Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip

Vancouver · Canada

Easy21 daysNorth America~£4,000 est.

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Overview

The full Pacific coast run from Vancouver to San Diego is 2,400 km of the best coastal driving on Earth, stitched together from Washington's US-101, Oregon's clifftop 101, and California's Highway 1. The rhythm changes by state: Olympic National Park's rainforest and sea stacks, Oregon's dunes and lighthouse headlands, then the famous Big Sur stretch where Highway 1 hangs off the cliffs between Carmel and San Simeon — Bixby Bridge, sea lions at Point Lobos, condors overhead — before the light turns southern-Californian at Malibu. Two things catch people out. Summer campgrounds from Oregon southward book out six months ahead on the state-park systems, and Big Sur suffers regular landslide closures — check Caltrans before committing to the one-road section. April–May and September–October give empty roads, whale migrations and the best light. Three weeks is right; budget around £4,000 per person with a hire car, mixing state-park camping and motels, before flights.