California: Highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles

1. Day 1: Arrive in San Francisco

   San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to your hotel in San Francisco

   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in San Francisco
   Day 1 details

   Fly into San Francisco International Airport (SFO), about 25 km south of downtown. A driver meets you in arrivals during the pick-up windows we send with your confirmation, and takes you to a central hotel near Union Square, where the cable cars turn at Powell and Market and the city's shopping streets meet. If you land early, leave your bags and walk: Maiden Lane and the square are a few minutes away, and the climb up Nob Hill on Powell Street gives the first views over the bay. San Francisco is cooler than most visitors expect, often 15 to 18 C in summer with fog in the afternoon, so keep a warm layer handy. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: how the drive days are paced, what Big Sur is like, and what to pack for Alcatraz. Then we walk to a welcome dinner together at a local restaurant.

   Included

   • Pick-up at San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the 6 pm briefing

   Activity: Land by about 4 pm to reach the briefing; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner or the next morning.

   

2. Day 2: The Golden Gate Bridge, a cable car and Alcatraz

   San Francisco: the Golden Gate Bridge, a cable car to Chinatown and North Beach, then the ferry to Alcatraz

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in San Francisco
   Day 2 details

   We start at 8 am at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge, before the tour buses, and walk out along the east sidewalk toward the south tower, high over the mouth of the bay; the bridge opened in 1937 and is about 2.7 km long. The van then takes us along the Marina to the foot of Hyde Street, where we ride the Powell-Hyde cable car up over Russian Hill, past the top of Lombard Street, and down to Union Square. From there it is a short walk through the Dragon Gate into Chinatown and on to North Beach for a sit-down lunch. In the early afternoon we board our pre-booked ferry from Pier 33 to Alcatraz, a federal prison from 1934 to 1963. The cellhouse audio tour, narrated by former guards and inmates, takes about an hour, and the views back to the city are among the best in the bay. We return by about 5 pm, and the evening is yours.

   Included

   • Walk onto the Golden Gate Bridge with your guide
   • Powell-Hyde cable car ride
   • Chinatown and North Beach on foot
   • Sit-down lunch in North Beach
   • Alcatraz ferry and cellhouse audio tour

   Easier option: Walk only a short way onto the bridge, or watch from the viewpoint by the Welcome Center; on Alcatraz, take the island tram from the dock up to the cellhouse.

   More active option: Walk the whole span to Vista Point on the Marin side, about 2.7 km, where the van collects you.

   Free time: Evening free in San Francisco

   Activity: About 6 km of walking. The path from the Alcatraz dock to the cellhouse climbs about 40 m and is steep; the island tram is there for anyone who prefers it.

3. Day 3: Down the coast to Santa Cruz and Monterey

   San Francisco on Highway 1 to Pigeon Point and Santa Cruz, then Monterey

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Monterey
   Day 3 details

   We leave the city at 8:30 am and pick up Highway 1 south of Pacifica, where the road runs along bluffs above the Pacific. Past Half Moon Bay the coast empties out into farmland and beaches, and we stop at Pigeon Point, where an 1872 lighthouse stands on a rocky point; we walk the grounds and look for seals and, in winter and spring, grey whale spouts offshore. About forty minutes further on is Santa Cruz, a surf town with a wooden wharf and the Beach Boardwalk, whose Giant Dipper roller coaster has run since 1924. Lunch is a sit-down meal near the wharf. Around the curve of Monterey Bay we reach Monterey by about 2:30 pm and walk along Cannery Row, the waterfront of old sardine canneries that John Steinbeck wrote about, to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Your entry is included: its kelp forest tank and sea otter exhibit are a good introduction to the coast ahead. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Highway 1 from Pacifica to Half Moon Bay with your guide
   • Pigeon Point Light Station grounds
   • Santa Cruz wharf and beach
   • Sit-down lunch in Santa Cruz
   • Cannery Row on foot
   • Monterey Bay Aquarium entry

   Easier option: Skip the aquarium and spend the afternoon on Cannery Row or at the hotel.

   More active option: After the aquarium, walk the shoreline path from Cannery Row to Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, about 2 km, where sea otters often float in the kelp.

   Free time: Evening free in Monterey

   Activity: Easy walking, about 4 km in all.

   

4. Day 4: Point Lobos and Big Sur

   Monterey to Carmel and Point Lobos, then Highway 1 through Big Sur to Piedras Blancas and Cambria

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Cambria
   Day 4 details

   We drive ten minutes to Carmel for coffee and a short walk down Ocean Avenue to its white-sand beach, then reach Point Lobos State Natural Reserve as it opens at 8 am. The Cypress Grove Trail loops through one of the last natural stands of Monterey cypress, bent by the wind, above coves where sea otters and harbour seals rest. South of Carmel, Highway 1 enters Big Sur: Bixby Creek Bridge, built in 1932, spans a canyon mouth high above the surf, and the Santa Lucia Mountains drop straight into the sea. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Big Sur, then a short walk at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to the overlook above McWay Falls, which drops about 24 m onto a cove beach. The road runs on past Ragged Point to the elephant seal viewing area at Piedras Blancas, and we reach Cambria in the late afternoon. If a landslide closes Highway 1, we see northern Big Sur as an out-and-back from Carmel, then go inland on US 101: a longer day of about 5 hours, broken by lunch.

   Included

   • Carmel-by-the-Sea and Carmel Beach
   • Point Lobos State Natural Reserve entry and the Cypress Grove Trail
   • Highway 1 through Big Sur with your guide
   • Bixby Creek Bridge
   • Sit-down lunch in Big Sur
   • McWay Falls overlook, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
   • Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewing area

   Easier option: Stay at the viewpoints a few minutes from the van and sit out the Point Lobos loop.

   More active option: Add the South Shore Trail to the Cypress Grove loop at Point Lobos, about 5 km in all along the coves.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Cambria, with the Moonstone Beach boardwalk at sunset

   Activity: About 4 km of walking in short sections on coastal paths. Big Sur is often foggy on summer mornings and clears through the day. Road conditions are checked before departure and again the evening before.

5. Day 5: Hearst Castle, Morro Bay and Santa Barbara

   Cambria to Hearst Castle in San Simeon, then Morro Bay and south on US 101 to Santa Barbara

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santa Barbara
   Day 5 details

   A fifteen-minute drive north brings us to the Hearst Castle visitor centre for the first Grand Rooms Tour of the morning, before the day's crowds. A bus climbs the hill to La Cuesta Encantada, the estate the architect Julia Morgan built for the newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst between 1919 and 1947: the Casa Grande's reception rooms, the outdoor Neptune Pool and the indoor Roman Pool, with views down to the coast. Back at the visitor centre by late morning, we drive about forty minutes south to Morro Bay, where Morro Rock, an old volcanic plug about 176 m high, stands at the harbour mouth. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the Embarcadero, and sea otters often float among the moored boats. In the afternoon US 101 takes us about two and a quarter hours south through San Luis Obispo and the Gaviota coast to Santa Barbara, arriving by about 4 pm. The rest of the day is yours: State Street, the beach or Stearns Wharf.

   Included

   • Hearst Castle Grand Rooms Tour, San Simeon
   • Morro Rock and the Morro Bay harbour
   • Sit-down lunch in Morro Bay
   • Drive to Santa Barbara with your guide

   Easier option: Hearst Castle has an accessible tour with fewer steps; ask for it when you book and we arrange it.

   More active option: Walk the harbour path from the Embarcadero to the foot of Morro Rock and back, about 3 km, before lunch.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Santa Barbara

   Activity: The Grand Rooms Tour has about 150 steps and lasts about an hour, plus the bus ride up and down the hill.

   

6. Day 6: Santa Barbara and the Malibu coast

   Santa Barbara to the Old Mission and the Courthouse, then the Malibu coast and Santa Monica

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Los Angeles
   Day 6 details

   We visit Old Mission Santa Barbara when it opens, a Franciscan mission founded in 1786, with a church facade of twin bell towers, a cloister garden and a cemetery shaded by an old Moreton Bay fig. Then it is down into town to the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, finished in 1929 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style that rebuilt the city after the 1925 earthquake; climb the El Mirador clock tower for the view over the red-tiled roofs to the ocean. After a sit-down lunch in Santa Barbara we follow US 101 along the coast through Ventura and then the Pacific Coast Highway into Malibu, with a stop at Point Dume, where a short path climbs the headland above Zuma Beach. We reach Santa Monica by about 5 pm, in time to walk out onto the pier, built in 1909, for sunset at the end of Route 66. The farewell dinner is in Santa Monica tonight.

   Included

   • Old Mission Santa Barbara entry
   • Santa Barbara County Courthouse and the El Mirador clock tower
   • Sit-down lunch in Santa Barbara
   • Point Dume on the Malibu coast
   • Santa Monica Pier at sunset
   • Farewell dinner in Santa Monica

   Easier option: Take the courthouse lift rather than the tower stairs, and watch the Malibu coast from the van instead of the Point Dume walk.

   More active option: Walk the Point Dume headland trail down to Pirates Cove and back, about 2 km with steps.

   Free time: Free time on Santa Monica Pier and the beach before dinner

   Activity: About 4 km of walking.

7. Day 7: Griffith Observatory, Hollywood and home

   Santa Monica to Griffith Observatory and Hollywood Boulevard, then Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   Start with a free early walk on the beach path in Santa Monica, or along the canals of Venice a little to the south. We leave at about 9 am and cross the city to Griffith Park, about fifty minutes, and climb to Griffith Observatory, opened in 1935 on the slopes of Mount Hollywood. The building itself opens later in the day, but the terraces and lawns are the reason we come: the Hollywood Sign on the ridge to one side, downtown Los Angeles and the basin spread out to the ocean on the other. Ten minutes down the hill is Hollywood Boulevard, where we walk a stretch of the Walk of Fame to the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre, opened in 1927, with handprints and footprints in its concrete. Lunch is on your own. From Hollywood it is about forty-five minutes to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), arriving at about 1 pm. Your guide sees you to departures. Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm.

   Included

   • Griffith Observatory grounds and terraces with your guide
   • Hollywood Boulevard, the Walk of Fame and the TCL Chinese Theatre forecourt
   • Drop-off at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

   Easier option: If your flight leaves before about 3 pm, we drop you at LAX straight from Santa Monica, about 30 minutes, and you skip Griffith Observatory and Hollywood.

   Free time: Early morning free in Santa Monica

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm. Los Angeles traffic is unpredictable, so we keep a margin. If you are staying on, we can drop you at a hotel in Hollywood or Santa Monica instead.

Wildlife and weather: Summer brings fog to San Francisco and the Big Sur coast, often clearing by early afternoon, while Santa Barbara and Los Angeles stay warm and dry. Spring and autumn are usually clearer on the coast. Winter storms can close Highway 1 and bring rain from about November to March. Elephant seals are at Piedras Blancas all year, with births and the most seals from December to March; sea otters and harbour seals live in Monterey Bay and Morro Bay year round, and grey whales pass offshore in winter and spring.

• San Francisco2 nights
• Monterey1 night
• Cambria1 night
• Santa Barbara1 night
• Los Angeles1 night