USA · The California coast
This is the great California pairing: a few days in one of the world's most beautiful cities, followed by a slow drive down a coastline that has no equal. San Francisco is compact, walkable and endlessly photogenic, a city of steep hills, painted Victorians and cable cars climbing toward the bay, all wrapped in the famous fog.
From the city you point south on Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, and the road begins to work its magic. You will pause at Monterey and the cypress-lined 17-Mile Drive, then reach Big Sur, where the cliffs plunge straight into the surf and the Bixby Bridge arcs across a canyon mouth. It is slow, winding and utterly spectacular, a drive to be savored rather than hurried.
We give you time on both ends: enough days to ride the cable cars and cross the Golden Gate, then an unhurried route south with a night or two along the coast so you can stop wherever the view demands it.
