Expert: Ernest Tufft - 3/3/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi Ernest,

We will be travelling to California next month and will be staying at San Diego for 3 nights and Santa Barbara for 2 before driving to San Francisco.  

We have been advised to use State 101 to reach San Francisco from Santa Barbara but would prefer to take Highway 1.

Could you please advise us of the difference in timetable and whether this route is feasible.  We have looked the Highway up on the internet and have seen that it can be quite perilous in places.  If we could drive perhaps some of the Highway that may be an option.

Would you recommend as tourists that we give Highway 1 a miss completely and stick to the 101?

Many thanks in anticipation.

John

ANSWER: Thanks for the question John.  No, as exciting as it may seem to think otherwise, highway 1 is not at all dangerous and is the most popular coastal route for tourists.  While I wouldn't personally like to drive this route with anything other than a sports car or motorcycle, motorhomes do travel this route on a regular basis.  Commercial trucks are limited along this route however.  Each year, landslides do occur, but these are usually quickly fixed with a temporary detour, and are in any case well marked.  Highway 1 will take at least twice as long to travel the same distance as US 101, the freeway that follows the inland coastal valleys.  Use Mapquest.com to more precisely estimate travel times between destinations, but I would recommend driving the scenic route highway 1 during the day, while driving US 101 on the return route or at night.  After reaching Santa Cruz, you may prefer taking scenic Hwy 9 through the coastal redwoods.  Have fun...

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Ernest,

To be more specific we were thinking of joining Highway 1 at San Luis Obispo and continuing to Castroville before rejoining the 101.

How does this sound?  What would be the time difference between the Highway 1 and 101 route?

Thanks.

John

Answer
Yes, John, the time difference will be huge because of the twists, turns, cross traffic and slower traffic along Hwy1 versus the freeway of US101, but thenn again Hwy 1 is a spectacular scenic route that must be appreciated sometime.  The best part is between San Luis Obispo and Carmel, and Monterey and Castroville are just a little further on, providing as you say, an access route to US 101.  For detailed time estimates, go to MapQuest.com and enter starting and ending points of SLO and Castroville respectively,  It will default for US 101, but if you check the "scenic" or "non-freeway" route box, you will come up with Hwy 1.