Route 1 places to stop overnight

[UK]

Hi,

Many thanks to those who answered my Death Valley question.

We will also be travelling to the west coast from Yosemite to stay somewhere south of San Francisco. The following day we are heading down route 1 to stay somewhere north of LA.

Looking at a map, somewhere around Monterrey and Pismo Beach look reasonably placed for these two nights.

Are these good towns/places to stay ?

Are then any better towns/places to stay ?

Does anybody have any recommended budget places to stay on this part of our route (we are spending way too much elsewhere ! )

Any help appreciated

UK

[AZBuck]

I think that Monterey will be an excellent first night's stop. It's at the northern end of the Big Sur coast and would set you up for a great (but moderately long) drive down to the LA area the next day. It has a world class aquarium, some lovely beaches and a very well preserved example of the old Spanish Missions that were the first bastions of European influence along much of the California coast. It's other main advantage is that, although it is a gorgeous town and home to some incredible mansions and one of the world's great resorts (Pebble Beach), it is also home to a small Navy base and so has a goodly number of medium to low cost motels, including franchises of several national chains such as Econo Lodge, Comfort Inn, Ramada, Rodeway, Travelodge, Best Value, Best Western, Days Inn and Super 8.

I'm not at all familiar with Pismo Beach, but I was able to find several low cost motels with a simple web search. These tended to be local 'mom-and-pop' type operations rather than national chains but you may find that that suits your needs better anyway. If you can't find anything there to suit you, you can easily check out the nearby, larger cities of San Louis Obispo and Santa Maria.

AZBuck

[UK]

Many thanks AZBuck

UK