Perfect Weekend in Big Su
I will admit that I haven’t done nearly enough domestic travel. Anytime I have an extended period of time off, I’m jetting off to somewhere foreign and exotic. I love a travel challenge and the US has always just seemed easy. But with the global pandemic and lack of international travel options, I’ve taken to exploring my own backyard!
This past weekend, my boyfriend and I hit the road – making our way to Big Sur – in search of rugged coastline and cliffside views. And I must say – I was totally blown away by how beautiful this part of the state was. I cannot believe it’s taken me a decade of living in California to finally make it there. I had visited as a kid, but didn’t remember much and definitely plan to make this a more regular destination.
If you love beaches, hiking, nature, camping, tasty cute eateries – you definitely need to add Big Sur to your bucket list. There were some closures due to covid19, but we still found more than enough things to do to make up an amazing weekend.
Without further ado, here is a perfect weekend itinerary for Big Sur.
Day 1 (Saturday)
Our adventure started off with an early morning wake up call, so we could be on the road by 6AM.
At around 8:30AM, we stopped in Solvang to walk around this picturesque Danish town and take some pictures, as well as grab breakfast. It’s actually the perfect stop between LA and Big Sur – as it is right off the highway and is close to the midway point.
In case you aren’t familiar with Solvang, it’s a town 2 hours and 20 minutes away from LA that was founded in 1911 as a little Denmark of sorts. There are several windmills throughout the town and the streets are filled with Danish-farm style architecture. Here you’ll find tons of Scandinavian restaurants and authentic bakeries serving the most scrumptious pastries! There are also a number of wine bars and vineyards nearby (although they are currently closed due to covid19).
Here are a few things you shouldn’t miss while in Solvang:
Stroll around the picturesque streets: Visit various souvenir shops, bakeries, and restaurants – as well as soak in the Danish icons such as windmills, giant red clog, and Little Mermaid fountain. The main part of town is very small and can easily be walked through in an hour, although leave extra time to stop into stores as there are many darling ones!
Try the iconic æbleskiver: These tasty morsels are sort of like a cross between a donut hole and a pancake. They are traditional Danish snacks and definitely a must-try when in Solvang! You shouldn’t have to look hard - they can be purchased at any of the bakeries and many restaurants.
Sample wine and beer: Downtown Solvang has more than 20 wine tasting rooms and it’s very easy to do a self-guided tasting tour. HERE is a map you can use to guide your tour (as you can see, most of them are practically next to each other!)
Soak in Danish culture at one of the museums in town: For a small town, Solvang has quite an array of museums. Here are a few that you may want to check out:
Elverhof Museum of History & Art – cute museum in a historic farmhouse home of the 18thcentury Denmark.
Wed – Sun: 11AM – 4PM
The Wildling Museum of Art & Nature
Mon, Wed-Fri 11AM – 5PM, Sat-Sun 10AM – 5PM (closed Tues)
Hans Christian Andersen Museum
Daily 9AM – 6PM
Solvang Motorcycle Museum
By Appt Only
Visit the Old Santa Ines Mission: Get transported back in time with a visit to the nearby mission (it’s just outside the main part of town, but still walkable).
Pleasure your tastebuds at one of the many delicious restaurant options in town: There are numerous Europe influenced restaurants…from Scandinavian fare to Italian. Many of which have great reviews on TripAdvisor! A few recommendations:
Paula’s Pancakes – 4.5 Stars on TripAdvisor with over 1200 reviews
Solvang Restaurant – 4 Stars on TripAdvisor with over 400 reviews
Belgian Café – 4 Stars on TripAdvisor with over 400 reviews. This restaurant is perfectly located in the middle of town and a decent choice for breakfast.
Feed ostriches and emus at Ostrichland: If you are an animal lover, you’ll definitely want to stop here. The birds are absolutely adorable and it’s an entertaining quick stop. It opens at 10AM and costs $5/person + $1 for a bucket of feed. It’s technically a 5 minute drive from town, so hit it on your way out.
After a few hours of exploring Solvang (you could definitely also make a full day out of this if you aren’t on a tight schedule), we continued up the PCH towards Big Sur.
After about 2 hours, we hit San Simeon – where you will absolutely want to stop at Vista Point to see the Elephant Seals. They are SO cute and funny. We loved watching them work up all their strength to wriggle their body on the sand…then get utterly worn out after 5 seconds. The males are enormous – 4500 lbs! And make the funniest noises when they talk / fight with each other.
We then hopped back in the car for another 2 hours, where we reached the Bixby Bridge. Make sure to stop here for beautiful views of blue water beaches. Colin is really into photography so he spent some time capturing photos here and even went back late at night to capture star photos over the bridge!
Sadly Pfeiffer Beach is closed to the public at the moment due to covid.
Our last stop before hitting Carmel-by-the-Sea was Garrapata State Park. It’s about a nine minute drive north of Bixby Bridge. This park features easy walking paths through beautiful wildflower fields and cliffside views.
A quick visit will yield many photo opps immediately! We spent about 45 minutes wandering around taking pictures.
Finally we made the last 40 minutes of driving to Carmel-by-the-Sea. This is the perfect sleepy little town to stay in. It’s quaint and picturesque – featuring a small downtown area with fabulous restaurants, shopping, and a gorgeous beach. In fact, I’m kind of shocked that I’ve lived in California for a decade and this is the first time I’ve visited.
I often times get frustrated by tourist towns because the food is all rubbish – overpriced and not very good. But Carmel has so many great little restaurants, we honestly had too many options to choose from! But I did a lot of research and I was very happy with the ones we settled on for our short trip (we will definitely be back again to try out more!). Foodies, like me, will definitely appreciate the wealth of variety and choices.
On our first night, we ate at Dametra – which is a middle eastern inspired restaurant with over 3300 positive reviews on TripAdvisor. (And you know it’s a small town because the owner’s cousin was my uber driver the next day lol). We put our names in around 5:00 and were told that the wait would be 1 hour. As I was putting our names in, an older gentleman turned to Colin and told him this was the best restaurant in town….worth the wait.
Whenever I hear locals say something like that, I know we’ve made the right decision. So even though we were hungry, we decided to hold off and wait for a table. In the meantime, we headed to Mulligan’s Bar for a drink. This cute little joint in the downtown area has an outdoor patio that is a bit hidden and off the main road. The drink menu wasn’t anything too exciting (Colin’s margarita was a bit too sweet for me) but the garlic fries were quite tasty.
About 90 minutes after we had put our names in, we decided to head back and see where we were on the list. They called us shortly after we arrived, and thank goodness because I didn’t think we could hold off eating any longer! We had skipped lunch in favor of getting to town sooner.
I had the vegetarian plate (hummus, falafel, rice, pita, etc) which was very tasty and Colin had a middle eastern flare pizza – that was really bomb. We walked away with a lot of leftovers (which Colin carried home and ate on Monday lol)…it was that good!
After dinner, I headed back to the room to get some rest – while Colin went back to the bridge to take some night photos.
We stayed at Carmel Country Inn – which was totally darling and I would recommend it whole heartedly. It’s just a short walk from the downtown area so the perfect location; plus the room is cozy and the staff there very friendly. The breakfast was simple but good as well. AND they have a 22 lb cat who rolls around the premises (awwww).
Mr Big - the 22 lb cat and host of Carmel Country Inn
Day 2 (Sunday)
Day 2 was mainly devoted to staying exploring and hiking in Point Lobos State Reserve. We woke up around 8am and had breakfast before heading out.
Point Lobos State Reserve has a lot of areas to explore and we hit pretty much it all. Make sure to dress comfortably if you want to do the entire loop – it takes upwards of 3 hours constantly moving. If you stop to take photos or hang out at all, expect much longer! The coastline is stunning, water vibrant blue, and if you’re lucky you can see sea lions and other wildlife as well.
Some of the highlights of the day for me were Whaler’s Cove, Gibson Beach, and China Cove.
Colin was taking too long photographing every angle (it’s a photographer’s dream), so I went on ahead and finished up around 2 or 3pm.
I then just used the time to wander around the shops in town….weighing the different options for dinner! I decided to make a reservation at Cultura – as Colin’s friend had recommended in personally, and the reviews just seemed great (not to mention I was craving a marg after all that exercise!)
We had an early dinner (since we had skipped lunch….why does this always happen with us lol). And the food was WONDERFUL. I started with the guacamole (per usual) and then I had the plantain tacos - which was the perfect amount of food – and Colin had the steak salad.
Drinks were wonderful as well. After the so-so margarita from the night before, it was nice to get a REAL marg. After the margarita, we tried the paloma as well. Which I would also rank as great!
After dinner, we went in search of ice cream….our favorite. Luckily the Carmel Bakery was still open! I had passed it so many times throughout the day but the line had always been too line. Miraculously it was empty when we approached after dinner – so we grabbed an ice cream cone. Thankfully we had cash, as it was cash only. (I would have been so pissed if we had to miss ice cream!)
We took a to-go container of margaritas from Cultura and headed to the beach to watch the sunset. I was honestly pretty blow away by how gorgeous the beach was – bright blue waters and white sand – plus gorgeous colors in the sky for sunset.
I was surprised the beach wasn’t more crowded, given how pretty it was. But very happy it wasn’t packed!
In case you decide to visit, I highly recommend Carmel by the Sea as your base – here are my top recommends for things to do when in the area:
Eat at delicious restaurants: There are so many options to choose from, but based on my research and personal recommendations…below are some options I would recommend!
Dametra: Great middle eastern spot that is super well reviewed! We can vouch for it as well – loved our meal here!
Cultura: Mexican restaurant with fabulous margaritas and outstanding tacos! I had the plantain tacos that I am still dreaming about.
Treehouse Café: Super darling spot on a patio overlooking the town. Very picturesque. We didn’t get a chance to eat here, but stopped in to check out.
La Bicyclette: Quaint country bistro serving up pizzas and Italian fare (we almost ate here but ran out of time…looked darling though and great reviews!)
Carmel Bakery: This place ALWAYS had a line….until after 6pm. We had ice cream here after dinner and it was the perfect way to end the trip!
Go wine tasting: Just peruse the streets of downtown Carmel and you will run into many options for wine tasting. HEREis a link to some of the top ones on TripAdvisor.
Explore art galleries: Another staple in Carmel are art galleries. One of my favorite ones was right near the beginning of stops as you enter the downtown area – it has a huge picture of Marilyn Monroe in the window.
Shop: Whether you are looking for kitschy souvenirs, clothing, shoes, etc. You’re likely to find it in Carmel.
Visit Carmel Beach: Just a short stroll away from the downtown area is Carmel Beach….and I was honestly blown away by how beautiful it was.
Hike in Lobos State Reserve: Only 8 minutes away from Carmel-by-the-Sea main part of town (or an $11 Lyft).
Day 3 (Monday)
Monday was really just about heading home. We packed up our room leisurely, had some breakfast at inn and then headed out.
All-in-all, I’d say Big Sur was the perfect little weekend getaway. I’m already eager to go back and explore more of the restaurants, sites, and beaches that it has to offer. It’s a stunning area and well worthy of the praise and attention it gets.