Topic Wiki

Cities are listed from north to south starting with Santa Cruz, ending with before San Louis Obispo. For San Jose and anywhere north, click here. For Santa Barbara and anywhere south click here.
Activities

Santa Cruz area

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Monterey area

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Cannery Row

Pebble Beach, CA (golfing)

17-Mile Drive Waste of time and money IMO. Views are lackluster at best- UshDadude

Pacific Grove, CA (Butterfly capital of the world)

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve

Carmel-By-The-Sea

Big Sur area

Bixby Bridge

Point Sur (Sea Otters)

San Simeon area

Hearst Castle

Cambria, CA

San Lois Obispo (SLO) area

Moro Bay State Park

Pismo Beach

Solvang, CA

Restaurants

None officially, with the following exception:

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Pismo Beach, CA is considered a Southern California store. This means all the food is kosher. There are no other Coffee Bean Stores between San Jose and Santa Barbara.

Shuls

Chabad by the Sea (Santa Cruz)

Chabad of Monterey

Chabad of Carmel Valley

Chabad of SLO
« Last edited by ushdadude on July 28, 2015, 05:11:47 PM »

Author Topic: California Coast PCH Master Thread  (Read 146824 times)

Offline MosheD

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #200 on: July 28, 2015, 04:32:37 PM »
IS Tierra Sur in the area being discussed?

Offline Dr Moose

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #201 on: July 28, 2015, 04:36:51 PM »
Hey there! I am using DansDeals Forums.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #202 on: July 28, 2015, 04:43:01 PM »

Offline GTR

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #203 on: August 04, 2015, 08:24:34 PM »
Tacking on a couple days around PCH during a work trip in Oct.

Offline saw50st8

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #204 on: December 31, 2015, 11:14:41 AM »
Can someone recommend a beachfront hotel near Oxnard that isn't the Embassy Suites?

We are Marriott Platinum, but it doesn't need to be a Marriott. It's for 2 adults and 3 young kids (4, 6, 7). We will be there during the last week of January and will be paying, not using points.  Something nice, but not ridiculously expensive.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #205 on: December 31, 2015, 11:16:22 AM »
Can someone recommend a beachfront hotel near Oxnard that isn't the Embassy Suites?

We are Marriott Platinum, but it doesn't need to be a Marriott. It's for 2 adults and 3 young kids (4, 6, 7). We will be there during the last week of January and will be paying, not using points.  Something nice, but not ridiculously expensive.
Welcome to the forums! What's wrong with the ES? Have you tried looking on TA?

Offline CS1

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #206 on: December 31, 2015, 11:25:02 AM »
Can someone recommend a beachfront hotel near Oxnard that isn't the Embassy Suites?

We are Marriott Platinum, but it doesn't need to be a Marriott. It's for 2 adults and 3 young kids (4, 6, 7). We will be there during the last week of January and will be paying, not using points.  Something nice, but not ridiculously expensive.

the LeMeridien of S. Monica is not near Oxnard, but it's near the water and looks good for children --- i've seen families near the pool, walking distance to the ocean, food stores, etc..
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Offline MosheD

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #207 on: December 31, 2015, 11:57:33 AM »
Can someone recommend a beachfront hotel near Oxnard that isn't the Embassy Suites?

We are Marriott Platinum, but it doesn't need to be a Marriott. It's for 2 adults and 3 young kids (4, 6, 7). We will be there during the last week of January and will be paying, not using points.  Something nice, but not ridiculously expensive.
We stayed at a HI, which did the job. It was closer to the army base and we were not impressed with the waterfront.
Iirc there is a nice resort there, forgot the name

Offline thaber

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #208 on: January 01, 2016, 12:19:47 PM »
Can someone recommend a beachfront hotel near Oxnard that isn't the Embassy Suites?

We are Marriott Platinum, but it doesn't need to be a Marriott. It's for 2 adults and 3 young kids (4, 6, 7). We will be there during the last week of January and will be paying, not using points.  Something nice, but not ridiculously expensive.
try Ventura, a little upcoast, a lot of options

Offline saw50st8

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #209 on: January 06, 2016, 11:38:59 AM »
Welcome to the forums! What's wrong with the ES? Have you tried looking on TA?

There's nothing wrong with the embassy suites but my mother was just there. We may end up there again if we don't find something better.

What is TA?

Le Meridian doesn't have any availability.

Thank you to everyone who responded.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #210 on: January 06, 2016, 11:45:48 AM »
There's nothing wrong with the embassy suites but my mother was just there. We may end up there again if we don't find something better.

What is TA?

Le Meridian doesn't have any availability.

Thank you to everyone who responded.
Trip Advisor

Offline Dan

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #211 on: April 11, 2016, 02:43:52 PM »
So, 1 night or 2 nights on the PCH?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #212 on: April 11, 2016, 02:46:47 PM »
So, 1 night or 2 nights on the PCH?
From LA to/from SF, 1 in, near Cambria or San Simeon is okay. If you wanted to spend another in/near Big Sur you could, but it's not necessary.

Offline Dan

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #213 on: April 11, 2016, 02:48:43 PM »
Took much to cover Hyatt Carmel to/from LA in a day?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #214 on: April 11, 2016, 02:51:46 PM »
Took much to cover Hyatt Carmel to/from LA in a day?
It'd be rushed. You'd want to stop in Big Sur, Hearst Castle and Morro Bay at a minimum. Maybe if your goal was Oxnard or Santa Barbara it'd be ok, but getting all the way back to LA would be basically doing the whole thing in one day. IOW there's not much north of Carmel to do in the first place, especially compared to south of it.

Offline Dan

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #215 on: April 11, 2016, 03:09:03 PM »
If we went southbound, the goal would be to get to Tierra Sur by 8:30pm.
If we left at 8:30am that would leave 5 hours for driving and 7 hours for activities.

How long would you spend at Big Sur, Hearst Castle and Morro Bay?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #216 on: April 11, 2016, 03:15:52 PM »
If we went southbound, the goal would be to get to Tierra Sur by 8:30pm.
If we left at 8:30am that would leave 5 hours for driving and 7 hours for activities.

How long would you spend at Big Sur, Hearst Castle and Morro Bay?
I'm not saying it's not doable, all I'm saying as it's basically like doing it all in one day, minus the SF-Carmel drive.
Depending on what you want to do in those places, 7 hours can be enough. There lots of hikes, all up and down the coast (can't recommend any off the top of my head, sorry), lots of places to go surfing and swimming, and tons of small town to see. Hearst Castle is a 2 hour tour (IIRC) plus some extra time for parking and looking around after the tour (I'd say 2.5-3 hours total). Would you want to stop in Santa Barbara at all? What about SLO, Morro Bay or Solvang? All those take time.

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #217 on: April 11, 2016, 03:24:14 PM »
Not going to do surfing/swimming.
Seems like Hearst Castle offers half a dozen tours, which are recommended?

Serious dearth of trip reports on this thread :(
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #218 on: April 11, 2016, 03:26:18 PM »
Not going to do surfing/swimming.
Seems like Hearst Castle offers half a dozen tours, which are recommended?

Serious dearth of trip reports on this thread :(
I think we did the Grand Rooms tour, which I believe is recommended for first time visitors. You can do the Upstairs tour as well, but if you had to pick one I'd go with the Grand Rooms tour.

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Re: California Coast PCH Master Thread
« Reply #219 on: April 11, 2016, 03:29:51 PM »
Wow, how are you supposed to pick a time down to 10 minutes for when you'll arrive there?
Tour is 1 hour. Say we spend 2 hours there, how would you allocate 5 more hours of activities?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.