I have dreamt about doing this road trip on the Pacific Coast Highway for such a long time. It’s crazy that the day was finally here and I was doing it. It’s a shame it wasn’t sunny all day however I did get some good atmospheric shots with the clouds.
*On May 29th 2019, I travelled with Trek America on their Grand Trek tour for six weeks around the USA. We began in New York, travelling south to the West Coast, then North back to the East Coast. I am not affiliated with Trek America. Read all my Trek America posts here. *
I would definitely do this again in future, driving myself. However, I would need way more time because I would want to stop and get out every 2 seconds.
Pacific Coast Highway
Our leader, Cat, was really good in the respect of allowing us to stop and said we could also request to pull over if we saw something cool. There wasn’t so much of this on the Southern side of the trip, however, we were in the middle of nowhere, so not as much to see.
Some of these places I don’t remember the names of unfortunately. However you can find good Pacific Coast Highway itineraries on google if you need some inspiration! My advice is not to over plan and just enjoy the views for yourself and find places along the way. There are loads of places that you can pull over and park your car.
McWay Falls
This waterfall is an iconic view in Big Sur. To access this view you need to park at Julia Pfeiffer State Park and walk along the trail, around 0.5 miles. This is one of two waterfalls in California which empty directly into the ocean. I got really distracted when writing this post, researching about the house that was built here, if you enjoy history – have a read!
Our first group picture on the second side of the tour! Thanks to Cat for going above and beyond, literally, to get the shot.
Bixby Creek Bridge
This was one of the highlight stops on the Pacific Coast Highway, that I had found before going. There was some roadworks going on and traffic down the opposite side of the road. Our leader managed to pull the van over and we quickly ran out to get our pictures of the bridge. I’m glad we didnt miss out, but would like to spend more time here if I return.
Garrapata State Park Beach
We made a brief lunch stop at Garrapata State Park. This was a really nice beach, there are trails here if you have more time to explore.
Lovers Point – Monterey
I said this a billion times on this trip but I genuinely was sat here thinking, this is my life right now, this is amazing. I would love to visit Monterey again and go to the Aquarium.
Walking the Golden Gate Bridge
After stopping at a fair few places in the morning & early afternoon, we still had a pretty long drive to make our way to San Francisco.
If you visit San Francisco, I would highly recommend walking across the bridge. You get really great views of the city and to see the bridge so close and in real life is surreal.
Walking across in the evening, did make for some really beautiful sunset views. We were running behind schedule so we did have to leave quite quickly. You could definitely spend more time visiting the different viewpoints.
Mrs Doubtfire’s House
Of course we asked our leader to stop here! The house from Mrs Doubtfire is located at 2640 Steiner St, San Francisco.
The good thing about Trek America trips is that they aren’t all the same. If there is something you really want to do and your group agree, your leader will try their best to make it work into the itinerary.
USA Hostel – San Francisco
The hostel in San Francisco, was okay. Not as good as the one in Nashville, I would say. We did find a cockroach in our room one night and our leader got someone who worked there to come in with a hoover. Other than that, it did the job just fine. There were separate individual showers and toilets, also, we had a sink in the room which was handy. One good thing about this hostel was there were plugs and lights in part of the bed. This made your space feel a little bit more enclosed.
House of Nanking – San Francisco
We all went for dinner at House of Nanking, a Chinese restaurant. This place was busy! They had already arranged to bring out a variety of dishes – so we didnt need to order individually. This was great as we could all try a bit of everything.
We spent the evening at the hostel, ready for a day of exploring San Francisco tomorrow.
Continue reading Trek America 2019
Let me know if you have any questions regarding Trek America or the places we visited ?
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