Pacific Coast Highway from SF to Vegas??

Howdie,

I'm at a qualm right now. JUST about to purchase plane tickets to fly to either LA or San Francisco. The plan is to rent a car and DRIVE to Vegas in 2.5 days. I did a check on Mapquest, but this isn't reliable for time/mileage when it comes to driving on Highway 1 (Pacific Coast highway)

Does anyone know how long it actually takes to drive from San Francisco to La on Highway 1? Thanks for any help!

OH, and we are doing a multiple flight itinerary. Going to Fly to either SF or LA, rent car, and fly from Vegas to home (Austin.)

You can drive from SF to LA pretty much on Coast 1 in a day -- but it would be a long grinding trip, and wouldn't allow you much time for stops. It would be at least 10 hours in the car.

A better option is to drive it in 2 days, with an overnight stop in the San Simeon to San Luis Obispo area.

There are also a couple of "shortcuts" you can take which don't subtract much from the scenic drive, but substantially speed up the route. These give you a little more flexibility for stops at scenic locations such as Monterey/ Carmel, Hearst Castle (San Simeon), or Santa Barbara.

For example, you can start south on Coast 1 at Santa Cruz, rather than at Daly City. In the middle section, Coast 1 cuts inland at Pismo Beach, and continues south running along a route which is 10 miles or so inland from the coast. This section parallels the 101, which is a faster, shorter route. Coast 1 and 101 join up again near Buelton, about 30 minutes north of Santa Barbara. Lastly, Coast 1 veers west again at Oxnard and continues down through Malibu to Santa Monica. You can take the 101 freeway into LA as an alternative which may save an hour of driving time.