Pacific Coast Highway | Mistakes We Made from San Francisco to Los Angeles, So You Don't Have To!

I moved away recently from two of my best friends, and this trip was our reunion trip only one month later. We really couldn't stay away from each other too long <3. It took 90% effort from me and 10% energy from these two to make the trip work. We expectedly hit a few snags along the way.

Bring Towels! Even if you think you won't get in the water, you will. you should.

We were only at the first stop of our trip at Half Moon Bay, and my friend April asked "We're not planning on getting in the water are we?" Of course, we were basically dared to at this point.

It was October and as warm as the water gets on the West Coast so we figured might as well go for it!

The wind picked up the closer we got to the waves, the water was freezing, the waves knocked us out more than once, and it was some of the most fun I ever had with my buddies.

The only other people in the water were clearly experienced swimmers surfing in wetsuits, so we looked a little silly getting knocked out by the water every few minutes. Definitely don't recommend going past knee level if you aren't experienced in those waves, damn. Because we are us, It didn't take too long for Lexie's knee problem to act up when a rather sturdy wave wiped her out to which she shouted at April she knocked her over. April was easily ten feet away. They bickered for another few minutes and I let them tire themselves out while I watched the water. It felt like a picturesque setting out of a movie. until a bird attacked me.

Don't underestimate the Pacific Ocean

I know we got in the water, but we avoided going too far in. In some stops down the coast, the waves fluctuate to a point where they can wipe out onto most of the beach, always trust the signs.

April didn't see a wave coming and fell straight on her back onto a rock. She hit her head and bruised her back pretty badly. She's fine of course, but it still was pretty scary for a second. We did get this cute little photo of me trying to be Ariel before everything went south though!

There is an art to ATV dune riding

ATVing seemed like it would be pretty simple, like driving a car or riding a bike. The sandy terrain and different buttons for different speeds were definitely factors that took us a bit longer to figure out. Here are a few simple tips:

Keep your leg off of the hot pipe, I burned my leg leaning it against the carburetor (idek if it was the carburetor I don't care enough to look it up).

Avoid getting stuck by going up hills faster. If you do get stuck, make sure to lift the ATV and shift the wheels that are stuck in the sand over to higher ground. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries, so try to be patient.

NO sudden stops unless you really need to. My back still hurts.

The drive is scary, easy, beautiful, slow... and parking is a b*tch!

The road can get pretty close to a drop toward the waves and if you get distracted by the stunning waves too much, you can easily forget to pay attention to the road. No matter how many times your friends say "Oh my gosh look at..." do not look. The road is too winding and the drop-down was surprisingly steep at times.

Make sure you stop and enjoy the views as much as possible! There are a lot of options to pull off to the side and enjoy the beach and beachside towns. That being said, make sure to actually pull off and not just slow your pace, we might have pissed off a few people when Lexie decided to take her time down the coast as it got dark. There was one pair of headlights trailing behind, and then a few, and then it felt like the sun was following us. A particular angry road rager even pulled off the road with us when we were trying to let everyone pass to yell at us for being slow.

As if that couldn't make things worse, we also ran into a parking ticket near Monterrey Aquarium. It took us until we passed Big Sur to even notice. A reminder that there are parking meters all along the coast, make sure you are looking for the signs to avoid a parking ticket.

We ended our trip in Los Angeles where we scootered from a nice brunch place in the city to Santa Monica Pier, but not without April scootering us into a parked car. Yes, we did a hit-and-run, but no damages were made so that's good? 🥴 Overall, a great end to our trip!