In reply to: CA intrastate travel - drive or fly? posted by dfw
as someone who just did the LA - Bay Area drive on the 5 twice last week.
It's always sort of fun to hit the Grapevine when driving south, but it's merely a convenience route and can't compare to driving the coastal route. Unless you really love playing the pass the semi while the Mercedes SUV tries to cut you off game over and over and over again.
It would be a beautiful drive for the most part, but it wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable if you didn't have time to stop and do some exploring along the way, in my opinion.
If you're just doing it for the scenery out of the car, it's going to be a lot of work/driving that I'd probably save for another visit when you have more time.
Agree that driving the coastal route is the only way it is worth it, but it would be a grueling day (8-9 hours with no traffic and no stops), and there probably wouldn't be much time to stop and see stuff.
If they were willing to spend a night halfway up, that would at least let them stop along the way to see a few places.
Unfortunately, they involve crashing down the cliffs and into the ocean below.