Highway 1 - California's Dream Road

After our stay in San Francisco, we drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles on Highway 1, California's dream road, in our new rental car, a wine-red Nissan Maxima.

And it truly turned out to be a dream, because we could admire the Pacific Ocean on our right in all its beauty in a short time.

In a first stage, we drove to Salinas, the birthplace of writer John Steinbeck. We also visited the Steinbeck Museum there, which is a good recommendation for literature lovers as well as history enthusiasts, as it allows you to explore the history of the region, which is also reflected in Steinbeck's numerous works. Of course, Salinas also has John Steinbeck's birthplace, built in Victorian style, where you can have a good lunch until 2 p.m. Unfortunately, we arrived a bit too late, so we could only admire the house from the outside.

Especially recommendable on this stretch is taking the time to visit Hearst Castle, a gigantic estate, almost a palace, of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. We took a tour of a part of the estate and were amazed by the overloaded, almost kitschy, yet somehow beautiful architecture and the numerous works of art and antiques in the estate.

In the evening, we finally arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn in Pismo Beach. But before we went to sleep, we went to the local outlet. It may not be very big, but it offers everything your heart desires and is manageable compared to other outlets, which was advantageous for us since we didn't have much time for shopping in the evening. Furthermore, we planned to visit the large outlet in Camarillo, a beautiful coastal town, the next day.

The next section of the Highway 1 initially took us to La Purisima Mission in Lompoc, an authentic replica of the original mission, whose ruins can still be visited in the city center.

Afterwards, we drove to Solvang, a city in Danish half-timbered style founded by Danish immigrants, making it a piece of Scandinavia in America. Due to this uniqueness of the city, it is definitely worth a stop on any trip along the coast heading south.

The place you definitely shouldn't miss, however, is Santa Barbara. The courthouse in particular is very interesting to see, not least because of the artistically designed courtrooms that can be visited as part of a free guided tour. This was a highlight of our day.

Finally, we arrived at our hotel, the Hampton Inn Camarillo, and then went to the city's huge premium outlet. We successfully concluded our exciting day with another small shopping trip.

Now we were especially looking forward to the rest of our trip, because:

We were heading to Los Angeles.

On the way there, there was one last stop: the famous Malibu. Here we took a walk on the beach, admired the villas of the rich and famous, and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the place.

For lunch that day, we went to Ollo, a local restaurant in Malibu. Not only can you occasionally see a celebrity there (unfortunately, we didn't see anyone we knew), but they also offer very tasty, local and healthy cuisine at affordable prices. An absolute tip for anyone who wants to have a good lunch in Malibu.

After this good meal, we finally headed straight to L.A. Despite all the anticipation, we were already a little sad that this part of the trip, driving along the beautiful panorama on the highway, was already over. We made a mental note to definitely come back here. There is nothing better than driving down this dreamy coastal road in a rental car.

As for L.A.: To be continued...

Your Claudia and Peter