I love a California road trip. Even after living here for most of my life, I’m still totally smitten every time I hit the road and see the state’s wild Pacific cliffs, golden rolling hills, lush farmland, and rugged Sierras.
California is the size of a not-even-that-small country. To drive from the Oregon border to San Diego is over 12 hours. And while it might look long and narrow, it still takes hours to drive east-west too. For instance, San Francisco to Lake Tahoe on the Nevada border is easily 3 ½ hours (and with traffic and weather, is often more).
California makes the most of all that space: it’s the most biologically diverse state in the country, with over 40,000 plant and animal species and five distinct climates. A single day of driving can include sandy desert, snowy mountains, and rugged coast. A few springs ago, I did a four-day road trip first to Santa Cruz for beach time, surfing, and coastal hiking; and then continued up to Lake Tahoe for skiing and sledding.
When people ask me how to plan a California road trip, I know they want me to jump straight into suggestions of where to go. But I actually think that before you start choosing destinations, it’s worthwhile to zoom out a bit to think about your overall hopes and your travel style first. So read through this list, and then check out our suggestions for road trip itineraries.
What’s Your Vibe: Destination or Journey?
When you’re thinking about a road trip in California, you’ll need to decide if your driving is geared toward getting between destinations or if the road trip is an attraction all on its own. There’s no right way–I’ve done both and recommend either.
If you want to mingle the two a bit, that works too; just make sure to give yourself enough time between destinations for detours. Some of my favorite road trip moments came when I wasn’t in a hurry. Driving from the San Francisco Bay Area to Yosemite in spring, I passed through miles and miles of orchards filled with blossoming trees. It was so beautiful I had to pull over to smell the blossom-heavy air, hear the drone of the bees, and of course take pictures.
No Matter Your Approach, Make Time to Stop
There’s a lot of cool stuff along California’s highways and byways. Farm stands, roadside attractions, gorgeous off-the-beaten path state parks, and cute towns are all there waiting for you to be curious enough to find. But if you’re in a hurry, you’re going to miss them all. So build in at least a little bit of extra time into your driving days so you can make room for this kind of road trip magic.
Planning Ahead Helps
Free spirits, I see you. You want to wander without a map, not be bothered by reservations, and just show up and assume that everything will work out. Which, it definitely might. But also, California has a massive population (40ish million people) and a lot of visitors (270 million people a year). So there’s just a lot of people out and about. Which means that, especially if you’re going somewhere popular in high season, it’s better to book ahead. That goes for both hotels and for attractions where, in the last few years, advance reservations have become standard. Places including theme parks (like Disneyland), national parks, and ski resorts.
Don’t Try to See It All
If you’re coming from another country and this is your one big California trip, it makes sense to try and do as much as possible. But if you know you’ll take another trip to California in the future, I recommend you go deep instead of going broad. You’ll get a lot more out of every stop if you aren’t rushing through it. Particularly in nature-based destinations, it’s all about noticing and slowing down. Both for the experience and for the chance to spot wildlife. And in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, there’s so much to do that you really can spend any length of time and never run out of activities and day trips.
Rent Your Gear
You can rent almost any special gear you’ll need for a California vacation. For instance, outdoor outfitters REI and Sports Basement both rent camping and ski gear, and most beach towns have spots where you can rent bikes, surfboards, and wetsuits, beach chairs, and other bulky items that are useful to have once you arrive. Many state and national parks rent items you might want (bikes, etc.). And for traveling families with babies and toddlers, there are equipment rental companies with everything from strollers and stowable baby beds to toys and high chairs.
Find a Good Loop
There’s too much of California to waste time backtracking, so when you plan your route, don’t take the same highway there and back. Instead, if you’re going round trip somewhere, look for ways to create loops in your drives.
Take Safety Warnings Seriously
Not to be a downer here, but every year, the news covers stories of travelers (and locals, too) who don’t take warnings seriously and end up hurt or dead. I’m talking about people who head to Death Valley on the hottest day to really soak up the heat but who don’t pack enough water, swimmers who ignore big signs warning of undertow, or people who drive straight into a snow storm without enough gas or chains for their cars. California is beautiful, but it’s also wild and fierce, so take safety warnings seriously.
