For many years, when planning out our trips for the year, our approach was to allocate most of our vacation days to far away, international destinations + to use our weekends for domestic, closer to home trips. This approach allowed us to visit so many places; we’d typically average visiting 8 countries + 7 states a year, more than some people visit in a lifetime. Enter 2020 + a global pandemic. With international borders closed and travel as we knew it no longer a possibility, we gained a whole new appreciation for exploring our own backyard. We realized that reserving just the 48 hours from after work Friday to Sunday evening for domestic travel was causing us to miss out on so many incredible experiences in the United States, namely road trips!

When Zach + I’s July honeymoon was cancelled, we decided to still take the time off + take a road trip down the West Coast. Below are all of the stops that we made, as well as stops that I’d recommend if you have more time to spare!

THE ULTIMATE ITINERARY

1. Seattle - Our trip kicked off in our hometown of Seattle. If you’re from another part of the US or another country and flying in to take your West Coast road trip, I’d recommend allocating 2-3 days to explore Seattle. We have 2 foodie guides to the city HERE and HERE. In addition, last month, we partnered with Betches + their new Betches Travel platform to provide a mini-guide to the city, including best neighborhoods to stay in, favorite activities + more! Check out the post HERE.

2. Portland - Two of our closest friends live just outside of Portland, so we added 3 nights to our trip to spend some time catching up with them while working remotely before our trip officially kicked off. Portland is such a fun city to visit + one of our favorite weekend trips. However, if you’re short on time + trying to take in the entire West Coast, you might want to just plan to stop in Portland for a few hours - for lunch, shopping, etc. The drive from Seattle to Portland is just under 3 hours, so you’ll likely have the energy to put in a few more hours on the road before stopping. A few of our favorite Portland recs can be found HERE. If you have a little extra time to spare on your road trip, we’d recommend 1-2 nights in Portland.

3. The Oregon Coast - When most people think of a West Coast road trip, they imagine passing countless beaches and watching the ocean waves as they drive down the highway. We’re right there with you. As such, we’d recommend working your way as close to the coast as possible when you depart Seattle. The Oregon Coast is dotted with so many charming, beach towns and would be a perfect addition to any road trip itinerary. There isn’t a ton to do or take in here, so we’d recommend adding just 1-2 nights to read, relax and soak in the natural beauty. We stayed in Florence, Oregon on this particular trip, but our favorite coastal towns are Cannon Beach, Pacific City and Seaside for inspiration when planning your own trip!

4. Redwood National Park - The Redwood Forest will be the next major milestone along your journey and are high on many people’s bucket lists. Even if you don’t opt to stay overnight in the Redwoods, definitely be sure that your route includes driving through these trees. Absolutely breathtaking. The Redwoods are similar to the Oregon Coast in that there isn’t a ton in terms of tourist attractions, restaurants, etc to take in. It’s more about relaxing + appreciating the beauty of the park. If you do choose to stay, we’d recommend just 1-2 nights and either plan to camp or stay in the towns of Fort Bragg or Mendocino.

5. Napa - One of our very favorite spots. After the chill, no frills vibes of our earlier stops in Oregon + Northern California, it was nice to have a change of pace in Napa with some fine dining, wine tasting and higher-end accommodations. If you’ve already paid a visit to Napa a time or two or are trying to road trip on a budget, you could definitely skip Napa. As the roadtrip was a replacement for our cancelled honeymoon, we opted to add it on and treat ourselves. Our extensive guide to Napa with Betches is available HERE, as well as a shorter guide that we wrote on the area available HERE. While we could easily spend a month in Napa, we’d recommend 2-3 nights if you do choose to stop here!

6. San Francisco - SF was always a go-to family vacation growing up + both of us have lived in the Bay Area at one time or another. I went to college down there for a year + Kelda now lives in Silicon Valley. It’s one of our favorite cities in the country. If you only have time for one Northern California stop after the Redwoods, we’d recommend San Francisco, especially if you’ve never been! The city absolutely deserves more than one post, but you’ll find some of our top recs HERE. We’d suggest 3 nights if you have enough time to spare!

7. Half Moon Bay - We stayed in Half Moon Bay for one night as I’d heard from locals + Bay Area friends for years what an incredible spot it was to visit. However, after spending some time there myself, I wouldn’t go out of your way to add it to your road trip itinerary. It would be a great spot to pass through for lunch (Sam’s Chowder House was fabulous!) or for a quick drink (Half Moon Bay Brewing Company or The Ritz would be my top recs). If you do choose to stay the night here, 1 night is plenty!

8. Carmel-by-the-Sea + Big Sur- If you’ve been a follower for a while, you know just how obsessed we are with Carmel. It’s just a 2-hour drive from San Francisco, so you may not be quite ready to stop for an overnight stay, but it’s definitely worth a visit for a meal and a few hours of exploring. Whether you decide to stay for a few hours or a few nights, check out our guide to this fairytale town HERE. Another spot that we could easily pass several weeks in, but we’d recommend 2-3 nights here when planning your trip! Big Sur in particular is a bucket list drive in and of itself, so adding it while doing a West Coast road trip is absolutely unforgettable!

9. San Luis Obispo/Paso Robles - While we have yet to spend extensive time in SLO, we’d be remiss to leave it off a West Coast Road Trip itinerary. It’s a perfect middle point between Northern and Southern California if you want to break up your drive. It’s known for being super friendly and relaxing with a famed wine region that we can’t wait to explore! If you do choose to stop here, we’ve heard 1 night would be just fine!

Kelda picking out her dream home in Santa Barbara. If SB is good enough for Oprah + Prince Harry, it’s good enough for us!

10. Santa Barbara - Another favorite spot of ours. Santa Barbara is the perfect spot to visit either with friends or with a significant others. Near perfect weather year-round, breathtaking beaches, wine-tasting (can you tell we plan our trips around wine?) + the perfect balance between small town and big city. We have an extensive guide to Santa Barbara coming soon, but, until then, check out our mini-guide HERE for recs on where to stay, what to do + where to dine! We’d recommend 2 nights in Santa Barbara.

Scenes from my bachelorette weekend at Malibu Wine Tours. Kelda absolutely killed the planning - so much fun!!

11. Los Angeles/Malibu - From our experience, people seem to either love or hate Los Angeles. We personally LOVE it. We’ve made countless visits to LA + Kelda even planned my bachelorette party there. That’s how much we love it. Unlike San Francisco which you could hypothetically walk on foot in a weekend, L.A. is sprawling and expansive. It would require a few weeks to really see and take in everything that the city has to offer, so you’ll likely get just a taste of the city on your road trip. We’d recommend spending 1-2 days in the beach neighborhoods of Santa Monica + Venice, 1-2 days on the Westside (Beverly Hills, WeHo), 1 day in Central LA (Griffith Park, Silver Lake) and 1 day in Malibu. Our foodie guide to LA is available HERE and our bachelorette guide is available HERE.

Grabbing brunch at The Parker, one of Palm Spring’s most iconic hotels. If you aren’t able to stay there (it was out of our budget), be sure to visit for a meal!

12. Palm Springs - Palm Springs is a bit further inland, about 90 minutes from Los Angeles, so may not be the most natural stop on a West Coast road trip, but if you have plenty of time to kill and want to take in all of the main spots in California, we’d recommend adding 2 nights in Palm Springs. After the hustle + bustle of Los Angeles, Palm Springs would be a very welcome break to relax and decompress. You could even add a day trip to Joshua Tree while you’re at it!

13. San Diego/La Jolla - The final stop in our West Coast road trip guide would be San Diego - just about as far south as you can go on your road trip while staying inside the United States - although we’ve been to a few beaches in San Diego where even our cell phone service plan alerted us that we had now entered Mexico. The weather in San Diego couldn’t be more perfect and there is so much to see and do, but the pace still feels relaxed and laid back. We’d recommend two nights in San Diego to round out your trip! Be sure to visit Coronado Island, the beach bars in Pacific Beach + Mission Beach, as well as Little Italy.

TIPS FOR PLANNING YOUR ROAD TRIP

Think outside the box. If you have limited vacation days, but want to work your way as far down the coast as possible, consider renting a car + flying home. A road trip doesn’t have to be “round trip” in the way we would typically think. If you have the budget to do so, this would actually be my preferred way to road trip. Work your way down the coast as far as you can in a rental car + then fly back on your final day of vacation. This allows you to get twice as far and potentially spend more time enjoying each destination.
Be reasonable about distance. My college town was about a 5-hour drive from Seattle. I made that trip countless times + it was more than doable. However, if 5-7 hours has been a comfortable road trip distance in the past, it’s a totally different when you’re driving that distance every few days. Heading back to college, I just had to make that long trek once and then I was done for a few months. Of course, it was manageable! When mapping out your trip, it’s okay to add a long-haul day of driving (7-9 hours) periodically throughout the trip, but I wouldn’t recommend planning on that for the majority of the trip. It’s exhausting and could prevent from actually seeing and enjoying many of your stops. I found 4-5 hours to be the sweet spot for average time driven per day and always added 2-3 nights in a town in between the driving days to break it up and keep it fun!
You don’t have to do everything at once! We provided 12 suggested stops in our itinerary above. For the average person, making 12 stops on a road trip would be next to impossible, especially if you plan to spend a few nights at each. Not only are we limited by vacation time, but 2-3 weeks in hotels, meals out, etc. are beyond what most people can budget for as well. Don’t be afraid to tackle the West Coast in 3 parts, doing one leg every few years! You could consider flying into Santa Barbara + doing a Southern California road trip or flying into San Francisco and heading north to Seattle.
Road trips are not necessarily a budget way to travel. While road trips can absolutely be a more affordable alternative to a typical trip/vacation, that’s not always the case. Our trip included 10 nights of accommodations. Between 10 nights in a hotel, gas money, meals out, activities, etc., we spent the same amount on our West Coast road trip as we had spent on our (cancelled) international honeymoon. It all depends on the vibe you’re going for. If you’re okay to camp for a few nights, make a majority of meals at your Airbnb, etc., you can absolutely do a road trip on a tighter budget. However, if you’re looking to dine out, stay at 3-4 star hotels, etc., a road trip can easily add up to more than your potential trip to somewhere more “exotic.”
Plan, plan + plan again. We build out extensive spreadsheets and itineraries for all of our vacations, but a road trip requires a whole other level of planning. For most trips, you’re just flying into one city, spending a few days there + heading home. Fairly straightforward. When you’re talking about visiting up to 12 potential cities and towns, the level of detail and organization needed is no laughing matter. We’re talking about the need to find not just one, but many, accommodation options, researching multiple cities to plan out your activities, mapping the drive times between each spot, etc. It’s not impossible + we hope that our many guides to each spot help to make it easier, but definitely start planning early and don’t expect to get everything figured out in just one planning session.

Sunset at Malibu Farm, one of our favorite spots to dine in Malibu.

We are already planning to add several more US road trips to our travel agenda over the next year. We’re specifically dreaming of a “Wild West” road trip (Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, etc.) and an East Coast coastal town tour (Nantucket, Newport, Montauk, etc.) Going forward, we’re making a point to balance out our international vacations with domestic road trips and giving ourselves more time to explore all that makes the United States so beautiful + unique as well!!

As always, both our Delta + Chase Sapphire cards help to make all of our trips possible. I used Chase Sapphire points to cover the hotel stays for the entire road trip. If you’re interested in signing up for a Delta American Express card, click HERE for a sign up bonus. If you still don’t have a Chase Sapphire card and want to get in on the action, click HERE for a special sign up bonus!

We’re so excited for you to start planning a West Coast road trip of your own + please send any and all questions our way!!