Drive Big Sur Coastal Highway 1 USA to Monterey

by Claudette
(Brussles)

We drove to Monterey along the Big Sur coastal highway USA, which is supposed to be the no.1 drive, if not the most beautiful highway drives in the world.

I would dispute that personally but the highway is certainly a drive worth taking if you are in that neck of the woods. Even though it may not be no.1

We had been at Lake Tahoe and we had driven there from San Francisco so we decided to make it a round trip.

We drove south on the main highway from Lake Tahoe towards San Louis Obisco calling at the Pinnacles National Park on the way.

After a day’s walking we journeyed south and at that point we turned north to take the no.1 Big Sur coast highway.

We had planned to call and see the Hearst mansion but when we realised the only way to do this was to book very strictly (or so it seemed to us) controlled tours with no room to vary it we gave it a miss.

We looked to see what else there was on the way up and opted for a walk in the Pffiefer National Park, when we got there the trails were closed due to fire hazard but we walked over to the coast view where there was a spectacular waterfall , that was worth the stop off.


The no. 1 highway drive was certainly very dramatic with the hills coming right down to the coastline which is also dramatic rocky and rugged.

There were viewing points along the highway at quite regular intervals and at one of these highway pull offs there were lots of seals which we watched for quite a while.

The drive itself is not very long but because the road is twisty and you have to drive fairly slowly. But this allows you to take in the wonderful scenery on route 1.

Our destination for a few days was Monterey before going back to San Francisco.

We really like the place, it is a lovely bay.


While there we drove to Carmel which is also a very pretty small town, and visited the famous Mission there.

Then we drove on to Carmel Valley where we thought we might visit a winery. This was not to be as all the wine tasting seemed to be in shops in Carmel village ot along the highway.


I personally thought the village was a little run down considering the area but not everything can be picture postcard, even in the USA.

It’s always good to have seen different places even if they don’t quite live up to expectations.

We were glad we had chosen to stay in Monterey as it was interesting to walk along Cannery Row made famous by John Steinbeck, and Fisherman’s Wharf was nice to wander around too.

We also did the famous sixteen mile drive.

This is not a highway drive.

You basically paid to drive along the sixteen miles of residential streets and coastline where people have built expensive houses.

It’s just one of those things you have to do.

You can drive from or to Carmel.


Also we celebrated my husband’s birthday there at a restaurant called Latitudes, which really enjoyed. The head waiter sang ‘Happy Birthday’ or any other appropriate song depending on the occasion.


We visited in April which was a lovely time of year there and the gardens around the bay were carpeted with colourful purple flowers.

I think Monterey would be a good place to live.

It seemed to soon before we were heading up the highway back up to San Francisco.


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