Best overnight stay from Santa Monica

[Floridaobsessed]

Hi we are staying in Santa Monica for 6 nights and after reading on here about PCH I booked an overnight stay in Monterey thinking we could drive up (along PCH) stay over and then drive back the following day but I’m starting to wonder whether there could be something closer we could do? We don’t mind driving but I think we’d rather be able to stop and see the sights not just through a car window... any suggestions? We only have scope in our holiday to do this over two days one night...

[landandword17]

If you stop half way then you still have to drive the other half the next day and then the come back which is just too much imo. The best views are the North part up past the half way point and I'm not sure if it is worth it because you will be spending a lot of time in the car both days. You're looking at over 7 hours driving without stops. You could drive one way on the freeway to speed things up a little but it will still be 6 hours with no traffic. Personally, I wouldn't do it. Santa Barbara is a nice day trip with beautiful views up the coast if you want to get away from SM for a day.

[Bozza]

That's really too far to go, IMO, in a couple of days. As you say, you'll not see much as you won't really have much time to stop.

My suggestion would be two places we really enjoyed on the Southern section of the PCH.

1. Santa Barbara - explore the pier, get a boat across the harbour and have some lunch.
2. Solvang - a little piece of Denmark in California. A lovely little town. Stay the night here, buy some of the amazing and enormous pastries for breakfast, explore the town and then head back to Santa Monica or wherever you are heading next.

[Floridaobsessed]

Thanks for the tips. To be honest you’ve just confirmed what I’ve already been thinking. Going to cancel the hotel in Monterey I just need to decide what else to do. These are our last two days before flying home so it would be nice to do something memorable with them.

[landandword17]

Are you flying home the evening of day 2 then from LAX? You don’t want to be too far away from the airport then with traffic. Most people who drive in from Vegas/Palm Springs/San Diego the last day will leave very early and get themselves into LA and spend the afternoon there to be safe. So keep that in mind when planning.

[Floridaobsessed]

We fly home the next day. Flight is at 9:30 from LAX so am hoping traffic wil, be better although we will be relying on Uber to get us there! We drop car off the night before