I'm planning a road trip in Cali during November.  I'm visiting a few law schools in the area and my plan is to fly from Boston into San Jose, tour a bunch of schools in the NoCal area, then drive down during the weekend to SoCal and see a bunch of schools in LA, San Diego and OC the following week.
What is the best way to drive from San Francisco to So Cal?  I was thinking of taking route 1 the whole way, but others have suggested taking Route 5 for much of the trip to save time.  What do you folks think?  Is Route 1 all open on the weekends or is it stop-and-go in certain parts?

FYI, I'm taking a rental Mustang or Ford Focus, not my suzuki.  Don't get me started on Harley Rentals (I would if I could) but I can't afford to do that right now.  Harley Sportster Rental = 150 to 300/Day with 2k deposit, and ford rental = 300/week & no insane deposit.

The problem with taking hwy 1 (Pacific Coast Highway, PCH) is its so twisty in places, it will take you forever to get down south.  Its definitely a beautiful drive though.  hwy 5 is a good way to go and hope there's no traffic along the way.  I think you can take 101 to LA too.  The pretty standard way to go from SF or the east bay is 580 to 5 and then alll the way down.  From SF you'll have to go over the bay bridge (hwy 80) to get to 580.  The drive from the bay area to LA can take anywhere from 5.5 hours to 8 or so depending on how fast you drive.  I think the last time I went it took about 7.5 hours I think and we stopped for lunch.

Some of the bridges around the bay are toll so you may want to carry a some dollar bills if you are going to drive over them.  Pay toll only one way though.  I'd recommend driving over the Golden Gate just for fun but there may be a toll going one direction.  I've never encountered a toll road in CA like there are on the east coast so I'm sure you won't have to worry about those.

The Focus will probably get better gas mileage and be easier to park in places.

You'll have to post about your trip when you're back.  I'm curious to hear your impressions of CA.  Its a big state compared to any of the east coast states  :lol:

Just go down the PCH. Its always been such a great drive for me. I love it. Its the only way I ever take.

PCH for the beauty, esp of Big Sur. 5 Fwy for pure hell of boredom.

I finally did PCH up to Monterey over the summer. My better half and I spent almost a week just camping in several spots around Big Sur :mrgreen:
The traffic is one lane but moves pretty good most of the time. During the day a slow RV in the twistier bits can really back things up. That is when you use a pull off and snap some photos and steal some small rocks.
To state the obvious, do not bother with PCH if you are traveling at night because besides having no scenery the roads are dark and twisty.

Call your insurance agent and have them add a rental Loss/Damage waiver to your auto insurance policy -it will save you a bundle on your rental costs (an Avis agent told me to do it on the QT last time I rented a car).

I hope you find a law school in San Diego, graduate,  then open a practice in SD, then hire me as your personal private assistant and bike mechanic

Have fun on the trip!  How many weeks are you going to be gone?  How much spending money are you budgeting because I imagine you'll need a lot of $ for that long of a trip.

I'm looking at a few schools in San Diego.  Some of the campus settings in cali are like resorts!  It's a big change from my apartment in Waltham
I'm going for about 10 days.  I'm aiming to see 2-3 schools a day while I'm there, and have time to drive PCH during the weekend.
Another option is to drive around northern cali for a few days, then take a commuter place down to So Cal.  SouthWest has <$60 flights from San Jose to LAX.  That's cheaper than gas money in the mustang  To save money, I'm staying in motels, with friends, with family and possibly camping if I do the PCH trip.