Highway 1 and Big Sur
Two lanes suspended between the Santa Lucia mountains and the Pacific, redwoods touching the fog and elephant seals sprawled at the foot of the cliffs: America's most beautiful coastal road.
Suggested stay — 2 to 3 nights between San Francisco and Los Angeles
Between Monterey and Morro Bay, Highway 1 crosses Big Sur: 150 km of clifftop curves where every bend recomposes the ocean. The stations of the pilgrimage follow one another — Bixby Creek Bridge on its 1932 concrete arch, the Big Sur viewpoints where morning fog clings to the redwoods, McWay Falls dropping straight onto an unreachable beach, and, near San Simeon, the Piedras Blancas elephant seal colony, hundreds of them sprawled metres from the car park (free, spectacular, loud).
Drive it north to south: you're on the ocean side, and every pull-out is taken without cutting across traffic. And leave informed: Big Sur lives with landslides, sections regularly close for months (check the Caltrans map the day before) — a closure is bypassed via US-101 at the cost of one stretch, not the trip. Add Monterey's 17-Mile Drive or the gleeful kitsch of the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, and plan double the GPS estimate: this road averages 40 km/h, stops included — that's the point.
Don't miss
- Bixby Creek Bridge from the north pull-out, early morning before the coaches
- McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, the waterfall that lands on the beach
- The Piedras Blancas elephant seals, 7 km north of San Simeon
- A night in Big Sur itself: the redwoods of Pfeiffer Big Sur or a clifftop lodge at sunset
Our tips on the ground
- Check road status on the Caltrans site (District 5) before setting off: Big Sur closures last months and are discovered too late once committed.
- Fill up before Big Sur (Carmel or Cambria): the stretch's only station posts record prices, and 150 km of curves burns fuel.
- The marine fog ("June Gloom") swallows the coast on summer mornings: drive the spectacular sections between 11 am and sunset, and keep mornings for Monterey or the redwoods.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“The United States, Independently”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about Highway 1 and Big Sur
Which direction should you drive Highway 1?
North to south, no hesitation: you drive on the ocean side, viewpoints open on your right without crossing the lane, and the afternoon light hits the cliffs head-on. The typical itinerary leaves San Francisco, sleeps in Monterey or Carmel, crosses Big Sur in one full day and reaches Santa Barbara or Los Angeles the next.
Can Highway 1 be done in an RV?
Yes, the road is open to motorhomes and the state campgrounds (Pfeiffer Big Sur, clifftop Kirk Creek) are superb — but the clifftop curves demand attention, some pull-outs are too short for a large RV, and California law requires slow vehicles to let others pass once 5 vehicles are queued (turnouts provided). In a compact van it's a delight; in a 10-m RV it's an exercise.