Has anyone ever took a road trip to california from florida? Is it worth it to go in May? Possible to camp out on the beach? Any tips , suggestions, offers for a place to stay are appreciated!

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Go Gators

If you've got the funds & time a road trip is a great idea as this country is a beautiful country: do a loop I-10 out then head north to San Fran & come back a different route...lots to see along the way: new Orleans, austin TX music scene, phoenix luxury spa resorts, grand canyon, yosemite etc etc

But on the real SOCAL kinda sucks, yeah OK there's a few good breaks sure but most are way over crowded, yeah OK Los Angles is pretty cool if you enjoy sitting in traffic & fake people blah blah blah

So guess what I'm sayin is if you are doing it as a "road trip" then yeah cool idea but if you are doing it just to visit as a destination dunno... I could come up with a million better places to go on a surf vacation to & probably cheaper, last time I checked jet blue has tickets to San Jose in the $3-400 range



EDIT
BTW for places to stay, rest areas are comfy and for camping on the beach I'd think SOCAL probably not so easy but the further north you go the easier... anybody remember if it;s allowed at San Onofre ???


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Get up early go surf.... it'll make your hangover go away and/or the workday more tolerable

Go! It's a life changing experience. May can be iffy.

You might want to look into flying out cheap, get a a little Rav 4 rental and doing it that way. Cost of gas to get there is going to be evil. I did San Fran to San Diego, just meandering up the coast and it was awesome. My favorite spots were Santa Barbara/Ventura and Oceanside, in between LA and San Diego.

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Pretend I wrote something %$#@! hilarious here.

California Beach Camping

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Dora Hates You

Driving west, you might spend nights near Mobile, San Antonio, Las Cruces.  There's only one small town between San Antonio and El Paso, though you could do a side trip to the art colony of Marfa.

The northern Calif. coast is worth touring, all the way to Crescent City, where they have longboarding and the best redwoods.  Ask about the serpentine barrens (rock similar to the earth's mantle, rather poisonous to most plants).  If you don't go that far, there's both serpentine and redwoods above Santa Cruz.  

He's right about May.  Real cold  water up North of Pt. Conception onshores starting early in the day up there.  Season where the first south swells are showing and the north swells quieting. 

What the heck though, still awesome.

 

I drove from Florida to Ca with my exgirlfriend and a cat in the car.  Additionally, I had to drive the WHOLE way because neither her nor the cat could drive stick.  If you make the drive try to avoid those circumstances and you should be okay.

If you are planning on camping at the beach in California, plan on making reservations in advance, sometimes you have to make them several months, even a year in advance depending on if it is a holiday.  Some of the state parks limit you to 1 or 2 nights. But there are number of great sites right on the beach.

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Even a blind hog finds an occasional acorn

all great info above BTW, especailly getting camping reservations (truth)....I have done the drive 4 times in my 98 Tacoma.....alls I want to stress is DO IT!  My trips were work related but I stayed between 6m-yr each time so I got to surf, snowboard and see a lot of sites. That being said, I WISH i would have done it earlier in life and just for fun, no work, just camping and surfing.....best of luck.

Are u planning on just a one way Or do u have to drive back too?I drove back from Cali after moving there and it's along ways but I makes you realize anything is possible. But don't expect May to be great So Cal surf .Plus ultra crowded most any breaks from San Diego to LA County.Go to trestles just to say you've surfed it ,it's soooooo worth it and I surfed uppers and had a ball.But I'd just fly and rent and car and buy a used board.U prob would spend the same money or less.Surf isn't worth driving both ways....Go to Cape Hatt if you just looking for road trip !!

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Learn to read a buoy and check your winds and tides!!!

Hey guys, Thanks for all of the info so far! I have pretty much all of May for the trip. I can't fly and rent a car because I am only 19 but I don't think I would want to do that anyway because I am kinda stoked for the road trip part too and seeing different attractions on the way. I am traveling with a buddy so we are going to split the gas which will be about equivalent to taking a roundtrip plane to Cali and our boards fly/drive free You guys are saying May is pretty iffy... what is iffy: waist, chest, head? As for camping in Cali, I think we might just try to sneak in on the beach if it's possible. We are on a low budget remember and we probably will only be in one area the most 2 days. We are going to cruise the coast. If there is anyone else with more info keep it coming! Great replies so far

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Go Gators

Not relevant, but it's a tour of SF:  DC Shoes: Ken Block's Gymkhana Five: Ultimat Urban Playground.  

Missed the nice new Cal Academy of Sciences museum in Golden Gate park.

Someone must've published a book on how to roadtrip, cheap around California.  Seems to be a whole tradition of discreetly parking vans overnite.  Encountered a bit of that in my Portland, Ore. neighborhood.  Go out for a morning run, and there's be someone sleeping in a car on a quiet street.  

SD, OC, LA, Monterey, SF are inherently expensive places and perhaps not the best places for break-ins and such.  You might think of the 'other' Calif. beginning around Ft Bragg.  Arcata even has a state university, but maybe kinda sharky.

Oh yes, do it.
I flew out, rented a RV .... 2007

I "camped" out overnight several times at the rest stops on I-5 just north of Oceanside
during my 2007 5 week RV surf trip excursion....
...and I wasn't the only one. Sometimes I saw the same people/rigs there the next night.
Arrive early to get the best "quiet" spots away from the BIG RIGS that idle all night long.
No electical or water hookup, but there was an RV dump station, and the price was right.

Driving cross country would be extra nice, ...if not rushed.
Hell yes, do it. If I was younger I do it again.
Oh hell, I wouldn't mind doing it again now.






ahhh..memories.

My "rental room" with a view





..... at Old Mans, San Onofre





Ventrua parking




going down memory lane 2007

Old Mans

Labor Day 2007

Carlsbad

Swami's

Oxnard Ventura Pismo 13 14 Aug 2007








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Puerto Rico 11 - 24 - 2013

I remember that trip  of yours. A lot of us were living that trip viccariously thorugh your posts...

 

Just drove Seattle back to FL not too long ago. Camping on beach is possible but can be a challenge. More north you are the easier as somoene already said. If trying to beach camp on  sly, you will need to contend with no parking signs, chance of someone breaking into your vehicle, etc. If you want to camp at an established camp site with facilities and what not you can expect to pay $35/a night at State campgrounds (outrageous) and be around a bunch of RV duders. There are also some national forest campgrounds on the beach in north/central california that are a little cheaper.

I had pretty good luck doing back country camping in National forest land. Federal lands such as National Forest, BLM, etc are FREE to camp on in unimproved areas. Just walk a bit into the woods and pitch your tent. You will not be on the beach but depending on where you are on the coast there is usually quite a bit of it just east of PCH.

Between SF and Santa Cruz there are definitely some oppurtunities to do some beach camping without paying, but once again there are occasional car break ins, so you need to be careful especially since you will be travellign and you will have all your worldly positions in your vehicle or on you. 

Have truck or 4X4? Why not just go south to Baja? Cross border in a.m. and drive south.

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Some really great tips here. My input...some of the best surfing in southern CA is in Encintias...you can camp in San Elijo park and surf Cardiff Reef, Seaside Reef, Pipes all within walking distance from the campground.

Central CA is worth the drive too...secret tip...the "inside" by the freeway at Rincon is never crowded and gets really good. When everyone else is fighting for rights off the point you can pretty much have the inside to yourself.

Dan's giving a good tip about Rincon.  An amazing wave that probably doesn't get the coverage it deserves.  Check surfline for a Kelly, Bobby, Dane expose on it.   http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/rincon-dreaming_92636/

Also a baja article: http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/tripwire-baja----user-submitted-slideshow_92649/

I'm in California and do road trips several times a year, camping "on" the beach is next to impossible, but with a little ingenuity you can find a place to park it for the night. The State and National parks can be used, but as said reservations required, in advance and almost as expensive as motels these days.

Mailbu is posted along the hwy., "no sleeping in cars", but as long as you are not drawing attention to yourself, make new friends, ask if you can park in front of the house for the night, or at a local surf shop.

in the mid 60's in NJ, I was living in my hippie Corvair van, the local cops had me pegged, I scouted out places by day to sleep at later, found a quarry with may dirt roads leading to and from it. All was good until one night I came to a roll of carpet at the end of a road, there had been numerous women killed in the area and dumped on rural roads. I got the hell out of there and came back the next day to investigate, it had trash in it, Whew!

I was traveling with my 2 YO son from Fla. to New England, stopped off 95 to catch some sleep, a Georgia State trooper pulled up, said there was a truck stop a few miles up the road and I should go there as there were some very unsavory people who lived in this area