San Jose to Los Angeles trip: 101S to 1S to 101S
 

So I wanted to take an unconventional route to L.A. this weekend. I understand this will make the drive longer, yet it will also be way more scenic and refreshing, which is kind of why I want to do it. Below are some questions I have.

• Have you guys driven this route?

• I am thinking of leaving at around 5/6 AM on a Friday.
  Is that early enough to avoid slow people, prius's for example?

• What time would you leave?

101 South to 1 South, back on to 101 South:
http://goo.gl/maps/KIwWg
[ame="https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=san+jose,+ca&daddr=35.8805692,-121.450863+to:Los+Angeles,+CA&hl=en&ll=34.987253,-120.366211&spn=0.928204,2.028351&sll=36.359375,-120.962219&sspn=1.824725,4.056702&geocode=FfrAOQId 1Ae8-Cn1P_mK5MqPgDF7cZ_KCoyduQ%3BFXl-IwIdkc7C-CkRlrOPsaKSgDE5Aw2X1ShyrA%3BFYqYBwIdm77z-CkT2ifcXcfCgDH0CEYlb98v4g&oq=los+ang&mra=dpe&mrsp= 1&sz=9&via=1&t=m&z=10"]San Jose, CA to Los Angeles, CA - Google Maps[/ame]


Thanks.

That route you have planned out is a very cool route. I've gone a similar way to San Luis Obispo, but have not done it all the way to LA (but I've done LA back to the bay area via 101, so I guess its similar).

Are you trying to get to LA by a certain time? On my trip to SLO, my wife and I took our time and made a few stops to take in views/stop by parks/grab "interesting" grub/ check out that obscure historical marker, etc. and took pretty much the whole day (~7 hrs).

If you're trying to avoid traffic/slow cars, I'd say don't even worry about it. It shouldn't be a problem if you're doing it on a weekday. You will get stuck behind some slow cars regardless, (mostly tourists, the locals like to speed, most of it is 2-lane, with opportunities to pass ones in a while) so if you find yourself behind a slow car, just relax and look to your right and enjoy the view, they'll turn off eventually. Not sure about now, but about 6 mos. ago, there were still patches of construction, with 1-lane stretches to be shared by both lanes and patches of gravel.

Couple of cool places to stop and check out along the way: Big Sur, Hearst Castle & Morro bay.

Also found this helpful: http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/Hwy1BigSur.htm

Have fun!

I was thinking about driving down to LA on 1 stopping in the SLB area. Are there any areas of 1 to skip and use 101? Any areas to avoid in a low car? Not super worried about that though.

Perfect man! Thanks for your help and suggestions

SLB... do you mean SLO? I think if you take 1 south, it ends up running right into San Luis Obispo (if that is what you meant).

Yeah.. lol

Take the route he outlined above and you'll be totally fine. Definitely a route to take at least once in a lifetime.

I've done it, I'm going to try never ever taking 5 again if I can help it, especially now that I've got an FRS to do it in. (Did it in a TSX)

No, by the time you hit the fun parts it will be early morning, the road is world famous you will get stuck behind someone but many slowpokes pull over to take in the scenery (and some actually pull over out of courtesy!) so it isn't so bad.

You're leaving at a reasonable hour, I left probably around 8 to get to Anaheim and it was dusk when I finally arrived, you will hit LA traffic, especially on a weekday (for me it was Oxnard onwards).

If you want some clear road twisty racecar fun, it ain't going to happen unless you leave around 2 or 3 in the morning or the night before (it'll take you a good hour or two to even get anywhere remotely fun).

Don't worry about how fast you're going, take in the scenery and enjoy the switchbacks at a nice legal pace and you'll have a blast (assuming traffic isn't awful).

I'm not worried about driving any of the roads fast. I get my fix on that at autoX! I just want to see the awesome scenery I've never seen.

One thing to be careful on the 1 -- FOG. Early morning fog is a pain in the ass. Be careful. I'm also going to take this route sometime this year with my car.

Me and my gf took the trip to LA last Christmas break. We drove down using 1S, started around 10am from Monterey and we didn't reach LA before dark (we stopped at a couple vista points). We were at Santa Barbara at 5pm and since it was already dark, we moved to 101S all the way to LA. And on the trip back, we took 1N from Manhattan Beach, had lunch at Santa Barbara and continued using 101N to San Jose. So we covered all highway 1 and 101 from San Jose to LA. It was a great trip.

From my experience, it would take 10-12 hrs if you take highway 1 all the way and base on your map, I think it'd take 7-8hrs for you to reach LA.

Hope this helps. :)

What part of San Jose do you live in? It would be a hell of a lot more interesting to take 17 to 1 instead of 101 to 156 to 1...but if you live in south SJ like I do, it will add a pretty good chunk of time to go north just to go south again. Then again, you might have to leave even earlier than your 5-6 AM plan, because there is morning traffic from Santa Cruz to Castroville on 1...

I drove that route back from Santa Barbara, it's a good drive. Takes longer than the typical route down 5, but it's so much more enjoyable.

I used to live in SLO and have done that drive from SLO drove to LA many times. Its a pretty nice drive once especially once you get down past Santa Barbara, tons of cool beaches and places to stop for pics or food, etc. Decent amount of cops as well so bring a radar detector. As for Highway 1 from Carmel to SLO that is a long ass drive. There will be tons of tourists taking cell phone pictures while driving in their rented V6 mustang convertibles. One of the most beautiful sections of road I have ever been on from a scenery standpoint though

I'm gonna do this trip next week Sun/Mon. Gonna spend Sunday night in SLO. Thanks for the tips and OP for making the thread. Gonna spend a few days in LA then just take 5 back home.