Road trip to west coast - car related must do's

[TrevS]

Hi all

Going on my honeymoon at the beginning of August for 3 weeks and we are doing a fly drive along the west coast of the US. We are starting our trip in San Francisco then heading to Yosemite then back to Monterey and down the coast to LA. We finish the trip in Las Vegas.

So what I need to know is what car things should I do while I am in the states. I've never been to the west coast before and want to make sure I check off any must see car places, museums, shows etc.

Turns out that Monterey car week is on while we are there so what events in particular should I make an effort to go to, Pebble Beach concours etc.

Also I love shows like desert car kings so are there any similar style places like this that I could visit and maybe find myself my next restoration project

Trev

 

[Mark]

Not exactly car related, but you MUST visit Gladstones at Longbeach, great seafood! Well it was back in the 90's.

 

[David Morton]

Stay in the Miramar in Santa Monica on Wilshire and Ocean ( in the older suites on 2nd st) and have a Sundowner Margarita in the top bar in the Huntley (behind the Miramar) go to the Harvell ( still in SM) -a live music blues club. Any amount of good restaurants on newly revamped 3rd st.
Breakfast= Patricks Roadhouse on PCH.

 

[Grady]

I was just in LA last weekend. Purchase a Garmin Nuvi GPS. 12 Lane freeways of which your in 6 with many other cars. Learn about HOV lanes and how to exit them. On a 49 mile or so drive from LAX to Corona, I changed Interstates it seems 5 times and took 1 1/2 hours. Sometimes exiting to the right other times to the left.
LA offers nothing I like. Its rock and concrete generally brown in color and no water and people living on top of each other. I look out the window here and see lush dark green and a 40 foot waterfall. Maybe N. California offers more in scenery and fewer people driving the freeways.

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

The Monterey week is crowded and expensive but there is a lot of stuff to see. Hotel reservations are hard to find. Most folks plan far in advance; I did, the one year I went there. I think I would go around LA rather than through it unless there was something I specifically wanted to see there- driving in LA is even worse than NYC or Washington, DC. But you should be able to find some good car destinations- look up the various museums and see where they are. There are bound to be some in the LA area.

 

[Dr. David]

I would definately go to Monterey. There are multiple events every day of the week starting on Tuesday, and multiple high-end auctions as well. I would at least go to the Rolex Historics on Saturday at Laguna Seca and the Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach on Sunday. These events are among the best in the world, like the Olympics of vintage racing and classic automobiles. If you stay in Salinas the room rate may not be quite so high, and you are not that far from Laguna Seca Raceway. Enjoy your trip!

 

[PeteB]

Peterson Automotive Museum in LA: Petersen Automotive Museum |*Petersen Automotive Museum

Last time I was in LA for business I had some free time and checked it out - well worth it. Here's a link to my photo album of the museum: pballent's Library | Photobucket

Here's one car in the museum that would have particular interest on this site:





Pete

 

[Jim Craik]

Trevor,

First off congratulation on your upcoming marrage, I know its easily the best thing I ever did!

I have to say that August is a great time to be here on the west coast. You can count on great weather and the Monterey weekend is something special. The Pebble Beach thing is very high end stuff, kind of expensive and takes all day. That said its a beautiful spot with wonderful cars that you won't see anywhere else.

I really think that the Rolex Historics at Laguna Seca are well worth the time and cost. Although its not a major social event like Goodwood, it still very fun. Additionally, there are lots of other events like the Concorso Italiano, the Quail gathering, Auctions and Tours.

I do not know if you are into sailing, but the Americas Cup starts on Aug 2nd off San Francisco. They sould be sailing all through Aug & Sept.

Driving down the Coast Highway 1 is a wonderful drive, with Point Lobos, The Nepenthe, Big Sur and Hearst Castle......but keep in mind, in August it will be full of Motor homes and people driving very slowly.

Now depending on your schedule, we live about half way between San Francisco and Monterey above Saratoga, if you need a place to stay on your journey, you are wecome to spent the night here. Maybe we can set up a BBQ with some of the local GT40s guys.

 

[Rich E.]

Monterey is a must. We stay at a bed and breakfast called St. Angela's food is amazing and they don't raise the rates for THAT weekend like most hotels down there do. Have lunch in Carmel. You'll see ALOT of rare cars and enjoy some good food. My wife and I will be there with the GT40. It'll be with the Superformance display. They use it for marketing. We get great parking.....

Might want to look into the Baja Cantina on Thursday night before the Historics. Lots of cool cars.

If you want to do Yosemite let me know. We live about 90 minutes away which is roughly half the distance between San Francisco and Yosemite. We can assist you with whatever you might need or want.

Rent a convertible.

I'm not sure what the current exchange rate is but most everything will be considerably cheaper than England IMO.

BTW, this year's marquee car is the Corvette so you'll see ALOT of those.

 

[Jimmy P]

Hi all

Going on my honeymoon at the beginning of August for 3 weeks and we are doing a fly drive along the west coast of the US. We are starting our trip in San Francisco then heading to Yosemite then back to Monterey and down the coast to LA. We finish the trip in Las Vegas.

So what I need to know is what car things should I do while I am in the states. I've never been to the west coast before and want to make sure I check off any must see car places, museums, shows etc.

Turns out that Monterey car week is on while we are there so what events in particular should I make an effort to go to, Pebble Beach concours etc.

Also I love shows like desert car kings so are there any similar style places like this that I could visit and maybe find myself my next restoration project

Trev

I've got to chuckle a bit. Has your "wife to be" read this posting? She's thinking romantic Napa Valley tours, Hot Air ballon rides, sunsets on the beach, picnics etc and you're thinking car shows, car places, museums etc. Does she have a sister?

 

[Michael Holmes]

Might I recommend stopping by Racing Division LA? We are located in El Segundo, minutes from LAX. Or facility is an old race garage where, amongst others, Cobra & BRE Datsun driver John Morton built his Can AM cars.

visit us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Racing-Division-Inc/136310653051297?ref=hl

our web site: About RDLA / Racing Division Los Angeles

Thanks for looking.

 

[TrevS]

Thanks for the replies guys, some very kind offers from a few people and some great suggestions of places to visit.

Someone asked if my other half had seen this topic, the obvious answer to that is no . She's agreed to letting me have a car day around carmel so am going to try and do either the Laguna Seca event or get to concours on the avenue to at least see a few cars and get a feel for car week depending on when we get to Monterey. I dragged her to a cold, wet and windy Donington last year for some racing so I am sure she won't mind watching some racing in the nice Californian sunshine

 

[Jim Craik]

Trevor,

In August, there is lots of California "sunshine", with the possable exception of the central California cost, including San Francisco, Monterey and Carmel!

It definatly will not rain, but San Francisco and to a lesser extent the Monterey area are known for their cold summer time fog!

Now its not always foggy and cold, but it certinally can be!

As we say, dress in "layers".

Now this is only right at the coast, just a few miles inland it will be very warm!

I know this sounds odd, but the warmer it is inland, the colder it is along the coast. Its our natural air conditioning and we love it!

I wonder how many other places in the world you can drive a few miles, even on a very hot summer day and be COLD?

Now I know California has a reputation for great beaches, and we do have great beaches, but the warm ones are all in the south! The northern beaches tend to be cold, the water even colder, plus the sharks are Great and White

As Mark Twain is credited with saying..........

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"

 

[Mike Drew]

Monterey rocks, but it's hopeless to try to do it in a day.

Not sure how enthusiastic your better half would be about getting out of bed obscenely early, but the true Pebble Beach enthusiasts are all in position before 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning to watch the cars drive onto the grass. Most have left by 10:00 a.m. to hustle back over to Laguna Seca to watch a second day of racing. Of course you're at the track all day Saturday.

Concorso Italiano (world's largest Italian car concours) is on Friday, and now there is a competing German concours as well. There's a hilarious Lemons car show on Saturday, but I'm always at the track so I've never seen it.

The Baja Cantina gathering on Thursday night is good fun--an incredible cross-section of automotive tastes, from a beautiful pre-war Packard, to street rods, musclecars, classic and modern Ferraris, and numerous GT40 replicas and Panteras and Tigers and Cobras and on and on and on...plus dynamite Mexican food.

There's a big automobelia exhibit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

And on and on and on....

I'd try to find a way to avoid going to LA, unless you had a really compelling reason to be there. I find the whole place nothing less than dreadful. I am forced to spend quite a bit of time down there, and each time I can't wait to get to the airport to fly back home to Northern California. The two parts of the state are just so different, geographically and philosophically, that for awhile there was an active separatist movement attempting to split the state in two!

You'll love Yosemite, although the crowded bits are quite crowded in the summer. 95% of the park is avoided by 95% of the visitors; 5% draws the majority. So after you've seen what everybody else is there to see, you can find peace and tranquility if you are willing to hoof it out into the back country etc.

San Franciso is the finest city in the USA. Not the most urban, but certainly the most scenic, with a somewhat European feel in contrast to other American cities. Bring good walking shoes!

One of the coolest, unknown sites in San Francisco is the cable car museum. More than a century old and still going strong, the archaic and arcane mechanism that propels the cable cars up and down the hills is laid bare before you, and you can see it in only a half hour or so. It will give you much greater appreciation when you then actually ride on the cable cars (a must).

There is an unbelievable car museum on Van Ness Avenue in downtown San Francisco, part of the Academy of Art design school. The school has some 250 classic cars, of Pebble Beach quality, and rotates 50-60 at a time through their museum, which is open only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Google it and you'll find the link--it's best to call and make an appointment just so they know you're coming.

Have fun!