Drive the Pacific Coast Highway for 1,650 miles on an epic West Coast road trip from Washington to California with this planning guide.

From Malibu and Topanga Canyon, Hwy-1 swoops along the shore, running along the beach as far as the landmark Santa Monica Pier before bending inland through a tunnel and metamorphosing quite unexpectedly into the I-10, the Santa Monica Freeway.

Besides enjoying miles of California coastline, here's what to see and do on a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur.

At the south end of Big Sur, the mountains flatten out and turn inland, and the coastline becomes rolling open-range ranch land. High on a hill above Hwy-1 stands the coast’s one totally unique attraction, Hearst Castle.

Directly south of downtown LA, Long Beach feels more Midwest than West Coast, while suburban Anaheim is home to the ultimate escapist fantasy: Disneyland. Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways

Running right along the beach, the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy-1) heads south from Oxnard around the rocky headland of Point Mugu (pronounced “ma-GOO”), where the U.S. Navy operates a missile testing center and the Santa Monica Mountains rise steeply out of the Pacific Ocean. Most of these chaparral-covered granite mountains have been ...

The sprawling exurbia and movie-star playground of Malibu stretches along Hwy-1, while Topanga Canyon remains one of the last great wild spaces in LA. Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways

The coast of Washington is a virtual microcosm of the Pacific Northwest, containing everything from extensive wilderness areas to Native American fishing villages and heavily industrialized lumber towns.

At the top end of the scale, the Montage (30801 S. Coast Hwy., 866/271-6953, $745 and up) has everything you could want from a hotel. South of Laguna Beach, Hwy-1 follows the coast for a final few miles before joining up with the I-5 freeway for the 65-mile drive into San Diego.

South of Santa Barbara, US-101 widens into an eight-lane freeway along the coast. Looking out across the Pacific, beyond the partially disguised offshore oil wells, you can’t miss seeing the sharp outlines of the Channel Islands, whose rocky tide-pool-packed shores are protected as …