San Simeon/Grand Canyon/Las Vegas Road Trip Recap, Part 1

So, I've had travel on my mind a lot lately. We've been working on our budget and financial goals, and are saving up for several fun vacations. And Sunday night I finally watched the movie Cars for the first time, and it got me thinking about our San Simeon/Grand Canyon/Las Vegas road trip we took in 2008. The town in Cars, Radiator Springs, was actually based on a real town on route 66, Peach Springs, where we stayed on our road trip.

Travel planning websites, forums and blogs are what first got me into the blogging world several years ago, and I thought it might be fun to share the (very detailed) trip report I wrote about our road trip. This only ever saw the light of day on a travel forum, but I tried to do a really thorough job with documenting our trip, so hopefully if anyone out there is looking to visit any of these destinations someday, you may find this useful. Or if not, maybe the pictures will be entertaining?

So here goes, our San Simeon/Grand Canyon/Las Vegas road trip details. This is going to be several posts worth (I told you it was detailed!), so bear with me!

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April 11th: Drive to San Simeon

My husband (boyfriend at the time of the trip) had to go into work for a few hours before we could set off from the Bay Area, so I spent the morning getting gas and loading up the car. We left town around 1:30pm or so, to beat the Friday night traffic on highway 17, and drove down highway 1 with little traffic. We by passed most of Big Sur, since we'd been there a couple times before, but if you are making this drive I highly suggest a stop at Nepenthe for a meal, or just an appetizer (their smoked salmon is excellent). Since I was driving, I gave my DH the camera and told him to be on the lookout for condors. Last summer when we were in Big Sur, while driving down the coast on a very foggy morning, we spotted 5 or 6 California Condors just sitting on rocks near a viewpoint turnout. But I think that was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and didn't see any this time.

(The condors we saw the previous year)

About 7 miles south of Gorda, 30 miles north of San Simeon, we stopped to see Salmon Creek Falls. You could see the falls from the side of highway 1, but we hiked down next to the creek for about a half mile right up to the falls. You have to do some boulder hopping, but it was fun, and a nice break from driving the twisting roads.

After that we continued on down toward San Simeon, and saw the Piedras Blancas lighthouse from the road, and saw glimpses of the elephant seals. We arrived at the Cavalier Best Western at about 5pm, and checked into our ocean view room quickly. The desk staff was very nice and informative, pointing out the property features on the map for us and showing us the best way to drive to our room.

Once we parked the car, we eagerly ran up the stairs to our 2nd floor room (I had requested a 2nd floor because of reading that the views are even better) and we weren't disappointed! The room was very clean, no smell at all from the wood burning stove, and we had a beautiful balcony with two chairs and a table, a sitting area inside near the stove, large comfy king bed, and a nice sized bath with separate sink and vanity area. The room also had a mini bar and safe, which we didn't use. And the best part, which we definitely used, was there was complimentary chilled champagne and glasses waiting for us in the room! It was a lovely touch, and a great way to start our vacation. We immediately unpacked the car, popped open the champagne and went to sit out on the private balcony. At last, our vacation had started!

After we relaxed for a bit, we ordered room service, so we could eat on the balcony and watch the sunset from the room. My DH placed the order and the food came quickly, in about 25 mins. We had the crab cake appetizer, I had the fish and chips and my DH had the clam strips and chips. The food was a bit greasy, but that's to be expected with fried food. However, it was quite good, and the total was $34 before tip.

After dinner we watched the sunset from the balcony, and then walked down to the beach for a while. They were just lighting the fire pits on the bluff, but we decided to just go back up to the balcony, where we could see the fires anyway, since it was quite warm for April. There was also no wind, which was a surprise since I'd heard that April and May can be windy, and the temperature was about 80 degrees during the day, also unusual for April. We had a few drinks in the room while we watched the waves crash and the stars come out, and relaxed for the rest of our action packed vacation.

April 12th: Hearst Castle and San Simeon Activities

Several months before our trip I'd bought us the Hearst Castle tickets for tour 1 for $40 for the 10am tour (2008 prices). We left the hotel at about 9:20am, since the order confirmation had recommended getting there a half hour early. At about 9:30 we were parked and picking up our tickets (the Cavalier hotel is really close) and they said that we could go on the 9:40 tour instead of the 10am, so we said sure! We got in line to wait for the bus to pick us us, and it arrived right on time.

Up the hill we went in the bus (no private vehicles on the 5 mile road up to the castle) getting glimpses of the castle along the way. The bus driver said we could take water bottles with us on the tour, but unfortunately we'd left ours in the car since the website said no food or drink permitted. At the top of the hill we got off the bus and met our tour guide. She was very informative, but tried a bit to hard to be funny, so there were some awkward pauses where she waited for laughs, but nobody laughed.

Anyway, we began the tour by going up some stairs, where you pause half way up and they give you the rules, basically, don't touch anything and no flash photography. Then we go up to a courtyard where there is a beautiful fountain and great views of the ocean and San Simeon Point and the pier down by Old San Simeon. After that it was on to the Neptune Pool, which was stunning.

After looking at the pool and learning some history (it used to be the site of a rose garden, and Hearst wanted a small pool there, which turned into the gigantic pool that is there today) we moved on to the guest houses. There were three guest houses, all bigger than our home, and we got to tour one of them. The really neat thing was that every single guest got their own bathroom! We were a little rushed through the guest house, but I got some pictures while walking anyway.

After going through the guest house we went out through some more courtyards with more gorgeous views of the ocean, and passed by an Egyptian fountain, among others. There was beautiful tiles everywhere, such detail you can't believe, even the ceilings were decked out with tiny details. We then arrived outside the castle, which is really more of a cathedral. We entered the castle through a side door and got to see the entry room with a gigantic fireplace and enormous tapestries on the walls.

Then it was on to the dining room, with a very long skinny table in the center. The table was pretty skinny compared to normal dining room tables, so Hearst's guests could easily chat with each other at dinner. Our tour guide listed off a ton of names of famous people who'd dined there, pretty much everyone who was anyone back in the 30s and 40s.

We then walked through a game room with pool tables where they were doing some restoration work, and into Hearst's private movie theater with about 200 seats. Apparently all his guests were required to attend a movie every night, he didn't care if they stayed awake for it, but they had to be there! It was pretty dark in there, but you got to rest your feet for a few minutes while the guide talked about some of the history.

The tour guide then took us outside and we walked down a ramp to behind the castle. There we saw the private tennis courts, which still looked very nice today. After that we continued down the ramp and walked in under the tennis courts to the indoor pool, which was nearly as beautiful as the Neptune Pool. It had real gold tiles, pretty statues around the walls, and a dive platform in the center of the pool. This was the end of the tour, but I hung back a bit to get some good pictures without everyone else in the way. We then exited out another door and the bus was waiting for us right there.

We traveled back down the road to the parking area and had the option to go see a 40 minute long National Geographic movie about the castle and Hearst, but it was about 11:30am by then and we were getting hungry, so we decided to skip it, even though it was included in our ticket price.

So we got back in my car and drove back to San Simeon near our hotel to El Chorlito Mexican Restaurant for lunch. The service was quick since we were a little early for the lunch rush, and we were promptly seated near a window with a partial ocean view. Lunch was $30 before the tip (2008 prices), I had a chicken quesadilla and my DH had a crab quesadilla, plus two sodas each. El Chorito was just an average Mexican restaurant, nothing special but not bad, and it was quick, which was what we were looking for so we could continue with our day's activities.

After lunch we drove a few miles north of the Hearst Castle turn off to the Elephant Seal Colony. That place was amazing, we could see hundreds of seals in either direction, as far as we could see! They were so funny to watch, they'd flop/crawl about 5 feet at a time up on the beach, and then have to rest for a few minutes before they could go further up. And then they'd flip sand all over themselves, I'm guessing to warm up. They also made these cute half bark half burping sounds! I took a ton of pictures of them, and even got a neat shot of a gecko on a rock in the foreground and a huge seal in the background.

Once I'd had my fill of the seals, we headed back south along highway 1 to San Simeon Beach, right across the highway from the Hearst Castle Entrance. We had wanted to do a little hiking in the area and had planned on checking out San Simeon State Park, but after a suggestion on a travel forum, we thought San Simeon Point looked nicer. We found a parking spot and went out on the pier first where some people were fishing. We then walked across the beach, which was really crowded because of the nice weather and up the trail to the point. The hike out and back was about 2.5 miles, and pretty flat and easy. Out on the point we saw some nice views of the castle on the hill and could see the hotels in San Simeon. At the end of the point there was a beautiful sandy beach, which looked a little hard to get down to, but if you were feeling adventurous it would make a nice private beach! However, we just turned around and headed back to the car.

By this time it was about 3:30pm when we got back to the hotel, with no real plans until dinner. But I was feeling sleepy, since the week before I'd worked long hours to be able to take this vacation, so I took a nap until about 5pm. Then woke up, showered and got ready, and we drove to Cambria to eat dinner at the Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill.

We put our name on the list for a seat out on the patio (no reservations taken) and had about a 20 minute wait at the bar. We were then seated, which was perfect timing, sunset that night was going to be at 7:36pm and we were seated at a few minutes after 7. I had already looked at the menu online and knew what I was going to get, and my DH made his decision quickly too. We started with the Sweet Potato Fries, which were to die for. I had the salmon with a fantastic walnut pesto cream sauce and my DH had a New York Steak with a cabernet sauce. I tried a bite of his and both were excellent, but I did prefer my salmon because of the sauce. I nearly finished the salmon too, which I almost never do, and was stuffed to the point of being in pain! But it was worth it. Dinner with two drinks each was $82 before tip (2008 prices).

After dinner we walked across the street to see the last of the sunset and move around to help us digest. The boardwalk along there was nice, but I was wearing stilettos, making it hard to walk for fear of my shoes getting stuck between the boards. So we only spent about 5-10 mins there, and went back to the hotel room. We did pretty much the same thing as the night before, sat out on the balcony and relaxed with a couple drinks, and went to bed before midnight so we could get up and pack the next morning.

Sunday morning we woke up, packed the car, and did the express check out. All we had to do was pick up the phone and hit the express check out button, and we were done! We headed out of town at about 8:45am, on to Arizona!

A few final notes about the Cavalier Hotel that I forgot to mention earlier, they had very nice toiletries, Neutrogena soaps, an in-room coffee maker, and also a wet bar in the bedroom area near the bed. Overall, it was probably one of the best values for the price on our trip, $351.20 including tax for two nights with the AAA discount (2008 prices).