Drive down the PCH

It really depends on how long you want to take. There aren't many places north of San Francisco that seem likely as a shipping destination other than Portland Oregon. The Oregon coast is famously beautiful and could be easily done in 2-3 days, then cross into California. 101 is inland south of Eureka, so redwood territory versus 1 on the coast. I think most of the wineries are inland (and further south) since the coast is cool and damp, but others may know differently. If you have a time limit you'll get much more useful answers.

 

Been there done that. Great idea! Hwy 1 down the coast (OR & CA) is a fun drive, not much traffic (by normal stds) until you get below SFO; then much more (wknd) traffic. And you may as well continue south; plenty more good vintners south of Monterey down to SLO. Also the drive down the Big Sur coast is spectacular (check navs; lots of washouts/slides in recent years. May be difficult to find a car delivery point.....(assuming you're shipping a Ferrari?)...few/no dealers betw Portland and SFO. You could ship & land PDX and do the Oregon Pinot district on your way to the coast, then continue south to norcal and those vineyards. Did the trip a few yrs ago, but in an Audi R8, had to ship all the wine home....no space in the frunk. Have fun!

 

What if you called some of the big exotics shippers like maybe horseless carriage, and ask them? I bet a lot of the same names come up for cars going to all the coast to coast concourse, vintage car races , and repairs.

 

Highway 101 parallels 1. There are good wineries there and the apple farm is a nice place to stay in SLO, and of course the madonna inn with all those crazy rooms.

 

I have driven PCH with 575 multiple times but always drove to California, usually from central US but once from Maryland. What F-car will you be driving?

 

Don't stop in San Francisco. From Santa Cruz/Monterey to Santa Barbara is really not to be missed. But that part needs to be done on a weekday.
The Mendocino to Sea Ranch area has some great hotels, restaurants and history. Hitchcock filmed many famous movies on the coast.

When I first started going there Mendocino was still recognizable as the place "East of Eden" with James Dean was filmed.

Do some research. There is lots of interesting stuff to see and great places to stay.
The PCH is about the only thing I miss about California.

 

I used to go to Oxnard / T.O. on business back in my corporate days. I always enjoyed PCH from Pt. Mugu down to LAX. Would stop in to Moon Shadow in Malibu for a drink and watch the waves crash in.

 

I once drove the PCH southbound from Carmel, and I found that I couldn't enjoy the scenery much because I had to concentrate so much on the road! If the driver is reliable, a passenger should enjoy the route that much more.

 

Well the Northern half above San Francisco is worse in that sense. Narrower, windier, big cliffs. Beautiful drive though.

 

BEEN THERE!
Headed north on the PCH in about 2004 or so, wife (at the time) had her head buried in the
latest edition of Cosmo magazine, 16 yr old step-daughter had her head buried in her 'Gameboy'
handheld game, I got north of Malibu and said 'screw this' and turned around and went back to Hermosa.
I've done the PCH a few times, they never have, I figured I would show them, I figured wrong....

PS - I was born and spent the first years of my life in a city between Santa Cruz and Monterey,
so I've been there a few times.

 

Done it several times, but mainly with 50+ y.o. vintage* cars.
Latest was in last September, from LA area to Olympic Nat'l Park in a 90 y.o. Roadster, a hot rod with +/- 70 y.o. drive train. Drove up Hwy 1 until it ended, then 101 rest of the way. Spent 9 days to get up there.
Only practical advice I'd offer is that be on the road 30 minutes before sunrise, so you can enjoy somewhat open road for few hours. After 9 am, most of PCH gets cluttered with (other) typical tourists and driving becomes less enjoyable/relaxing.

* I find pretty much all modern cars, regardless of make/model, boring or at least non-exciting, especially if/when they can't be driven fast enough to enjoy even half of their performance capabilities, not to mention, they're all technologically too far removed from true (analog) driving, but that's just me. Might as well get cab or limousine.

 

P.S. I forgot to mention that regardless of vehicle, modern or vintage, the scenery on Hwy 1 between Carmel & Morro Bay or north of San Francisco is just amazing and both sections are truly must-do for anyone into cool, scenic drives.

Also, there aren’t many vineyards on Hwy 1, i.e. PCH.
Most can be obviously found in Napa Valley area (slightly inland, northeast of S.F.) or along and off the Hwy 101 from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara (my personally favorite area for best Pinot Noirs).

 

I'd suggest taking the highway from Olympia to Aberdeen and then taking US-101 all the way down the coast to the Golden Gate Bridge, then getting on CA-1 and taking it all the way until it rejoins 101 south of San Simeon. The Oregon coast is an interesting ride, if not as dramatic as it is south of Carmel.

 

Don't know too much about North of California but I understand Astoria OR is spectacular.
I would definitely only take 101 down to Legget then get over to 1 down to the SF Bay area.
In California plan to spend some time in the Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Albion area. Lots of history there. Russian fort from fur trader era, lot of movies filmed there particularly Hitchcock movies. Great food and a ton of great B&Bs.

When you get down to Point Reyes, do a little research before hand. The San Andres fault responsible for the San Francisco earthquake runs offshore right there. The split between the Point Reyes and the main land is the fault. A little research will tell you where to go to see very visible signs of the land shifting Its very interesting and give tourists an idea what earthquakes are about.

In Sonoma go to the Dry Creek area. A number of very worthwhile wineries to visit. Ferrari Carano is really beautiful and Rafanellis founder is a long time Ferrari owner.

 

I can't tell you where to ship, but I do fly in, rent cars and drive.

The first thing I do when I pick up the (rental) car, is I stop and
buy an el-cheapo styrofoam cooler - any drug store has cheap coolers,
then go to the nearest grocery store and buy bottled water, tea, pop.

That saves a ton of money, when I've seen places charge upwards of $4
for ONE normal bottle of water, when a 24-pack is $6-7 or so.

And when I am done, I give the cooler to the next person that may want it,
but it was only $4-6 to begin with.
That, or buy a collapsable cooler you can take with you on the flight.

 

I always prefer Napa side to Sonoma for wineries and usually stay in Yountville. However, Jamie Kutch is on the board here and he makes great wines out of Sonoma. Yountville has the restaurants we like and can walk to them.
If you make it further south into Monterey area, Passionfish in Pacific Grove is great food.
The PCH near Big Sur always did it for me. We stayed at Ventana Inn and had drinks at sunset over at the Post Ranch Inn. Unforgettable.
We couldn't afford either place but Ventana was much less.