road trip from san francisco to los angeles

Our 10-day (turned 12-day) road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles was a hybrid themed trip combining both big city tourism and coastal nature adventures. We had initially planned this trip back in 2019, but unfortunately had to cancel our plans to go in early 2020 due to the pandemic. Many years later, we finally made it happen!!!

Our overarching plan was to fly into San Francisco, spend a few days in the city, and then rent a car and slowly make our way down the coast to Los Angeles (LA). We planned to fly directly back home from LA, but if you read until the end, you will see that the return trip did not go exactly as planned (haha).

We went on this trip in late June 2024, which ended up being quite chilly in Northern California but got warmer as we reached Los Angeles. The cool air in NorCal was actually quite nice but we were not expecting it at all, so we definitely under-packed. If we were to do this trip again, we would still go at the same time, but with a few extra layers 🙂

Day 1 – San Francisco

^{Ferry Building (Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market), Union Square, Chinatown, Little Italy, Embarcadero}

I (Lilian) flew into SF early to spend the weekend in the city alone before meeting up with Jiajia. I arrived on a Friday night and went straight to the hostel I was staying at – the ITH San Francisco Pacific Tradewinds Hostel located in Chinatown. Accommodation-wise, this was one of the cheapest places in the city, where I stayed for about $50 CAD per night for a single dorm bed. The location was very convenient, being located within walking distance of many popular tourist attractions in the city. I was able to take daily walks in the morning and evening to the pier (and felt safe doing so alone), which was very nice 🙂 Although this place has great reviews, I felt like it lacked the character of a typical hostel. Many of the people staying at the hostel kept to themselves, or seemed to be passing through the city for work or school rather than travel, so the community vibe of the hostel wasn’t quite there. I also had to share my space with some straaaange people, but maybe it was just the flavour of the week 8) Overall, it ended up being a decent place to stay as a solo traveler.

My first day in SF was a jam-packed day with lots of walking (I clocked in at over 40,000 steps!). I started my morning by walking over to the Ferry Building. Inside, there were many food options and handful of cute shops worth visiting (my favourite being the Fog City Flea Trading Post). I grabbed a morning coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee, which is a popular California-based coffee shop. The Nola is their most popular drink, and the barista recommended getting it iced – it was really tasty and not too sweet!! I also ended up coming back another time for Acme Bread, where I had the best cheese sourdough in my life :’)

I was also lucky to run into the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market just outside the Ferry Building. The Farmer’s Market runs every Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday morning, and has many fresh fruit/vegetable stands as well as food options. Since I couldn’t take anything home, I opted to purchase a couple peaches for the road. I also had the chance to try the infamous chilaquiles from Primavera, which of course had a very long but well-worth line-up.

After filling up at the farmer’s market, I headed over to Union Square. Here, you can find many big brand shops such as Nike, Apple, and Neiman Marcus, as well as a mall (Westfield San Francisco Centre). I didn’t spend too much time here, but if you’re in a shopping mood, this could be a good place to spend an afternoon. The Union Square itself is also a nice plaza to sit and chill at, with chairs/tables as well as grassy patches. While you’re in the area, you can also check out the famous Powell Street cable car, which runs from around the Fisherman’s Wharf to Powell and Market Street.

Moving on, I walked over to the neighbouring Chinatown. The Chinatown in SF is known to be the oldest and most established Chinatown in North America! On my way over, I passed by Boba Guys to pick up a refreshing bubble tea drink – their fruity drinks are sooo good. I then walked down Grant Avenue, which was nicely decorated with lanterns and little shops on both sides. I had some mid day snacks here, which included some dim sum from Good Mong Kok Bakery and fried chicken drumsticks from New Golden Daisy. The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory is also a must visit in the area – you get to see the process of fortune cookie making, which was super cool. As a bonus, you also get a free sample of their fortune cookie, which, for some reason, was SOO good that I had to buy some more for the road.

Next, I headed over to Little Italy. My first stop was the City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, which was a very hip and cute bookstore with a huge collection of books. Then, I walked down the bustling Columbus Avenue to Washington Square, which was a cute city park for hanging out. Finally, I headed over to Coit Tower via Telegraph Hill for some beautiful city views. It costs $10 to get to the lookout at the top of the tower, which would definitely have been worth it, but unfortunately I had arrived past their early closing time of 4PM. The views were still amazing at the base of the tower though, and I got to see the classic Bay area fog over the ocean, which was cool 🙂

Since I had some late mid-day snacks, I didn’t feel like a full dinner, so I grabbed some custard and coconut tarts from the elusive but legendary Golden Gate Bakery in Chinatown before heading back to my hostel for a much-needed walking break. These custard tarts are probably some of the best I’ve ever had – I would highly recommend trying them, that is, if you can catch them during their ~*mysterious*~ open hours. If you wanted to opt for a dinner instead, there are a ton of cute places (with patios!) along Columbus Avenue in Little Italy that looked delicious 🙂

After re-energizing at home, I ventured back out in the evening for a beautiful 10 km sunset run along the Embarcadero. The route to and from Oracle Park to Fisherman’s Wharf was just nearly 10 km, which made for a perfect loop. Coming from Calgary, it was a breath of fresh air to be by the ocean breeze late at night, and it was the perfect way to end a long day out.

Day 2 – San Francisco

^{Golden Gate Park, Painted Ladies, Japantown, Benchmark Climbing, Trader Joe’s}

I spent most of my second day exploring Golden Gate Park and its surroundings by bike/foot. I started the day early by transiting to Golden Gate Tours & Bike Rentals at opening (9AM). The bus system was fairly easy to navigate and luckily they accepted cash on board (since I didn’t have a tap card), but the population of passengers were definitely quite sketchy at times, especially going along Market St. Once I got to the bike rental shop, I was greeted by the friendly owner, who kindly set me up with a map and guided me through some options of how I could spend my day. He went over all the best bike path options with me, which was super helpful, and then sent me on my way.

As suggested, I biked down the main pathway on John F Kennedy Dr and branched out as I went along to see all the attractions within the park. Since I got to the park early, some places were not open yet so I had to visit them on my way out. To highlight some of the main attractions within the park:

• Conservatory of Flowers – a really awesome greenhouse with many exotic species of plants! I ended up spending an unexpected amount of time in here just being enthused with all the beautiful and rare species of plants on display.
• San Francisco Botanical Garden – a beautiful and peaceful garden with many diverse landscapes. I spent about an hour in here and was only able to get through half of the garden, so garden lovers could easily spend many hours in here.
• Japanese Tea Garden – a small but very elegantly landscaped Japanese-style garden with a tea house inside. The food and beverages at the tea house were quite underwhelming, and the garden itself was quite crowded as well given its size. This was skippable for me having been to Japan, but would be a unique and worthwhile visit for anyone who has never been to a Japanese Garden.
• de Young Museum – located in the same loop as the gardens. Can’t speak to it as I didn’t visit inside but it has great reviews!
• Blue Heron Lake – a cute lake surrounded by a picturesque walking path. I saw many people rowing around in boats and found out they have boat rentals which I would have loved to do!
• Bison Paddock – exactly what it sounds like – an enclosure where you can see many bison roaming around.
• Dutch Windmill – not the most exciting landmark (just a large windmill), but it is surrounded by a cute park with colourful flowers – worth the visit!

Of note – on my way down, I made a little detour to Pineapple King Bakery for the best pineapple bun I have ever had (and I’ve had lots). I parked my bike at one of many bike racks within the park and walked into the Central Sunset neighbourhood. I ordered the pineapple bun with guava butter, and OMG, it was SOO good. The area also has many good food options for a sit-down lunch, but the pineapple bun ended up keeping me full for the afternoon.

After I reached the west end of the park, I turned left and biked southbound along the beach on Upper Great Hwy. This road was blocked off for pedestrian and bike use only, so it was nice to be able to bike freely down wide open lanes whilst admiring the ocean view. The trail goes all the way down to the San Francisco Zoo, which is about a 10-15 min bike ride from the park. I turned around about halfway down, and finally made my way back to return my bike. All in all, I ended up spending about 5-6 hours going around the park. I definitely could have spent longer exploring certain areas, but I had a few more things planned for my day so I had to get a move on 🙂

Next on the agenda was to visit the Painted Ladies. I walked there via Haight St, which had a lot of cute shops and food/snack options. I also passed through the Panhandle, which was a unique elongated park with a shaded path and lots of chilling areas. The Painted Ladies was CROWDED. Thankfully, the viewpoint is situated on a hill, so you can get some unobstructed photos of the houses. Honestly though, I felt a little underwhelmed by the landmark, especially after having seen so many pictures of it already. So IMO, worth passing through, but wouldn’t go out of my way to see it.

My next stop was Japantown! My main objective here was to hit up Japan Center – it is the home to many cute Japanese shops, and more importantly, food and desserts. I am a sucker for stationary shops and found my new favourite pen at one of the stores here :). For snacks, I ended up grabbing a hojicha cream puff from Jina Bakes and a fruit tea from Yifang, but honestly, you can’t go wrong in here. There are also many restaurants here for sit-down meals and a supermarket (Nijiya Market) for quick on-the-go options.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at Benchmark Climbing on Van Ness Ave. This was a very nice bouldering gym with great facilities, and plenty of climbing to fill up a 2-3 hour session. The grading seemed a bit steeper than what I am used to at home, but it could also have just been the difference in setting style (and the horrible rental shoe rubber that made it impossible to step on anything). The facility also had a weight gym and a shower in the changing room (for dirty feetsies), which was a nice surprise 🙂

By the end of the session, I was exhausted. I walked over to the nearby Trader Joe’s to grab some snacks for our upcoming road trip, then slowly made my way back to my hostel, where I retreated for the evening. Of course, I had to sneak out another sunset walk to the Embarcadero before the end of the day.

Day 3 – San Francisco

^{Alcatraz Island, Fisherman’s Wharf}

My third day began with a tour to Alcatraz Island, which was previously home to the United States Penitentiary, a maximum security federal prison. The only way to get on this island is through a tour – I booked the Alcatraz Day Tour with Alcatraz City Cruises. This was a really great experience from start to finish – it included transportation to and from the island, an independent audio guide, and various volunteer-led events throughout the day. The audio tour was great as it organically led listeners through the entire facility in a sequential fashion. I did also attend a couple events in addition to the audio tour, where I got to learn more in depth about the history of the penitentiary as well as some famous escape stories from the past. As someone who is not usually interested in history and museums, this was a very interesting landmark to visit and I would highly recommend it to anyone passing through SF. I ended up spending the entire morning from my 8:40AM departure until around noon exploring the island.

After returning from Alcatraz, I met up with Jiajia, who finally arrived in SF to join me on the trip! Since he only had one afternoon in the city, we decided to hit up the most iconic Fisherman’s Wharf. The centre of all the action was at Pier 39, where all the shops, snacks, and treats are concentrated. The atmosphere was super vibrant even on a Monday afternoon, and it was nice just to walk around. We enjoyed the sea lion viewing area, where we got to watch the resident sea lions scream and play with each other. Our favourite spot, however, was just off to the side of Pier 39 – at Musée Mécanique. This was a fascinating arcade featuring antique, coin-operated games. There were so many unique games to enjoy, single and multiplayer, and each game only cost 25-75 cents to play (there are change machines for bills). It’s been so long since anything has been this cheap to enjoy, so we spent a good hour thoroughly enjoying what was probably less than $10 of games. Certified good time, would highly recommend!!!

Finally, we wanted to hit up the Exploratorium science museum nearby, but unfortunately it was closed on Mondays 🙁 It has really great reviews so hopefully we will be back another time to visit.

Our late afternoon/evening activity consisted of a non-tourist activity – watching the Stanley Cup Finals. Jiajia grew up in Edmonton, and the Oilers had made it to Game 7 of the Finals for the first time in forever, so this was a very big moment for him. As there weren’t too many good sports bar options in the area, we hit up the International Sports Bar, which was a small cozy drink-only bar. Sadly, the game results were unfavourable, so we immediately headed out for a consolation meal afterwards at Taqueria El Farolito. We were very much consoled by their food – we shared a couple tacos and a burrito and everything we ordered was SOOO good.

We ended our day at – you guessed it – the Embarcadero. We had plans to hit up Mission District in the evening but we were both tired out so decided to call an early night to prep for our road trip the next morning.

Day 4 – Santa Cruz + Monterey

^{Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Capiolta Village, Old Monterery Marketplace & Farmer’s Market, 17-Mile Drive}

We started our day bright and early, and walked to the car rental shop just as it opened around 7AM. We rented our car from Dollar Car Rental, mostly because of its convenient location in Union Square.

Heading down towards Santa Cruz, we made a few stops along the way at Half Moon Bay State Beach, Pompino State Beach, and Pescadero State Beach. You can’t go wrong stopping anywhere along the coast, though!! It was amazing how each stop we made had its own unique landscape – Half Moon Bay State Beach had some really vast greenery, Pompino State Beach had a very long and clear shoreline (we had some fun running back and forth along the coast), and Pescadero State Beach had really cool rocky features as well as beautiful natural landscapes.

the beautiful landscapes of pescadero state beach

Just before reaching Santa Cruz, we made one last stop at Natural Bridges State Beach. As with all our stops, the overlook to the ocean was beautiful! We were also treated to a unique sight of a bird colony with many nesting birds!

We drove into the city to grab lunch at Special Noodle – we were both craving some authentic Chinese food and this place hit the spot with their pan fried buns. We were served by a sweet international worker from China, who shared his immigration and long-distance relationship struggles with us (we hope he’s doing well…). After lunch, we did a bit of commercial shopping at the local Costco + Patagonia Outlet.

Our next stop was at the Santa Cruz Beach, where we walked along the beach and around the Boardwalk. The beach was quite populated with people, some braving the cold waters for a swim. There were also a ton of beach volleyball courts with not many people playing (we wished it could be us!). The boardwalk was bumpin’ – lots of snacks, shops, and amusement park rides/games. It was quite reminiscent of our own Calgary Stampede. This felt like a place where families and kids could spend a whole day hanging out, but as we were just passing through Santa Cruz for the afternoon, we decided not to commit ourselves to buying tickets. For the vibes, I treated myself to a churro from one of the churro stands – so stale, so sad. Overall, I felt that the Santa Cruz Beach was a bit overrated, although would be fun for families with kids.

Before hitting the road again, we stopped by briefly at Capiolta Beach. It was such a cute beach with good vibes! There were some really nice patios and shops that we wish we could have spent more time exploring, but unfortunately, we had to make it to our next stop. If we were to pass through again, we would probably plan to spend more of our time here over Santa Cruz Beach.

We headed straight to Monterey from Capiolta, which was about a 1-hour drive. Our first stop in Monterey was the Old Monterey Marketplace & Farmer’s Market. We were super lucky to have ended up in Monterey on a Tuesday, as this market only runs weekly on Tuesdays from 4-8PM. The market was 3-4 blocks long and had fresh fruits/veggies, pastries, international food, flowers, and arts/crafts, amongst other things. We had a good time treating ourselves to a hot girl dinner featuring a ton of stone fruits/berries (yes we also bought extras to-go), tamales, and mochi waffles.

Now with our full stomachs, it was time to hit up the famous 17 Mile Drive. Going into it, we had read many mixed reviews on whether the $12 entrance fee is worth it, with many reviews stating that the Big Sur had much better views, and that the 17 Mile Drive is just a bunch of rich neighbourhoods and golf courses. To be honest, the reviews weren’t wrong – the views were nothing too special compared to the rest of our coastal trip, but it was still enjoyable to drive through. If time permitted, I think biking through it would have been even more enjoyable.

We entered the drive through the Pacific Grove Gate. Upon entering, we were given a map with 17 points-of-interest. It’s quite a lot to stop at every single point, so we stuck to some of the more recommended stops – Spanish Bay, Bird Rock, Seal Rock, Cypress Point, The Lone Cypress, and Pebble Beach. Some of the stops were quite easy to miss so we had to keep our eyes peeled for signs! Since we entered through the Pacific Grove Gate, the last leg of the drive was mostly passing through golf courses, so we decided to exit through the Hwy 1 Gate. We took Highway 1 straight to In-and-Out Burger, where we ended our day with their famous cheeseburger and animal-style fries.

views of the 17-mile drive

We spent a couple nights, including this one, at the Monterey Hostel – one of the best and most comfortable hostels we’ve ever stayed at! It was centrally located, making it super convenient to get to some of the main attractions in Monterey by foot. Although we initially booked 2 beds in a shared room, the staff kindly upgraded us to a private room with a queen bed, bunk bed, and private washroom. The hostel had such new and modern interiors (recently renovated), cute decos, and was super clean. There was also a communal kitchen and chilling space on the main floor that we unfortunately did not get to take advantage of during our short stay – but hopefully we’ll be back again sometime!

Day 5 – Monterey + Carmel-by-the-Sea

^{Pacific Grove Marine Park, Monterey Bay Kayaks, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row, Carmel Beach}

We started off day 5 tide pooling at Point Pinos – we were lucky that low tide coincided with our morning at 8:30AM (you can check for tide information here). We were able to spot lots of sea anemones, corals, crabs, little fish, and shellfish. The beach was quite rocky, making it difficult to navigate in flip flops, so we would recommend going in some more protective footwear (or at least shoes that stay on the feet).

spot the cute lil crabbie on the right

After tide pooling, we headed over to Monterey Bay Kayaks for one of our many anticipated activities of this trip! We were able to walk-in and rent kayaks without any reservations. Upon arrival, we received guidance on the weather conditions and kayaking radius, and were sent on our way within 30 minutes of arriving. We spent about 2-3 hours kayaking out towards the Monterey Bay Aquarium area and back, and got to see so much wildlife including sea lions, seals, and my favourite, sea otters. This was my first time seeing sea otters in the wild, and oh my gosh, they are SO CUTE. Most of the sea otters stuck together in groups around the kelp beds, and we even got to see a mother and baby otter snuggling!! TBH, one of the best days of my life. My biggest regret was forgetting to bring a waterproof case for my phone to take photos, but luckily, we got to encounter more sea otters later in our trip (stay tuned).

No trip to Monterey is complete without trying their seafood, we so grabbed lunch at Monterey’s Fish House after a recommendation from the staff at Monterey Bay Kayaks. It may have been our inexperience with ordering (we went with their fresh seafood items rather than the popular pastas), but we thought that the meal was just average – not bad but nothing too special.

Next, we headed to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium! We had no idea, but this aquarium is ranked as one of the top aquariums in the world. It definitely lived up to its hype – there were so many grand displays of a wide variety of sea creatures. The exhibits were laid out in a way where we got to experience different “regions” as we walked through, and there were also a lot of shows throughout the day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the aquarium until around 2, so we only had 3 hours to explore before closing – this was just enough to walk through the whole aquarium without having time to drop by any of the shows. Despite this, we still had an amazing time! The highlight for me was the jellyfish display – there were some REALLY cool flashy jellyfish that I have never seen at any other aquariums (and I’ve been to a lot). Jiajia’s highlights were all of the really ugly fish (there were many lol). This definitely could have been a whole day activity, especially for marine animal enthusiasts!!

some of the displays at the aquarium

After the aquarium, we walked around Cannery row – this was a really cute area with lots of little shops and restaurants to enjoy. We decided to stop by Ghiardelli to enjoy a pre-dinner ice cream sundae while admiring the ocean view 🙂 For dinner, we walked over to La Bahia Mexican Restaurant, which was just off Cannery Row. We loved this place – aside from the delicious complimentary nachos, their tacos were also amazing. After we had their classic trio taco flight, we went on to order more tacos since it was so good. We also tried the Michelada since we saw so many people drinking it, but it didn’t taste as amazing as it looked (worth a try though!).

la bahia did not disappoint

As the day was winding down, we decided to head over to Carmel-By-The-Sea. As the town was already closing up, we stopped by Carmel Beach to enjoy their sunset. It was a very beautiful beach, although we would say it was nothing extra special compared to others we had been to. Had time permitted, we would definitely have loved to spend some time exploring around downtown Carmel as it looked v cute!!

Day 6 – Big Sur + San Luis Obispo

^{Big Sur, Downtown SLO Farmer’s Market}

We hit the road early the next morning around 6:45AM to get a head start on our big day! We quickly grabbed some coffee and brekkie at Captain + Stoker and headed south towards Big Sur. A note about visiting Big Sur – there have been a lot of closures along Highway 1 due to rockslides and road construction, so always check the conditions before you go. We were super lucky that part of Big Sur had just opened up prior to our trip, but the highway was still closed off past the Esalen Institute down south. This meant that we had to budget extra time to drive back up and take the island highway down to our next stop. Due to these circumstances, we didn’t have enough time to fit in a visit to Point Lobos Natural Reserve, which we read amazing reviews about – the main points not to miss include China Cove, Bird Island Lookout, and Sea Lion Point (a great spot for sunset). With an extra day, this could have been great to combine with a half day in Carmel-By-The-Sea.

We headed straight down Highway 1 toward our first stop at the Garrapata State Park. We stopped for views at China Vista Point and Garrapata State Park Vista Point – this is where the scenic views really start to hit on the drive, and I think these were some of my favourite views along Big Sur. The views at the two stops were pretty similar, but it was hard to resist stopping at every point to take in the beautiful view!! We also stopped at the Garrapata State Park Bluff Trail, where we walked along a short loop by the shore – the views and landscape were amazing and so unique! This had to be the most beautiful morning walk of our lives.

the most beautiful morning walk of our lives

Our next stop was the Calla Lily Valley. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch the right season for them, so there were no lilies out, but it was still a very beautiful valley nonetheless! To catch the Calla Lily season, you would have to visit between mid-January and April, with mid-February to mid-March being the peak season.

Next, we drove down to the iconic Bixby Bridge, passing the Rocky Creek Bridge on our way there. The Bixby Bridge Vista Point is just north before the bridge and can often be very crowded, so it’s helpful to arrive early before the crowds. Since we missed the turn-off for the parking lot, we actually ended up finding a very nice viewing point just south past the Bixby Bridge – there was a little area to pull over on the shore side, which led to a discrete trail up to a spectacular hilltop viewpoint!

As the fog started to roll in, we slowly lost sight of the ocean view. Our next stop was the Hurricane Point Vista Point, which is supposedly a gorgeous view point; however, by the time we pulled over, we were amidst a sea of fog and found ourselves in one of the strongest windstorms we’ve ever experienced. Our car was quaking and shaking as we were inside, and we were soo freaked that we were literally going to be blown off the edge of the cliff. How ironic that we were at Hurricane Point, haha. We hid in our cars for about 15-20 minutes, then decided to drive on to our next point hoping for a better microclimate.

the clouds came in … and then we could see nothing

Lo and behold, not even 5 minutes south of our terrible windstorm, the clouds began to clear out and we were greeted with a beautiful view at the Great Sur Vista Point. We both let out intense sighs of relief, and gathered ourselves before heading over to our next stop.

We continued down the coastline and passed by Point Sur State Historic Park. It was unfortunately closed on the day that we passed through (they’re only open Wed/Sat/Sun), so we were only able to get a view of the Point Sur Lighthouse from afar.

The Pfeiffer Falls & Valley View Trail was the next stop down the coastline. We stopped at the main parking lot by the Big Sur Lodge, where we were able to have close access to the trailhead to start our hike. Both trails start at the same trailhead, and then split off near the end to the Valley View viewpoint and the Pfeiffer Falls viewpoint. The trail itself was not difficult at all – a fairly leisurely walk with some mild inclines along the way. We decided to go up Valley View first – the viewpoint was nice, but to be honest, it couldn’t compare to the views we get in the Rockies back at home. There was a very peaceful spot with a bench though, where we enjoyed some fruits before heading over to Pfeiffer Falls. Pfeiffer Falls was also a bit of a bust – to be fair, we went during a pretty dry season, but the falls were far from grand. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the hike overall – we encountered some fun wildlife along the way and it was a nice change in pace from the constant driving and stopping along the road in the morning.

a little underwhelmed by the view points

an enjoyable walk though (spot the friends)

Our next stop was close by – just across the highway at Pfeiffer Beach. As it was about lunch time, we brought in our packed lunch and snacks to enjoy by the beach. As we entered the beach though, we were surprised at how extremely windy it was – the winds were so strong that they were blowing strong columns of sand onto our legs at high speeds, and it hurt so much I had to use a towel to protect my legs LOL. Luckily, there were a lot of tall rock features around, so we hid in a nook to eat.

After lunch, we decided to explore the beach a little. We saw some people climbing around the rocky features on the beach so, being the climbers that we are, we went to check it out. The rocks were SO cool, and it ended up being so much fun to just wander around the rocks beyond the beach. We had the whole area to ourselves as most people only peered around the corner – we climbed in much deeper and went up, down, and around, getting to many different areas of the coastline. It was never too sketchy as long as we were careful with our footing, and we were able to get everywhere with just our flip flops (although better footwear would have been ideal). We would recommend this to anyone who is comfortable with a bit of climbing!!

rocks = our happy place

After an exhilarating time at Pfeiffer Beach, we headed down toward one of our final stops, Partington Cove, stopping by briefly at the Vista Point on the way to admire the view. To access the Partington Cove Trail, we parked our car just along the side of the road. The trail was short but quite steep, and lead to a really cute tunnel and beautiful viewpoint at the end. There were also some rocky areas here for exploration, which lead to some hidden spots in the back. I was even lucky to spot a little tide pool with some sea anemones and urchins! After spending some time here, we raced back up the steep trail (to shorten our suffering) and back to our car.

the tunnel and cove views

tidepool finds!

Our final stop along the coast was at the McWay Falls View Point. We didn’t stop in the right spot so we missed seeing McWay Falls, but the view was gorgeous nonetheless! Sadly, this marked the end of our Big Sur journey. We drove all the way down to the Esalen Institute and were greeted with the road closure, so we turned around and headed back toward Carmel-By-The-Sea to take the alternate Hwy 101 toward San Luis Obispo. Since we hit up all the viewpoints on the way down, we didn’t end up stopping at all on our way up.

Of course our day didn’t end there. We had to hit up one last activity for the day – the Downtown SLO Farmers’ Market. We got so lucky with markets on our trip, as this one only runs on Thursdays from 6-9PM. This market was probably our favourite one on this trip – it was similar to the Monterey market in that there was lots of food, snacks, and crafts, but just on a much larger scale. It was also located in downtown, so there were also lots of shops along the street as well. We helped ourselves to another hot girl/boy dinner consisting of BBQ meat, corn, more stone fruits (lots of it), and desserts. We encountered a Turkish delight store, Lokum, where we got to try Turkish delights + coffee for the first time, and it ended up being really good! This was a perfect way to end the night before retreating to our hotel in Morro Bay.

SLO market shenanigans and its happy participants

We stayed the next couple nights at the Morro Bay Beach Inn. This was a budget accommodation (as the nice hotels in the area were quite pricey), but the location was very convenient, being a walking distance to the oceanside in Morro Bay. The accommodation itself was quite old but spacious and clean enough, although the main downside to being so close to the bay is that we could hear the sea lions barking all night. Overall, we had a pretty comfy stay at this inn.

Day 7 – Pismo Beach + Morro Bay

^{Sandbar Surf School, Dinosaur Caves Park, Downtown Pismo Beach, Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, Avila Beach, Morro Bay Embarcadero, Downtown SLO}

Day 7 started off at the Sandbar Surf School in Pismo Beach – we took the 8:30AM open group lessons to catch the morning waves! This was a great intro class for beginners like us – we started off practicing our form on the beach, and then transitioned into the water. Although it was super hard to catch a good wave, we got tons of good opportunities, and I would say we improved from our first time back in Tofino 7 years ago 😉 Surfing wasn’t exactly Jiajia’s cup of tea, but I had so much fun and would definitely go back to this place again in the future! Pismo Beach was also a beautiful beach and would be lovely even to just hang around.

The surf shop guys were super passionate about tacos, so of course naturally we had to ask for their recommendation. We were sent to a super low-key market with a taco booth called La Tapatía, where we had to go inside the shop to first purchase a voucher for the tacos, then retrieve the tacos from the booth. The tacos were unbelievably good, and it also came with complimentary sides – honestly it left me wanting more but we had to ration ourselves so we could try more foods.

legendary taco joint

We spent the rest of our morning hanging around Pismo Beach. We visited Dinosaur Caves Park, which was a really nice park for a beachside walk. There, we saw the cutest dog walking club hanging out and ended up discreetly circling around our favourite dogs. After the park, we headed over to Downtown Pismo Beach, where we walked around the shops and boardwalk along the beach. The vibes were super cute in this area! We were in the mood for some fish and chips (as this seemed to be the “specialty” of the area), so we decided to grab a late lunch at El Pizmo Fish Company. They had a delicious assorted fish and chips dish as well as some really well-marinated poke options (we went with their soy ahi tuna). The poke even came with chips, which paired really well! After our delicious meal, we topped things off with a juicy cinnamon bun and coffee from Old West Cinnamon Rolls.

cute dogs and good food … life is good

Our last stop before heading out from Pismo Beach was the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. This was a super cool area where we got to drive from one end of the beach through to the other (something we never knew was possible!). We definitely doubted whether our hatchback would be able to make it through the sand, but it made light work of the terrain. There were a lot of people stopped along the beach with their cars, just chilling there for the day. It was such a cool concept to be able to pull up with your whole beach set-up, right by the shore!

On our way back to Morro Bay for the evening, we decided to drop by the little town of Avila Beach. The town had super cute streets and houses – a really sweet and chill local neighbourhood vibe. It wasn’t super touristy, but it was somewhere where we could see retirement life being super enjoyable. We were so exhausted from the morning that we ended up just reclining our seats and taking a much-needed nap in the car (probably a food coma from all the carbs consumed from earlier, haha). The neighbourhood view from the car was so nice and relaxing, which honestly made this a core memory LOL.

After some rejuvenating time back at our hotel, we went out for a walk along the Morro Bay Embarcadero before dinner. Most of the shops were closed by then, so we walked toward Morro Rock to check it out. Little did we know, we were about to go on the CUTEST WALK OF OUR LIVES. At the Morro Bay T Pier, we were treated with a show of a colony of seals fishing for dinner – they were taking turns jumping out of the water to catch fish, and there were even some ocean birds joining in on the party. As we walked further along the Embarcadero, past Coleman Park, we encountered a sighting of a sea otter chilling on its back. It was SO close to the shore, and SO freaking cute. I wished so badly that I had binoculars to see those cuties even closer (so I guess I’ll be back with binoculars another time). As we kept walking, we kept seeing more and more sea otters, some alone and others in groups. The absolute highlight of this walk, though, was the family of three sea otters that I saw hanging out together – I mean, I litearlly died. I could not stop watching them, and I in fact shed tears because of how cute it was. There is a location tagged on Google Maps right by where I saw this otter family tagged “SEA OTTER HEAVEN”, and yep, it’s accurate. Jiajia could not pull me away from here but alas, we had to move on.

After seeing the sea otters, Morro Rock was just fine LOL. I guess it was nice, but obviously I couldn’t stop thinking about going back to my sea otters. We walked over to the right side of Morro Rock, where there was a beach with more advanced looking surfers. Sadly you aren’t actually climb Morro Rock itself, so we turned back and said goodbye to our sea otters again on the way back to our hotel.

We decided to go back to San Luis Obispo for dinner as we really liked the vibes the prior night at the market. Even without the market, it was super lively downtown – we even ran into a live concert event in the plaza. Our main mission was dinner so we decided on a place called Bear & The Wren, which is a restaurant that specializes in Neapolitan and Detroit style pizzas. We had their highly recommended Detroit-style Bee Stang pizza, and WOW – it was legitimately one of the best pizzas we’ve ever had. It was perfectly cheesy, yet somehow light with the whipped ricotta, with a hint of sweet and spicy from the hot honey. MmMmMM.

After dinner, we retreated back to our hotel in Morro Bay for our second and final night.

Day 8 – Morro Bay + Santa Barbara

^{Morro Bay Paddlesports, Downtown Santa Barbara, West Beach}

We were originally planning to head out of Morro Bay first thing in the morning, but since we loved the sea otters so much (obviously we didn’t get enough), we started off our day with some impromptu paddle boarding by the Morro Bay Pier. We rented our boards from Morro Bay Paddlesports, who kindly set us up with paddle boards on a walk-in basis. We paddled within the bay along our walking path from the previous day, and within a short distance we were able to revisit many of our seal and sea otter friends!! We really had to put our steering skills to the test to keep our distance from all the wildlife popping up :’) Overall, it was such a peaceful and serene way to start the day, as the bay filled with morning nature sounds before the city woke up. Before we said our final goodbye to Morro Bay, we dropped by High Tide Deli & Cafe for a refreshing açai bowl.

Our plan was to head down to LA for the night, so we made a pit stop in Downtown Santa Barbara on the way. We parked our car near the Santa Barbara Public Market, where we made our first stop, then walked down State St to West Beach and back. There were many shops, snacks, and restaurants along the street (there’s even a mall), and the area was bustling with visitors. Compared to the small quaint cities we had been in for the past several days, this felt much more urban and populated (appropriately, as we approach LA!). We spent a good 3-4 hours in the area before tackling the last leg of our trip.

We finally arrived to our LA hotel in the evening – we stayed at H by H Hospitality in Koreatown. The hotel itself was just average, as we chose our place mostly based on location. We opted to stay in Koreatown as it was accessible to many great food options by foot; however, we didn’t realize how difficult it would be to find parking for our car. Which leads us to one of our biggest regrets in LA – keeping our rental car. Although many forums recommended travelling around LA by car, we found parking to be absurdly expensive. Our hotel parking alone was more than $30 USD per night; in addition to all the parking fees we accrued during the day, our daily costs probably reached almost $100 USD. Along with the stress of navigating LA traffic + finding a parking lot/spot, we felt that it would have been so much more freeing to just rideshare or walk around. Of course, we spent most of our limited time in central LA – this would have totally been different if we were planning to spend more time outside the central city.

Although neither of us were really hungry after all the food and snacking along the way, we had to make the most of all the food around us. We ended up venturing out for a late-night dinner at Hangari Kalguksu, and I am not kidding when I say that this is the BEST Korean noodle I have ever had in my life. Not only were the noodles so chewy and delicious, the soup broth was SO fragrant and addicting. Despite not even being hungry, Jiajia and I both nearly finished our massive portions of Chicken Kalguksu. We were both struggling to breathe afterwards and had to take a long digestive walk around Koreatown lol. The meal was so legendary I wanted to come back to this place again during the trip, but it was closed on the Tuesday we tried to return (literally devastated). I will be dreaming of this place until I can return one day :’)

Day 9 – Los Angeles

^{Hollywood Farmers’ Market, Hollywood Blvd, Santa Monica Beach, Little Tokyo, Downtown LA, San Gabriel}

Since we decided last minute to spend our final (or as we thought) day at Universal Studios, we had just one full day to spend to explore all of LA’s highlights. Yep – it was lots of walking!!! We started off our day at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, which runs every Sunday from 8AM-1PM. This was one of the highest rated farmers’ markets in LA, and it did not disappoint! It was the largest market on our trip thus far, and had a variety of different vendors from crafts to foods. We were able to get some snacks and drinks here before heading to our next stop nearby, the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The area was filled with attractions such as museums, gift shops, tours, and the TCL Chinese Theatre. As we didn’t plan on spending too much time here, we just walked up and down the street and spotted some celebrities along the Walk of Fame.

After visiting Hollywood, we decided to head over to Santa Monica Beach. To get there, we drove along Santa Monica Blvd, passing through Beverly Hills as well as some pretty wealthy neighbourhoods on the north side of the street. We even turned into a residential area to admire the gorgeous houses and landscaping, and wow – one can only dream :’)

Santa Monica Beach was super nice as well – the sandy beach was vast and the ocean was obviously beautiful. The beach was super lively all around – we walked along the Ocean Front Walk and passed by many groups of people hanging out and playing spike ball, beach volleyball, and even beach tennis (our first time witnessing this – it was kinda crazy?!?). We also passed by the famous Muscle Beach, where there were many fun obstacles on the beach – kind of like an adult gym playground. We had a lot of fun on the travelling rings, and Jiajia got up high on the climbing rope. The Ocean Front Walk actually connects all the way to Venice Beach, but we weren’t able to make it all the way there, so we’ll have to go back next time. Before heading to our next stop, we spent some time at the Santa Monica Pier. In addition to the amusement park, there were shops, events, and buskers that filled the pier with a very bustling vibe. It was great to walk around and just enjoy the atmosphere and events going on around the pier. We got to see a competitive beach volleyball tournament which was really cool!

good vibes at the pier

Our next stop was Little Tokyo. This was a Japanese-American district filled with Japanese shops and restaurants. To be brutally honest, this area felt really touristy and was not super enjoyable in my opinion. The shops were quite clearly geared toward tourists and didn’t feel authentically Japanese, and there were lots of people and long lines at all the popular spots. We decided to grab food at one of the popular restaurants, Daikokuya, and even that was quite disappointing – the ramen and rice bowl we had were mediocre at best and far from authentic. I personally enjoyed Japantown in San Francisco much more, as it was more low-key and true-to-culture.

After a somewhat disappointing stop, we then hit up Downtown LA next door. We didn’t spend too much time here, but we visited some highlights in the area including the Grand Central Market, The Last Bookstore, The Broad, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The bookstore was a really neat stop – this was one of the largest but also most artistic looking bookstores I’ve been to; definitely worth a visit! Unfortunately, the museums were just about to close as we passed by, but it was worth visiting just to see the cool exteriors of the museums. The admission for the museums are all free, so we will definitely be back to visit next time!

Finally, we ended our day by heading out of central LA into San Gabriel to visit Bopomofo. This is a restaurant co-owned by a Youtuber, Phil Wang, that Jiajia and I have been following for a long time, so we have been curious to try it! Since we weren’t too hungry, we ordered their corn hojicha drink and mapo tots to share. The flavours were definitely very original and unique, and we really enjoyed the novelty. After our snack, we retreated back to our hotel early to prepare for an early morning to Universal Studios.

corn hojicha latte + mapo tots

Day 10 – Los Angeles

^{Universal Studios Hollywood}

We spent all of day 10 at Universal Studios Hollywood, from open to close (9AM – 9PM). With our car, we were able to secure parking at the Jurrasic Parking lot (the closest general parking lot) upon arriving 1 hour prior to opening time. It was KEY to arrive this early as it took time to walk to the entrance, purchase our Power-Up bands, and beat the crowds! By the time the park was about the open, there was a HUGE crowd formed behind us already so we were glad to have arrived when we did.

It was a moderately crowded weekday in July but we were able to get through all of the rides and activities we wanted (some even multiple times) during the day. They had a promotion going where we got a second entry granted for free until the end of the year, but by the end of the day, we were satisfied enough where we didn’t feel like we had to go back the next day (even though we had nothing specific planned).

See my separate post, a day in universal studios hollywood, for specific details about how we navigated our day. Overall, we had a really great time spending our day at the park 🙂

Day 11 – Los Angeles

^{Chinatown, Westfield Century City, Rodeo Drive}

We are now entering the bonus content of this trip blog – we were initially scheduled to fly home early this morning, but due to an airline strike, we ended up having to stick around LA for an extra day before flying home through Las Vegas. Since we had only rented our car until this morning, we had to start our day by driving to the airport to return our rental car.

From the airport, we took an airport shuttle back to Union Station. Conveniently, this was next to Chinatown, which we hadn’t visited yet. So, we decided to walk around the area a bit and then find a spot for a hearty congee breakfast. Chinatown itself was not very exciting; there wasn’t much to see, but perhaps it was also because we were there fairly early in the morning. We stumbled upon East Garden Restaurant for food, and it was actually just what we needed in the moment to bring up our spirits from our depressing situation LOL. We ordered a classic century egg and pork congee with fried Chinese donuts as well as some fried noodles, and it was surprisingly very good and also very affordable.

After our revival meal, we couldn’t think of anything left we wanted to do in the city, so we decided to spend our day hanging out at the Westfield Century City mall. Our journey to the mall was quite an interesting one; as we were feeling quite poor from having to rebook our flights, we decided to take public transit instead of an Uber to get around. The public bus was CRAZY – growing up in Vancouver I have definitely seen my fair share of drug users and homeless people on the bus, but in LA, there was a guy straight up smoking a joint RIGHT behind us. This obviously did not sit well with a lot of people, so this led into a whole argument and situation in the back half of the bus. We never felt unsafe, but it was definitely an eye-opening experience for us.

At the mall, we decided to watch Inside Out 2, which had recently come out at the time – it was SUCH a good movie (and the theatre was great too)! We then loitered around the mall and hung out for most of the afternoon, grabbing intermittent snacks from Shake Shack, 85C Bakery Cafe, and Redstraw Tea Bar. The mall was huge and would be a great place to hang out for tourists and locals alike – the terrace and outdoor space had a great vibe, and the mall had a huge selection of shops for all-comers.

Next, we decided to walk over to Rodeo Drive. We didn’t initially plan to stop by this place on our first day, because you know – not quite at that tax bracket – but since we were in the area, we decided to check it out. It’s exactly as advertised – a street with lots of expensive shops, as well as expensive (and well-dressed) shoppers. We definitely felt out of place, and didn’t loiter around too long – just enough to get the vibe.

After our short walk through Rodeo Drive, we bussed back to Koreatown for dinner at MDK Noodles and dessert at Melo Melo. We retreated back to our hotel for the last time before our departure (for real) the next day.

last taste of LA food

Day 12 – Las Vegas

^{The Strip, Bacchanal Buffet}

Somehow, we found ourselves with a 20-hour layover in Las Vegas 8-). Conveniently, Jiajia had never been to Vegas before, and we’d been thinking about planning a trip here, so we decided to make the most of our day. We arrived in the early afternoon and headed straight to our hotel for an early check-in at the Excalibur.

As Excalibur is on the south end of the strip, we spent our entire day walking all the way up one side of the strip and down the other. As it was a whopping 45 degrees outside, we literally could not stand being outside for even a few minutes without feeling like we were about to die LOL. Luckily, many hotels are connected through indoor passageways or door-to-door via a short outdoor path. Just from walking through, we hit up many of the major hotel attractions including the Cosmopolitan’s lights, the Bellagio’s garden and fountain show, the Forum Shops at Caesars, and the Venetian canal, to name a few. As we walked through, we tried our hand at roulette a few times, and managed to come out with positive winnings 🙂

Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to see any shows (we’ll be back), but we DID hit up a buffet. We went to the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace around 4-5PM, and only waited about 10 minutes to get in. This is one of the best rated buffets in Las Vegas, but to be honest, it was not really worth the money or hype (it cost around $90 USD!). There was a huuuuge selection of food, which was really cool, but at the same time, it was overwhelming since there was no way we could actually try a meaningful portion of all the foods. It ended up being quite stressful trying to decide what was worth eating, so I almost wished that there were less things to choose from haha. By the end, neither of us could breathe and it was straight up painful to move LOL. Overall, it was worth the one-time experience but we probably won’t be back.

We ended up clocking over 30k steps just walking up and down the strip, and at night, we were able to admire the gorgeous skyline of the strip from the sky bridges. We were able to see the new Sphere, which was cool even from the outside, as well as enjoy the Mirage fire show when the air finally started to cool down.

the sphere and mirage fire show

And with that – our trip came to an end. We flew back home the next morning, finally making it back 48 hours later than anticipated. Looking back on this trip, it’s crazy how much we fit in to 12 days of travel – from big city to small town and nature vibes, we had it all. Until next time!