Pacific Coast Driving Trip (Part 2)

Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. Several weeks ago, we started discussing a Pacific Coast driving trip with American Tours International. And there was so much great information that we had to break it into two episodes. We'll finish this awesome trip today! 

Listen in with your travel advisors and destination experts Ryan and Julie. He's your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation and  She's your Disney loving Maryland mom of three and a specialist in family travel.  

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Transcript

Ryan: 0:00

Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. Several weeks ago, we started discussing a Pacific Coast driving trip with American Tours International. And there was so much great information that we had to break it into two episodes. Listen in with your travel advisors and destination experts ryan and julie I'm your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation and She's your Disney loving Maryland mom of three and a specialist in family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel. Julie, I cannot stop thinking about this trip that we talked about a few weeks ago. It just sounds like so much fun.

Julie: 0:52

It was. And I'm really excited to share the second half of the trip where things kind of really picked up in a little more of these iconic cities that you think of. San Francisco, Pismo Beach, and on from there.

Ryan: 1:03

so obviously folks, if you did not listen to the first half of this trip, go back a few episodes and look for the Pacific coast driving trip and start there because you're going to want to hear all about getting from Seattle to San Francisco, California. So after driving three and a half hours from Fort Bragg, your in laws arrived in San Francisco, California. where they stayed two nights at the Gallerita Park Hotel, and I bet, just like the other hotels, this was a very nice centrally located hotel.

Julie: 1:38

Yes, definitely. And like we mentioned on the last episode, some of these hotels were really, nice and some of them were kind of a little more moderate depending on what was available in the area. So as they stated, those more moderate hotels, it allowed us to book these really nice hotels in the bigger cities. Along the way, they did do a stop at Jenner by the Sea, which was a little park. It was great for picnic lunches. It was right along the shoreline. Just a really lovely place to stop and enjoy that view. Once they got to San Francisco, they went to the Fisherman's Wharf. They did have a meal at Bowdoin's, which is apparently the place to go for sourdough bread. It's not directly on the water, but you can see the water from there, especially if you're sitting up top. They said that area was a little touristy, as you would expect from being in San Francisco, but it was so nice to walk around. The other really big attraction here is Muir Woods. It's to see the Redwoods and the Golden Gate Bridge. Neither of which they actually did because they had gone to see all the Redwoods

Ryan: 2:38

Yeah, they had, they had a pretty Redwood intensive time a few days prior.

Julie: 2:42

Exactly. The really big touristy things weren't really their vibe. They ended up actually, she said, if they did it again, they would have driven across the Golden Gate Bridge, but not done a lot of the touristy stuff, just kind of driven across it. They actually got a trolley pass while they were in San Francisco. She said it was really easy to get. You could get a bus and trolley pass or just the trolley pass. And the best thing about this was that they kind of took you around the city and it was like a hop on hop

Ryan: 3:09

Yeah, absolutely.

Julie: 3:10

You could go wherever you want. I actually ended up in a harbor, where they then took a boat tour that went out and around the harbor and Alcatraz. Some people will do the tour, well then they go in and tour Alcatraz. They didn't do that part, but it is an option. You can also go down to Pier 39 when you're in San Francisco. It's really touristy, a lot of shops. And in their true fashion, they didn't spend a lot of time there because it's too touristy.

Ryan: 3:37

seem a little more authentic travelers than Pier 39.

Julie: 3:42

So some things that they did instead was they went to Little Italy and they had dinner at a place called, get this, the Stinking Rose.

Ryan: 3:48

bet there's a lot of garlic there.

Julie: 3:50

they said it was really good. Really great pizza. They stopped at City Lights, which is a really popular bookstore in the area. Walked around Chinatown. There's another version of these painted lady houses that I mentioned in the previous episode. And if you drove a certain way from San Francisco towards their next stop, which As I mentioned before, they're very into music. My mother in law's a big Tom Petty fan. At one point in time, Tom Petty had played at the Fillmore out here for two weeks. So, they wanted to go see where that was. And along the way, you could also then stop at the Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead house. So, a lot of these iconic music things along the way, too, if that's what you're into.

Ryan: 4:30

After leaving San Francisco, they had a two hour drive to very iconic California spots. Monterey, Mount Carmel, Big Sur, California. I mean, I would imagine the beach here was just amazing.

Julie: 4:46

they did a lot of stopping at beaches. On the way to Monterey. Next to their hotel, there was a little coffee shop, the Blue Bottle Cafe. They said, hey, I have to go there. Good stuff. There's another old fisherman's wharf you could walk around at. And right across from their hotel, there was a big historic area with a lot of museums, one of the oldest parks in the country. And there was actually a customs house there. So a lot of history that you could go and talk to them about, learn about that. A lot of wildlife as you walked along the trails along the water, there were Coast Guard ships there. And the other big thing here is to go over to Row, where there's shopping, hotels, all sorts of places. A touristy area, still worth going to over in Monterey.

Ryan: 5:27

After that night in Monterey area, they drove two and a half hours and arrived at Morro Bay in Pismo Beach, California for their one night stay there.

Julie: 5:39

So my mother in law said this was actually her favorite part of the trip.

Ryan: 5:43

Really?

Julie: 5:44

She said Pismo Beach was one of the best. spots that they went to. You could do the 17 mile drive, which takes you through Pebble Beach. There's a fee to drive through it, but it's stunning to see the homes, the golf course. There's just so much to do in this area. You have to go down to Carmel by the Sea. She said it's very picturesque. It's quaint. It's on the water. They went to the town where Clint Eastwood was the mayor, drove by where his office had been. They went over the Bixby Bridge, which is on the way if you were going to drive down to Big Sur, which they didn't end up doing because there was a lot of blockages in the roads from mudslides and things that had happened over the past year that were disrupting how you could travel in this area. So that's something you do have to be aware of. So they said you would kind of drive over the bridge and come back, but it wasn't worth it for them to continue to drive. They, when they went to Pismo Beach, they said it was so cool they drove through this big agricultural area, which when you're shopping in the grocery store, Ryan, which is when I always call Ryan when he's shopping in the

Ryan: 6:48

She, she does, it's act that is not even an exaggeration. In fact, last week I texted her and I said, Hey, Julie, I'm going to be at all these in about 15 minutes. So if you need to call me for anything let's have our usual conversation as

Julie: 7:01

Yeah, now's the time. So when you are at the grocery store and you see any sort of produce that is produced in California or grown in California, this is where it's grown. They said it was just, you know, these massive fields full of produce. And it was everything that we eat even here. And it was just so cool to see that. While they were here, they stayed in this hotel called the Shore Cliff Hotel. And if you're gonna stay here, it's exactly what it says it is. It sits high up on the cliff. Like, really high up. They sent me pictures from here, and I will post them on the group. And they are just gorgeous. Just amazing. Whatever you're picturing of being at the top of a cliff, it's exactly what

Ryan: 7:41

that's what it is. Ha

Julie: 7:43

said it was kind of cool though because it connected to a bunch of other hotels and you could walk through all of them, walk down this big pathway to get all the way into the town. Just a really cool thing to be able to experience. You're all the way up on this cliff but you can still access everything else. And they actually saw some whales here. Which is unusual. This trip was in September, wasn't really whale season, but very cool. The Pismo beach was just so fun. Like a smaller version of Santa Monica. They had the big sign to take pictures of, food was really good. They wish they would have had an extra day to continue to explore that area.

Ryan: 8:16

So after driving away from that area, they're driving to L. A. where they spend two nights, and that was a three hour drive. And again, they're As we talk about this trip, everything that they've done, Seattle to Los Angeles by this point, they've not driven more than three hours in a day. So a lot of their time is spent being a tourist. Two nights in L. A. at the Hilton Garden Inn, Los Angeles and Hollywood. And my guess is they did some fun stuff in L. A., but knowing them enough by now, I bet it wasn't the normal touristy stuff.

Julie: 8:51

On the way to LA, they drove through Malibu and Santa Monica and Lompoc and they stopped at all those beautiful beaches along the way. They said just iconic, what you see in the movies. It was really cool. They said you could very easily park in a neighborhood in Malibu and then walk over to the beach as opposed to having to pay for parking to get to the beaches there when they went on the Santa Monica pier, they rented bikes and wrote around. They said, you have to do this. That's what you think of when you think of the Santa Monica pier, you can go out. You can walk along the pier. There's amusement rides. They also went through Beverly Hills rodeo drive. You could get out here, walk around, but if you had to guess, you're right. They didn't do that. So we chose the Hilton garden in for them because it was really close to the, Hollywood Walk of Fame,

Ryan: 9:40

Yeah.

Julie: 9:40

Where the stars go and put their prints in. And they really wanted to be able to walk to that area. So they did it at like eight o'clock in the morning. They said that was the perfect time to go. No one was there. You could go and get your pictures. It was great. You could also walk in the opposite direction to the Hollywood Bowl, which is actually a park. So you're allowed to go in and walk around if there's no concert going

Ryan: 10:01

Yeah.

Julie: 10:01

said that was a really cool thing. Kind of like a pro tip they went to the Griffith Observatory. They said everyone should go there. You can go up into the observatory. You can see everything. That's right near where the Hollywood sign is. Just some really iconic things that you are thinking about doing in LA.

Ryan: 10:17

Any sort of sweeping, vista of L. A. is going to include that observatory.

Julie: 10:22

absolutely. You know about LA. There's a lot you can do there. So these are just things that cater to what they wanted to do. You could go to a baseball game or a football game, depending on the time of year that you're there. You could go to concerts you could spend more time on Rodeo Drive and all that shopping just a lot that you can really do there to make it worth your time.

Ryan: 10:43

So then they did a little over a two hour drive that took them down to San Diego, California Which was their ending spot and also a highlight accommodation I know they stayed for two nights at the Hotel del Coronado Which is a curio collection by Hilton and is an absolutely famous, San Diego, hotel

Julie: 11:06

yeah. So if you're in our little Disney world and you've ever seen the Grand Floridian, this is the hotel that the Grand Floridian is modeled after. And when we started planning this trip and I first proposed this itinerary to my in laws, you know, this is your big retirement trip. You're ending it in this iconic place. And that was one of the first things my mother in law said back to me was, we're going to change a couple of things, but we are keeping that hotel. And again, that's why some of those other hotels were Best Westerns or Comfort Inns so that we could get these really iconic experiences in these bigger cities. So a couple things to note, as they drove down to San Diego, they did get on the highway, which is like the first time they were on the highway this whole trip. Otherwise, they were on little roads. Once they got to Hotel Del Coronado, they really didn't leave. So they did not do a lot of seeing San Diego because for them, the Hotel was the destination. That is what they wanted to see. And it's really set up that you don't have to leave there. Interesting enough, there was an Amazon Influencers Convention going on at the same time. So, it was a

Ryan: 12:11

so random, so random.

Julie: 12:14

There are some restaurants on site that are, are must do's. There's a farm to table, seat to table type restaurant. Must do's and something cool that we had done when my mother in law retired, she retired from the school system and a lot of her co workers contacted me and said, I know that you're planning this big trip for them. What can we do for her for the trip? And we had looked at the restaurants at Hotel Del, we had picked one and they had all purchased a gift card for them to kind of end this trip on a really

Ryan: 12:43

That is such a sweet idea. I love that, Julie.

Julie: 12:48

it was a good integration for that, that end to the trip. You know,

Ryan: 12:51

did they know that before they got there or was this a surprise when they got to the hotel?

Julie: 12:57

They knew that. I, I believe. So again, they really just enjoyed the hotel. There's beaches there. There's places to walk around. There's restaurants. They said it's also right next to an Air Force base. So as you're sitting on the beach, the jet fighters are literally just coming and going all day and she was like, that was great. I just enjoyed doing that all day. So if you're looking for an iconic way to end the trip, staying at the Hotel del Coronado is the way to go. It is not a cheap destination, but it is absolutely worth it. And I can tell you that they are definitely not going to forget staying there.

Ryan: 13:29

So what's with the trip over now? So we've got flying into Seattle, renting a car, making our way down to San Diego. Remind us again, how long this trip took.

Julie: 13:43

This was a three week

Ryan: 13:44

So a three week trip with ATI, you were able to customize this completely. We want to spend two nights here, we want to spend one night here. Or, if you don't want to customize it, they have trips mapped out for you that you could use.

Julie: 13:59

When I went on American tours international, this trip was like, it started in Seattle and ended in San Francisco, but I

Ryan: 14:06

would have been a great trip in and of itself. So it was neat to be able to add this other part on.

Julie: 14:11

Yeah, exactly. We were able to add it on and I don't remember the initial length of the trip, but it was, It was not this long. It was like one night in each place, and that just wasn't the vibe that they wanted. And when you think about that, you just don't get enough time even in the destination. You spend so much time driving, you don't get enough time in there. So we really tried to work the itinerary that we had. A couple of towns were rated two nights where they could kind of relax. It also helped to do that because it helped with packing. They had time to do laundry, restock on food, when you think about the logistics of the trip, it's a lot, you're flying out there for three weeks. How can you take three weeks worth of clothing? You know, it's just a lot.

Ryan: 14:53

So one of the things that I loved is you sat down after this trip with your mother in law and did a little debrief interview. What I'll do is I'll read the questions and then you summarize her answers for the second half of the show here. So you ask them, what's the top thing that you did on this trip?

Julie: 15:10

Going into the trip, California was the focus of the trip. Coming home from the trip, the national parks in Oregon and Washington were their favorite parts. They said if they were to go back, that's where they would go. They would go back to Washington and they would go back to Oregon and, see the mountains and the national parks again, except for Forks. They

Ryan: 15:28

Ha ha, that sounded like maybe it was a dud for them. So Julie, what surprised them the most?

Julie: 15:35

Well, a couple of things. they had both done a lot of research prior to the trip and there was a lot out there about, Oh, you know, San Diego, Portland, San Francisco, lock your cars. People are going to steal things. They said they didn't experience any sort of crime, any inkling of crime. They never felt uneasy. Everyone there was so nice, helpful, and wanted you to feel welcome. They were happy you were visiting their city. So if you have any sort of uneasiness around the safety, that was not a concern at all. They said they, they knew that the scenery at the national parks was going to be beautiful, but it really felt unexplainable. And that when you're driving along and you see places that you think you might want to pull off, just do it. That's where you're going to get the most beautiful views, most beautiful pictures. You don't need a fancy camera. They took all their pictures on their iPhones. She said it really felt like they had a chance to step out of their life. And it was the most amazing. thing to see everything that they saw.

Ryan: 16:35

because this is a transition trip, right? This is a trip to celebrate retirement. So now we're, we're leaving our jobs. And we're having this experience and then we're coming home to something new. I know it's not as romantic as that, but in my mind, I kind of like that idea of a

Julie: 16:51

It was. It was like that. She said when she came home from the trip, she forgot she even had worked at one point. Wow, that seemed so long ago because this was such a disconnect from their regular life.

Ryan: 17:03

Huh. Yeah.

Julie: 17:07

A couple of things. So they wish they had more time in Olympic National Park. There was just so much to see there and they only had one overnight. The problem though is that there's not a lot of lodging. It's very rustic lodging. So it wasn't a place that on paper seemed like a place that they wanted to stay more than one night. Now they know that they would definitely want to do that more. They also said, so this trip was three weeks long. She said, this needs to be four weeks. This needs to be a four week trip or two, two week trips.

Ryan: 17:39

Breaking up that Seattle to San Francisco or San Francisco to, San Diego then, maybe having some, some more breathing room there.

Julie: 17:46

Yeah. That's what they said. They kind of drove through Malibu, Santa Barbara. She said they were stunning, but they kind of just, breezed through them and they do wish that they had more time to kind of stop. Even though they did do a lot of stopping and enjoying, there's just so much that they could do more.

Ryan: 18:01

So Julie, last question that you asked her this being a three week trip and knowing that you're driving but you're also flying to get to your car, so you can't pack the car right away, packing tips for a big trip like this?

Julie: 18:16

First, plan to do laundry. So anytime they had two nights in the same city, they were doing laundry. It was also a little complicated because they were going to be in different climates, starting up in Seattle and then coming all the way down the coast like that. So instead of taking a heavy coat, they did a lot of layers, fleece, raincoats, couple long sleeves. But something really interesting was The way that they pack their suitcases. I thought this was so genius. They each had a carry on size suitcase and then a big size suitcase. So in each of their own carry ons, they had all their toiletries and anything that they would need overnight. And then they would put the clothes they would need for the overnight. in those. And then keep everything else in the big suitcase. So every time they went into a new hotel, they just took their little ones and kept the big one in the car. I was like, Oh, that's so genius. So you're not carrying all this stuff every time. You know, take some planning. Packing cubes are great for that. But yeah, they also said, this is not about packing, but just a fun little side note. They drove, the car they rented was a Prius.

Ryan: 19:14

Yeah.

Julie: 19:15

the reason they did that,

Ryan: 19:16

good. That's smart.

Julie: 19:17

Yes, the reason they did that was because it got ridiculously good gas mileage and gas was so expensive out there. So yes, you have to consider renting a car, but also consider exactly what type of car that you are renting.

Ryan: 19:29

Wow. Julie, what a trip.

Julie: 19:31

You're telling me. Yeah,

Ryan: 19:33

So thinking about. ATI, if you were to do a trip like this, where excites you?

Julie: 19:43

Like what destination? Oh, gosh, so many for so many different reasons. I would love to go see the Seattle Portland area. I think that almost draws me a little bit more than the big California cities. I don't love big cities, big crowds other than Disney World. So I, I think that Seattle Portland area would really appeal to me.

Ryan: 20:06

So I've got two. Definitely New England, I think, would be a no brainer when it came to doing something like this, the fall. And then I also know, from looking at more regionally in my neck of the woods they have bourbon trail trips.

Julie: 20:22

there you go.

Ryan: 20:22

trips, of the bourbon area, Kentucky, Tennessee, that really excites me. That,

Julie: 20:28

That would be awesome. And you know, when you're on your New England trip, it's just going to extend down to Maryland, which,

Ryan: 20:35

That's what I hear.

Julie: 20:37

and fun fact, if you go back and listen on one of Ryan's road trips, he did stop in Maryland.

Ryan: 20:42

did and had authentic Maryland crab cakes

Julie: 20:45

you go. Authentic

Ryan: 20:46

me I can't have crab cakes outside of the state of Maryland.

Julie: 20:49

If a trip like this sounds like something that you are planning for your future, please reach out to us. This is a really fun itinerary to put together and it is so much more affordable than you think. If you were to Google, Hotels in Eureka, Hotels in Coos Bay, Hotels in San Diego, it would take you a lot

Ryan: 21:08

spending forever trying to figure out where this is the genius of of A. T. I. They create it for you. And then you can build from there. Yeah

Julie: 21:33

as far as waiting until retirement, did you think that was the right time to go? And she said, Absolutely. I she didn't feel like they missed out on anything by waiting that long. And it also allowed them to have the time to spend that they wanted to spend. Since she wanted to add on an extra week anyways.

Ryan: 21:51

We would love to work with you and create a customized itinerary for your vacation and take the stress of planning away so you can focus on the fun and the memories. You can reach out to me, Ryan, at CreatingMagicVacations. com.

Julie: 22:05

Or you can reach me at Julie at creatingmagicvacations. com.

Ryan: 22:10

We look forward to talking to you next week on All Things Travel.