California Road Trip is Planned! What have we missed?

What is Tin City?
Are you doing the highway 1 coastline drive? Make sure the route is open, as they are frequent landslides.
I really like Justine wines- great choice.
If you're coming thru Morro Bay on a Thursday, Market Night in San Luis Obispo is great fun. They close off the Main Street and it's charming, and you have the Mission in town.
Coastline weather is a beast of its own- build in some flexibility for the meandering fog, which occludes the views.
Enjoy our beautiful state and have a great trip!

Absolutely use the CalTrans website to double check on Highway/Freeway Conditions

Day 1 Be careful in the Mission district. Yes it’s vibrant but there is also homelessness.

Personally I’d have my first dinner in the City By The Bay at Firefly in Noe Valley.

Day 5 at Point Lobos hike to China Beach

Day 6 See the sea otters in Morro Bay.

Day 7 from Paso Robles go to see Sensorio.
https://sensoriopaso.com/

I live in the SF Bay Area and your overall trip looks great. A few things to consider.

• Clothing: San Francisco and Carmel area can be cool in summer. Bring a light jacket. We were in Carmel this week and we had to wear jackets as it was cold and drizzling.
• For your dinner in the Mission, unless it is a specific place that doesn’t take reservations, many restaurants do book up. If you need a recommendation
• Your day 4 schedule is tight if you plan on visiting Monterey and the 17 mile drive before your 1:30 p.m. tour in Carmel. On a good day (light traffic), it can take 2 hours to get to Carmel. The 17 mile drive is lovely and if you want to stop at all, it will take about 1.5 hours. I would recommend you leave the City early so you find parking in Carmel and get to your tour on time.
• On your Day 6, across the highway from Hearst Castle is Hearst Winery. It faces the ocean and is a great place to toast some wines and have lunch (either the food truck which is excellent or they have charcuterie). Also, Cambria is a lovely town to visit on your way to Morro Bay.
• Day 7, Rather than visiting two wineries in Paso Robles, you may consider driving to Los Olivos after lunch and visiting one of the wineries. Fess Parker has an amazing tasting room and has some great representative wines of the Santa Barbara area.
• Santa Barbara: is lovely in the summer. If you have a chance to whale watch, July is peak season for seeing the blue whales.

Yes to Los Olivos but one can do better than Fess. Go to Firestone for a free tour or keep going to Foxen or Rancho Sisquoc.

I agree with SandyO that your day 4 schedule is tight - not sure whether "stop in Monterey" literally means a tourist stop, but unfortunately it's become a gigantic tourist trap and could end up a major time suck. Pacific Grove, right next door, is much more pleasant for a quick stop.

Day 2 also seems to be tightly scheduled. Muir Woods is not the kind of place that you would want to quickly blow through. Do you take the ferry back from Sausalito? I think hard to do Alcatraz and then an early dinner - we found Alcatraz fascinating and spent several hours.

To easily navigate SF it would be helpful to download the MuniMobile app, which you can use both for trip planning and to purchase fares - for your trip from Chinatown to the Mission, for example.

Day 4: You're trying to squeeze two days worth of fun into one morning! Slow down! I'm sure a Carmel tour with a local would be interesting, but perhaps not necessary? If it's a short tour, then push it back to very late afternoon at least.

Please be aware that Highway 1 is closed south of Big Sur to beyond Lucia. It may reopen later this year. To go from Monterey to Morro Bay you will have to go down 101 not the coastal route. Paso Robles is just off 101. Going to San Simeon will be a big detour since you will have to head on46 at Paso Robles to the coast and north through Cambria and on to San Simeon.

Tin City is fun and funky and wine tastings tend to be very personal since the wineries are so small.

I live in the Monterey area , in fact 17 Mile Drive is my cross street. I love the adobes in downtown Monterey. Fisherman’s Wharf and Cannery row not so much. Getting to Point Lobos early is essential . Parking is limited and most people wind up parking on Highway 1 by mid morning.

Carmel is lovely. You have picked some great restaurants. Maybe a drive into Carmel Valley after Point Lobos. Lots of tasting rooms and it’s a short 10 mile drive from Carmel .

Enjoy your visit to mostly Central California.

It's usually windy up on the GG bridge. Besides a jacket you might take a scarf and wool beanie. The oft repeated quote from Mark Twain is “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” As a Bay Area native I can say he was right.

Day 5--7 are confusing, especially since you can't drive down Highway 1. Do you have tickets to visit Hearst Castle? The Point Lobos hike is only one mile. I would explore Point Lobos then drive to Cambria. Get tickets in advance for Hearst Castle, visit the Elephant Seal area (not much going on in July but still interesting), stay in Cambria---check out Moonstone Beach and the restaurants there. The town is also cute. Next morning, a quick stop at Harmony then the sea otters and lunch at Morro Bay. Montana de Oro State Park is also nice. Or visit the sea otters and continue to lunch at Paso Robles. That way you could add a night in Santa Barbara instead of 2 nights in Carmel.

Regarding Point Lobos, there are several places to hike, all beautiful and along the coastal cliffs and shore. Length of hikes can depend on where you want to start. Mile or miles. You decide.

Lots of good advice above. I also love the botanical garden in Santa Barbara.

We lived in Santa Barbara for 34 years. I can highly recommend the Hearst Castle tour, the basic ones run every 15 minutes. We took our son and DIL, who had never been before, on the basic tour at Thanksgiving this year. She is a design major who loved the tour and the dynamics of Hearst and Julia Morgan. Here is the link to the Piedras Blancas seal rookery with webcams. https://elephantseal.org/ In Cambria we love Linn’s Restaurant noted for their pies but great food also.

Wow. Thanks, everyone, for your input. This is extremely helpful. I will dive into it and let you know if I have any questions. Thanks again!

On Day 4, take I-280, Hwys 17 & 1 to Monterey, rather than 101 for a more scenic view.

On Day 6, since Hwy 1 is closed beyond Big Sur, you will be going towards Salinas and taking the 101 south. So, on Day 5, after Point Lobos, I recommend you go down to Big Sur. Many hikes possible there too. Nepenthe is a popular restaurant there, with amazing views.

And as others have mentioned, a jacket and a beanie are a must.

Have a fabulous trip!

Just be prepared for Hwy 17 traffic and even now with the center barriers it is still known as blood alley.

I learned to drive on it in my dad’s 55 Ford with “ 3 on the tree.” No barriers then. Was 15. I then promptly chose to skip summer school and drove over to Santa Cruz every day to hang with the surfers at Steamers Lane. When the across the street neighbor ratted me out instead of getting mad Dad expressed how proud he was of my driving and sense of adventure.

@Claudia, loved your driving story! Yes, Hwy 17 can be a tough drive, especially in the fog.

Day 2 is a bit much.
A visit to Muir Woods will take up most of the morning.
So Alcatraz is doable in the afternoon. You will need advance tickets and be sure not to miss the boat.

On Day 3, if you rent bikes to cross the GGB, you will end up in Sausalito and that would be a good time to have lunch in Sausalito, before you take the ferry back to SF. Lots of excellent restaurants in SF, but find a good dim sum Chinese restaurant.

On Day 4: I don't really think you need a guided tour of Carmel. The downtown is one long street (Ocean Ave.) Just park somewhere and walk down Ocean Avenue to the beach, and then back up again. Take a guided auto tour of Carmel, if you don't want to walk a lot.

Monterey and pacific Grove are a weekend by itself, but If you do stop for a quick tour of Monterey- I'm suggesting a drive along Ocean View Blvd. Or rent bikes and ride the bike path from Monterey through Pacific Grove to the lighthouse. You'll stop often to take pictures. One place to stay is Asilomar, if you find the hotel prices in Carmel to be pricey. Near Asilomar is one our favorite restaurants: the FishWife.
You'll have time to drive 17 mile drive, If you start near Asilomar, you drive south and will end up in Carmel.

Day 5: Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is a definite must do. Go early. You'll spend 2-3 hours here.If you have time, visit the Carmel Mission ( or visit the Santa Barbara Mission in SB)

Day 5: The drive from Carmel to Morro Bay is 2 ½ hours on Hwy 101. You will pass through Paso Robles. So why not lunch at Justine Vineyards on this day, before driving over to Morro Bay. though I would stay in Cambria at a hotel on Moonstone Beach Drive. Lots of good restaurants in Cambria.

Day 6: From Cambria, it's a short drive to Hearst Castle. Take a tour there (2-3 hours) and then stop to see the elephant seals at a viewpoint along Hwy 1. Lunch in Cambria or Morro Bay. Where are you staying this night?

Day 7 or 8: Its a 2 hour drive from Morro Bay to Santa Barbara driving south on Hwy 101. Lots to do here.

Day 10: Where are you departing from? LAX? It's a 2 ½ hour drive from SB to LAX (on a good day)
If you have spare time in LA, visit the Getty Museum.

paisha,
Carmel Valley Road (eastward from Carmel) has several wineries and is a lovely drive. If you can fit it in with tweaks to days 4 and/or 5 I recommend it. You can spend two hours going inland and returning with a couple of tastings in the countryside (always a nice drive there). Not a fan here of the 17 mile drive. There is beautiful coastline in the area that doesn't't charge a fee.

On the way south on day 6 to Hearst Castle, there is Piedras Blancas lighthouse, Seal Beach (elephant seals in season) and Moonstone Beach, where the sunsets are terrific (maybe a cocktail at Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill while watching the sun go down). Cambria or Moonstone Beach are nice little places to stay in. None of these are far from Hearst Castle.

Paso Robles isn't too far north of San Luis Obispo. Between the two are wineries and olive orchards. You can do olive oil tastings as well as wine tastings. The drives to some of the wineries and orchards can be very peaceful and idyllic.
I second going to San Luis Obispo if there on a Thursday evening. Restaurants cooking and serving on the closed-off main street (yum for Santa Maria grilled tri-tip!), great produce and baked goods at the farmer's market, street entertainers, just good fun! When we head that way we always try to schedule a stopover in SLO on a Thursday. It's not far from Morro Bay.

If missions interest you, you will pass close to a few.... San Rafael (close to Muir Woods), Mission Dolores (San Francisco), Carmel, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara. Others would be not too far off your route, but there wouldn't be time. And you don't want to be "missioned-out". In order of preference (for me, and from the five I listed) are Santa Barbara, then Carmel, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo and San Rafael. To be honest, my favorites are a bit inland. If you visit one, make it Santa Barbara.
Sounds like a great trip. DH and I over the 57 years we have been together have covered California many times over, visiting all the counties more than once and never getting tired of what the state has to offer. (We have the mountains and the deserts and the great beaches and many, many redwood forests!) I hope this is just the first of many visits here.
Welcome!

I live in Marin County- North of San Francisco. Riding a bike to ride to Sausalito or Tiburon and taking the Ferry back to San Francisco-with your bikes on the Ferry which takes you to the Ferry Building on the waterfront- The bike ride on Embarcadero is nice- you can even go to Oracle Park where the S.F. Giants play. North Beach and Chinatown are neighbors and a fun walk and epicurean experience. Foreign Cinema is a fun place in the Mission to eat . They play classic movies and the menu is California cuisine.
Pacific Grove - town next to Carmel is a quaint town. The Golden Gate Park, where the Japanese Tea Garden is located has a bus within the Golden Gate Park which takes you to the major parts of Golden Gate Park - Stow Lake is a nice walk .
Bring layers for clothing ! Happy Travels

Thank you all again for the great input. Based on your feedback, I've adjusted our itinerary. On Day 4, we eliminated the walking tour in Carmel by the Sea to give us a more leisurely drive from San Francisco to Carmel by the Sea and do the 17-mile drive. Day 5: time permitting, visit Carmel Valley Day 6: Drive from Carmel to Paso Robles for wine tasting and then onto Cambria. Day 7: Hearst Castle. Can anyone share their favorite spots to eat in SF Chinatown and Cambria? Thanks again. What a wealth of info you have provided us!