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Grex Travel Item 77: Central Coast California
Entered by bud on Wed May 14 03:25:37 UTC 2008:

With 3 days to explore the central coast of California (Santa Barbara to
Salinas) what are the sites I shouldn't miss?

3 responses total.

#1 of 3 by mcnally on Wed May 14 06:07:23 2008:

 Depends on what you like.  Are you a wine and golf person?  Or a hiking and
 beachcombing person?  Or a history and literature type?  Three days is not
 a whole lot of time to explore a pretty serious amount of coast and you'll
 be leaving things out one way or another.

 If it were me I'd probably spend Day One in the Monterey / Carmel area.
 Someday I'd like to go diving in Monterey Bay but a less ambitious program
 would be visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the morning and spending the
 afternoon biking the 17-mile scenic drive.  For the evening I'd head down
 the coast and set up camp somewhere in the Big Sur area, preferably close to
 the beach with a good view of the sunset. 

 I'd spend the first half of Day 2 doing a day hike in the Big Sur area, then
 move on down the coast and tour San Simeon in the afternoon, because every
 time I've gone through the area I've passed right by it and I really ought
 to stop sometime.  Depending on how much daylight that left me I'd probably
 stop in Cambria or Morro Bay, both of which are neat little towns, and try
 to find a good dinner and enjoy another good sunset.

 Day three I'm not sure how I'd spend -- most of my California travels haven't
 gone much south of Big Sur and I don't know the coast all that well.  I used
 to know someone who came from around Solvang and it sounded interesting enough
 to at least stop for lunch and spend an hour or two checking out, but I'd
 probably target Santa Barbara with my third day because I haven't ever spent
 any time there.  I read an article a few years ago about a famous taqueria
 there that has a huge cult following so I'd probably try to dig up that
 info and see if there was anything behind the hype.

 I'm pretty sure I'd have a good time whether or not I hit the "mustn't miss"
 highlights -- in fact, I very rarely care what I'm supposed to be seeing on
 a trip as long as I'm having a good time and seeing stuff that *I* find
 interesting..

#2 of 3 by zulu on Wed May 14 16:47:52 2008:

Isn't the Hearst Castle in that area?

#3 of 3 by rcurl on Wed May 14 19:44:22 2008:

That's San Simeon.

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