Driving Down The 101

Well, mostly California State Route 1 actually, but we hit the 101 on a few occasions. So, after our last night in San Fransisco, we went to pick up hire car and after a brief panic of not being able to find the damn thing, we set of on our trip down the Pacific Highway towards Los Angeles.

This was the first time I'd driven abroad, so getting used to driving on the other side of the road from the other side of the car was a bit strange at first, but I quickly got used to it and we were rocking around the streets of Frisco on our way out the city.

The car was a Chrysler Sebring Convertible, as Leigh already pointed out. Now we paid pretty much double the price of the other cars for the benefit of getting a convertible. It still wasn't ridiculously priced (the most expensive bit was the $25 a day surcharge they added for me being under 25), but in retrospect, I wished we'd have used the money we'd spent on a different, non-convertible, better-powered car. The Sebring was laughably underpowered. It made a lot of noise under heavy acceleration, but offered very little in the way of transferring that to actual movement. To make matter worse, it handled the road like... well, most American cars, I imagine. Along the highly tight, cambered cliff-top curves of the coastal road, driving the Sebring felt like trying to throw an Ikea furniture set down a bowling alley. To rub salt into the wound, most of the time, the weather wasn't even good enough to drop the top down. It was dry and fairly warm, sure, but it was hardly the sunny Californian paradise I was expecting, so the convertible aspect of the car was a bit pointless.

But that road. That road was simply incredible and it really didn't matter what car I was driving. It had everything; typically long, straight roads that stretched out to the horizon with beatiful sweeping vistas on either side; roads through stereotypical American towns and villages; the tight curving cliff-top sections between Monterey and Cambria; the Outrun-style high wooded stretches with wood cabins lining the road. It simply was the most incredible stretch of road I've ever driven and comes highly recommended. It almost makes a trip to California worth it in itself, though I believe Leigh's brown trousers may disagree! The only thing I'd advise is to get a car with a bit more punch. Even in something relatively day to day like a Golf GTi, this road would have been an even more amazing experience.

We had a few stops along the way, including Santa Cruz, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Santa Barbara and Malibu, also passing through Monterey and the Big Sur. We stopped at a stunning cliff-top location called Ragged Point, which was by no means cheap, but an excellent location and really well furnished and tranquil with beautiful sea-views. Their restaurant also served some of the best food we had all holiday. We didn't really have much of a choice to stay here as we were losing the light on the first night of the drive and I didn't too much fancy driving the road in the dark as the fog was beginning to settle.

After Malibu on the second day, we finished our drive into Los Angeles towards our hotel in West Holywood for the final part of the holiday.