Highway 1 holidays 2025 & 2026

Perfect salt-washed fishing villages, sleepy and quaint. The remarkable Glass Beach, made from stunning sea-washed glass waste. Fine dining and fine wines. The legendary Highway 1 takes you to them all. 500 miles of exhilarating driving is yours for the taking on one of the nation's most scenic roads, incorporating the extraordinary Big Sur Coast Highway and the epic San Luis Obispo North Coast Byway. 

Point Lobos State Reserve has 550 acres of coves, headlands and tidal pools, plus a 750 acre undersea ecological reserve with 70 foot high undersea kelp forests. Look out for 250 species of birds and mammals. Discover Garrapata State Park, the Old Coast Road, Carmel-by-the-Sea, the Nepenthe restaurant with spectacular views from 800 feet up, San Simeon and Cambria, all en route. 

At Big Sur the highway clings closely to the dizzyingly steep coastline, remote, wild and unpopulated for a full forty miles except for the little towns of Lucia, Plaskett, Gorda and Ragged Point.  

Visit the quirky Bigfoot Discovery Museum, run by the charmingly eccentric Michael Rugg. It's free. Spend down-time in Santa Cruz, a place that has adopted a friendly eccentricity of it's own. Take to the seas at Steamer Lane, one of the best surfing haunts on the entire West Coast and a firm favourite with surf dudes and chicks. Fall in love with Carmel's famous hippy vibe at Earthbound Farm, home of totally yummy all-organic foods. Discover Big Sur, once a haven for beatniks and now a wealthy place packed with artists and spa-lovers. If you're here in winter, you can spend hours watching the huge elephant seals in action at Piedras Blancas. Or experience the 'anti-Hearst castle' at Nit Witt Ridge, built from rubbish. 

Here, the breathtaking landscapes bring out your inner romantic. Visit the enormous, endless, sandy Pismo State Beach, a key winter breeding ground for the legendary orange and black monarch butterflies, millions of which migrate thousands of miles every year. Then stop off in wine country to sample some of the finest quaffs on the planet. Whatever you like to do, whether it's lounging around doing very little at all or taking on one of the biggest wilderness adventures of your life, this unbelievably varied and fascinating road takes in the lot. Don't miss it. 

Destination Stops:

• Santa Cruz 

• Big Sur 

• San Luis Obispo County 

Wind your way through all three and you'll get the full flavour of this legend of a road, so beautiful it'll haunt you... in the best possible way!  

Road Trip Must-Do's:

• Search for magical moonstones and California Jade on Moonstone Beach 

• Visit Hearst Castle, home of William Randolph Hearst 

• Marvel at Bixby Bridge. At 260 feet high and 700 feet long, this is one of the most photographed icons in California