Northern California - Central Coast (Chapter)

This is the Central Coast chapter from Lonely Planet’s California guidebook.

This fairy-tale stretch of California coast is packed with wild Pacific beaches, misty redwood forests, and rolling hills of fertile vineyards and farm fields. Travel down Hwy 1, past lighthouses and soaring cliffs, or along Hwy 101, through California’s agricultural heartland.

• scream your head off aboard the Giant Dipper on the beach boardwalk, then learn to surf in Santa Cruz
• maps
• bring the kids to gawk at the aquatic denizens of the ‘indoor ocean’ at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
• transportation
• restaurants & accommodation
• soak up the chic atmosphere of whitewashed, red-tiled Santa Barbara before making your wine-country escape

Coverage includes: Along Highway 1, Santa Cruz & around, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Big Sur, Point Piedras Blancas, Hearst Castle, San Simeon, Cambria, Cayucos, Morro Bay, Montaña De Oro State Park, Along Highway 101, Gilroy, San Juan Bautista, Salinas, Pinnacles National Monument, Mission San Antonio De Padua, San Miguel, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Avila Beach, Pismo Beach, La Purísima Mission State Historic Park, Santa Barbara Wine Country, Santa Barbara, Channel Islands National Park and Ventura.