Expert: Steve Summers - 7/31/2008

Question
Hi Steve, I hope you can help me out.  We are travelling from Scotland to San Francisco this September 08.  I have most of our itinerary planned, however we are travelling to Malibu, and I am slightly flummoxed as to how best to travel into LA from Malibu.  Also, we have tickets booked nearer the end of our journey for the Great American Music Hall, and we will be travelling from Yosemite back to San Francisco in our RV.  Where is best to park the RV as I have read that the surrounding areas around the GAMH are not very nice.  Thank you very much.  Laura

Answer
Hi Laura,

I hope you aren't driving the RV from Scotland. LOL.

To get from Malibu to LA, the best way is to take highway 1, aka Pacific Coast Highway (or just PCH) south/east to Santa Monica, where it changes to Interstate 10. There are plenty of traffic lights along the way, but it is much more scenic, and shorter than taking Malibu Canyon Road/Las Virgines Rd to highway 101.

Interestingly enough, we are possibly taking a trip to SF from our home near Los Angeles. The one thing I do know is that you don't want to take an RV into "The City", as the locals call it. The best thing to do is to find a convenient BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station where you can park. http://www.bart.gov/stations/index.aspx Take BART to the Civic Center station, then go to 7th & Market to catch Muni Bus 19. That will take you to Larkin & O'Farrell, less than a block from the GAMH. (The area is only so-so, but the parking in SF is virtually impossible). Most of the BART stations away from the City are nice, so no worries. Maybe you can catch a bus from your RV park to the BART station.

Hve fun!