Page 80 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

CA.ROAD TRIPS
BY JOHN FLINN
Hop in the Car and Go
Explore California’s highways and byways
17-MILE DRIVE
This scenic coastal drive around
the Monterey Peninsula hugs the
Pacific and passes legendary golf
courses including Pebble Beach,
Spyglass Hill and Cypress Point.
Because most of it is owned by
the Pebble Beach Company, there’s
a nominal toll for non-residents,
but it’s the best way to see this
dramatic peninsula.
Californians didn’t invent the car, but
they like to think, with some justification,
that they invented the automobile lifestyle.
With drive-thru grocery stores, drive-
thru pharmacies, drive-thru churches and
even drive-thru mortuaries, one gets the
feeling that if Californians could only
invent a drive-thru delivery room they
could happily go from cradle to grave
without ever having to pull over to the curb.
California is a land of supersized dis-
tances, jumbo landscapes and big-gulp
vistas, and the best way to see it all is on a
road trip, or, better yet, a series of road
trips. Here are a few of our favorites.
Up the Coast
Northern Californians call it “Highway 1”
and Southern Californians call it the
“Pacific Coast Highway”—or, simply, the
“PCH”—but there’s no doubt that the
road that hugs the state’s remarkable
coastline, often close enough to feel the
salt spray, is one of the world’s classic
driving trips.
From the sun-splashed Southern Cali-
fornia beaches to the misty redwood
forests near the Oregon border, the journey,
which includes a few stretches on other
highways, is a touch over 1,000 miles.
The sights are so numerous we can
barely scratch the surface: The Hotel Del
Coronado, where Marilyn Monroe frol-
icked in Some Like It Hot; classic surfing
beaches made famous by the Beach Boys;
star-studded Malibu; Riviera-like Santa
Barbara; Hearst Castle; Big Sur; Santa Cruz,
with its old-timey beach boardwalk; San
JEROME KUNDROTAS/SHUTTERSTOCK. OPPOSITE: ASIF ISLAM/SHUTTERSTOCK; SUPPAVUT VARUTBANGKUL; RADOSLAW LECYK/SHUTTERSTOCK
78 2015 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A