Day 13 (29 July 2016) - San Francisco to Monterey

We resumed our journey along Pacific Coastal Highway again venturing down to Monterey. We started our day by finishing off parts of San Francisco that we had missed we caught the Pacific Coastal road from inside San Francisco but before we did that we drove the crooked street in San Francisco, the street is basically a downhill chicane of twists and turns. It would be a downhill skier's dream if it ever snowed in San Francisco.

On a more serious note the street is very picturesque and popular with tourists so we did oblige and it gave great views of the city. The inclines approaching the street really tested the automatic clutch on our tank as it held us firmly at a 45 degree incline as we were on routed to the crooked hill.

Crooked Hill and Views of San Francisco

Route to Monterey

Our route to Monterey stayed true to the coastal highway where possible. The route is shown below and as you can see it hugs the coast all the way down. The idea if you are going to do the coastal highway is that you take it slowly and not drive it as quickly as possible. The speeds and curves prevent speeding and generally its pretty dangerous.

Half Moon Bay

Just outside San Francisco was our first stop at Half Moon Bay, we stopped off at the Ritz-Carlton there. Which was a phenomenal experience and we had lunch on their outdoor patio. Looking out over the pacific, this was our first true experience of the coast and was a relaxing way to kick off the drive. the location of the hotel is near perfect as you can see form the photographs below.

Pacific Coastal High Scenery

The photo's below give you an example of what you would expect to see on your way to Monterey

One of the more fruitful things we did was to enjoy the stops with fruit purchases along the way. Just south of San Francisco there are still a lot of farms around the flat areas and beyond the hills and you have the usual set of entrepreneurs selling to the road trippers like us, indulge them and your sense of taste.

We chose to stop at Monterey as its a popular stop and the small town is quite a picturesque. We reached early evening so you could have driven to Carmel or further south but as I said we were not in a hurry. I would suggest you do not drive Route 1 (Pacific Coastal Highway) in the dark as you'll miss its beauty.

We had pre booked out hotels but we saw a number motels along the way so I do not expect problem is you decide not to pre book your hotels. This may actually give you more flexibility than we had. With pre-booked hotels you always find you're aiming at a target and at some point during the day this becomes a priority.