a few teens and the entire cali coast - any advice?

[wonderdoodle]

Hey there! 2 or 3 of my friends and I are tying to plan a road trip this coming summer. We're all 17 or 18 and will be starting our senior year of high school next year. We would be leaving from central Oregon or the central Oregon coast, and would hopefully end up in Baja California, or at least San Diego. Most of us have made the drive from central Oregon to San Francisco in a day, but that's the extent of our experience. Basically we aren't too sure where to start with all of this! This is what we know we definitely want to do on this trip:

- Drive either the entire way there or back on the coast, I guess the Pacific Coast Highway?
- The other leg of our trip would be inland a few hours max, possibly through some deserts and maybe even a trip to Yosemite...
- Spend most of our nights camping, at a hostel, or "couch surfing" with two or three nights spent at a relative's house along the way.
- Spend very little money!

And that's about all we know so far... We were thinking we might make the whole trip about 2 weeks - does that seem reasonable, with enough time to actually see the land and towns, or is it too rushed? What we need the most help with though, is how much this will cost. So with that said, any help would be appreciated... thanks!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Hey there! 2 or 3 of my friends and I are tying to plan a road trip this coming summer.

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum -- Sounds like a pretty amazing adventure -- are all of the various sets of parents "on board" with this plan? What will you be driving? There are some challenges because of your relative youth -- you didn't mention motels, which is probably a good thing, because it would be tough to rent motel rooms and I'm not positive about hostels. Here are some resources to help you start the planning process:

First, it would be smart to have everyone who is considering go on this trek take this quiz and then talk about the results to ensure that everyone is more-or-less agreed on the social parameters of this trip.

Here are some suggestions about ways to save money on road trips.

Here's an article I wrote about spring break -- but the tips would apply to you as well. (You'll need to update it, in terms of fuel prices).

And here's an article you can discuss with the various sets of parents to get them "over the hump" so to speak.

Two weeks to cover all of that ground is probably a bit unrealistic. You would have more fun, spend less money, if you limited the trip to a circle between home, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe -- there are still many, many cool places to explore. You might be able to complete the trip you are envisioning in two weeks, but you will be on the road for at least 8-10 hours most days. Pretty hard to find the time to kick back and enjoy the beach on that schedule.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of posts on this forum covering just about every route envisioned by such a trip. So, poke around, read some articles and then come on back with any specific questions you might have.

Mark