The Big Sur, literally meaning “Big South” in Spanglish, is the coastal area a couple of hours drive south of San Francisco. A couple of people had told us it was worth a visit, so instead of hanging out in expensive hotels and hostels in San Fran, we got ourselves another rental for three days and drove south. Our first night we stayed near San Jose with a Couchersurfer named Kathleen at vert short notice. She is one of those amazing couchsurfers who will just take in anyone at a moments notice and we had a super evening there watching an old surfing movie with her and her friends.

The next couple of days we spent driving down the coast and then up again. As we’d been told, the coastline there is really beautiful with mountains coming down steeply into a rugged rocky coastline. On the whole though I was a bit disappointed with it as it was almost impossible to explore the area as you are constrained to the road most of the time. All of the land seems to be privately owened and vigourously defended with “no trespassing” signs. Even the very few State beaches where you can actually get down charge you a fee and I found it really annoying. It was a bit more relaxed north of the “Big Sur” area, where the coast was still nice but you were actually allowed to use it.

I would definitely drive along the coast if I was are going through that area, but as a destination in itself I wasn’t impressed. We were back in San Fran three nights later, with half a day to explore the city by car before our flight out of America.

Big Sur, California
Big Sur, California