the issues of flying into SFO and out of John Wayne in OC. That may be cost prohibitive. And the one way car rental and stuff like that to figure out.

The alternative would be fly into SFO head north to Leggett and work down to Monterey and stay there (with day trips south through Big Sur) returning to SFO for the flight home.

Highway 1 End-to-End

Why not see if you can fly into Eureka/Arcata and out of SNA/John Wayne?

That would be an amazing drive for a vacation.

Highway 1 End-to-End

I agree. Fly into SFO and back out of San Diego or Orange County (SNA), and spend a couple days in SF, 2-3 in Monterey area, and some time at other places along the coast like Big Sur, Hearst Castle, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Laguna Beach, etc.

Flying into Eureka/Arcata even from SFO will add $$ to your price. Here%26#39;s an idea, since you%26#39;re just daydreaming anyway :-)

Fly into SFO, drive up Hwy 101 to Leggett, do the whole Hwy 1 drive, then plan on driving I-5 back to SF. Depending on how the LA traffic was in the morning, (maybe you could arrange to do it on a Sun)you could possibly drive it in one long day.

Then you%26#39;d have a RT flight, RT car rental, and see most of the boring central San Joaquin valley - but at least it%26#39;s different from PA!

Why would it add more to the cost? That%26#39;s not necessarily true. Fares vary and I often dur multi-destination flights like this and do not pay more (often the same company serves both airports anyway).

I think the OP%26#39;s plan sounds just fine, fun, and spectacular, subject to getting a reasonably-priced open jaw itinerary. They don%26#39;t have to be more expensive than a round trip.

I don%26#39;t know how close the Lehigh Valley is to a Southwest Airlines destination, but if it is, just do two SWA one-ways. They%26#39;re not expensive at all. Also be careful to shop car rental one-way drop off prices on Orbitz, Expedia or Travelocity -- or Priceline. Some car companies have them, some don%26#39;t. A drop off charge can use up all the money you%26#39;ve saved on other things.

Because Eureka is a small airport not on any major flight route.

Lehigh Valley, PA is in southeastern Pennsylvania. Bethlehem/Allentown area. Philly would be the closest airport, but Newark wouldn%26#39;t be much further and you might get better deals there. To SFO or OAK, check both out. Flying from either to Arcata would probably cost as much again as the cross-country flight.

half-Brit suggests flying ?into SFO, drive up Hwy 101 to Leggett, do the whole Hwy 1 drive? all the way to San Onofre. You have the time, paflyfisher, so do it!

Although you don%26#39;t need the DRIVING DIRECTIONS nor the information in the reports ';A Trip to Las Vegas…'; and ';A Trip to Anaheim…'; linked to the TouringSFO site at http://geocities.com/touringsfo/ you might find something of interest on those pages.

Thanks for all the feedback thus far. A couple of points.

First, the deal maker or breaker will be getting inexpensive flights. My preference is to fly out of Philly if possible. Last year I looked at SWA to Oakland and the round-trip cost was about the same as for United round-trip to SFO so I chose United. My concern remains the two one way flights (into SFO and out of Orange County). One possiblity would be to book a round trip to say Monterey flying out PHL to SFO to MTY and return MTY to LAX to PHL and then just scrap the connecting flights to and from MTY. That might only add a little to the costs. I don%26#39;t know for sure.

The other point here mentioned in the comments above is the one way car rental charges.

The second issue that I don%26#39;t want overlooked is that this started with long-range (2009) planning for a return trip to the Monterey Peninsula (one of our two favorite places in the U.S. - the other is the Maine coast and Acadia NP). We still would want to spend considerable time in Monterey. So lets assume we would take an early morning flight out of Philly on a Saturday. That would get us into SFO around 1100-1200 local time. Our plan would be to take a red eye back Saturday night two weeks hence. So that makes 15 days and 14 nights. Assume I want to spend say 7 nights in Monterey. That leaves 7 nights on the road. Right now I am thinking about night 1 (Sat) in Leggett or thereabouts. Night 2 (Sun) in Mendocino. Night 3 (Mon) in the Point Reyes area and night 4 (Tue) in San Francisco before moving on to Monterey on Wednesday. Assume we stay in Monterey through night 11 (Tues) before heading south on Highway 1. That gives us four days/three nights to complete the trip to Dana Point. Is that enough time give we would want to stop at San Simeon to visit the Hearst Castle. And probably spend a night somewhere around Venice area.

The more I think about it, the more it sounds doable. And like I said the fallback would be to do just the northern part from Leggett to Monterey in 2009. And save Dana Point to Monterey for another trip.

Any other thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks.

And I should add...

What do you consider the must-sees along Highway 1?

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