Friday, 5:52 PM. A text: “drop everything, Highway 1, tomorrow, 6am, you in?”
I didn’t sleep. Who sleeps before a Big Sur road trip? 😅 By sunrise we were merging onto 101 South out of San Francisco, coffee in the cupholder, playlist on shuffle, zero hotel booked. That’s the whole point of this drive. The Bay Area sits two hours from one of the most jaw-dropping coastlines on Earth. Almost nobody treats it like the emergency escape hatch it actually is. 🌉➡️🌲
If you’re flying into SFO or OAK to start a California coast trip, lock your flight in on Kiwi.com first. Fares in and out of the Bay Area swing hard depending on the day, and Kiwi catches routes the big search engines bury. And if your inbound flight gets delayed and eats into road-trip time? File with AirHelp immediately — I’ve gotten paid out for exactly this, twice. 💸✈️
By 9 AM we hit Highway 1 proper and the cliffs just… opened up. 😳 Bixby Bridge stopped us cold — everyone stops at Bixby Bridge, no shame in it. Then McWay Falls, an 80-foot waterfall dropping straight onto a private beach you can’t even walk down to, which somehow makes it more beautiful. 🏞️
Here’s the thing nobody warns you about: Big Sur has almost no cell signal and even less parking. Book anything ahead. We skip-the-lined into Hearst Castle on the way down through Tiqets — walked past a line that was easily 40 minutes long. 🏰✨
We found a last-minute cliffside stay and grabbed gear for the coastal wind through this booking link and this one — always compare both before you commit, prices move by the hour down here.
Sunset at Nepenthe restaurant, cliffside, glass of wine, zero regrets. We drove back into the Bay Area Sunday night sunburned, sandy, and already planning the next one. 🌅🍷
Two hours from San Francisco. That’s it. That’s the secret nobody’s using enough.
Instagram: @WWestCoastWings
If You’re Doing This Drive Yourself
You need your own car for this one — rideshare coverage basically disappears once you’re past Carmel, and gas stations thin out fast along Highway 1, so fill up before you leave civilization. If you flew in just for this drive, renting locally through something like AutoEurope usually works out cheaper than driving your own car down and burning a full tank each way.
Go early, or go on a weekday if you can swing it. Weekend traffic on the single-lane stretches near Bixby Bridge backs up fast, and the pull-off parking spots fill by mid-morning during peak season (May through September). Download offline maps before you leave Monterey — you’ll lose signal for long stretches, and Google Maps won’t save you once it’s gone.
Bring cash, too. Some of the smaller stops along the way — produce stands, the odd family-run café — don’t take cards.
📍 See every West Coast Wings flight guide in one place: The Complete Guide to Cheap Flights from the Bay Area.
Want your whole Big Sur road trip planned out for you? I build custom itineraries around your exact budget — DM @OlyaDreaMore or email hello@westcoastwings.org. See how custom planning works on the custom trip planning page.
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Written by Olya | @OlyaDreaMore ✈️
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