Coming to California in August, Help me plan my trip!

[hyber]

hi all
I'm coming to south california in august for 1 month with my mum to see if we'd like to move there in a year after I finish school.

I'm looking for some general advice on cheap places to stay, surf spots that won't be too crowded and which areas are nice to move to.

We will be travelling from san diego all the way to San francisco, spending most of our time in the area between san diego and LA.
From what I've seen I like the sound of an area like Carlsbad to live in: A smaller town with fairly good surf and not too many crowds/pollution.

We're finding it hard to find motels too, most seem to be charging like $75 a night, surely there must be some cheaper ones? Can anyone advise me some good ones to try


Thanks alot and any feedback is very appreciated

[SDCali]

As far as hotels, $75 a night is pretty darn good, many will charge $100-200 a night, or even more in certain spots in SoCal, some $300 or more if they're near the beach. Around here, the cheapest you can get is probably a Motel 6, but even then you're probably looking at the $60-80 range per night.

[ambolina]

Unfortunately $75/night is about right in coastal california in the summer. Like SDCali said, Motel 6 might be a little cheaper, but those are still usually $70 in San Diego proper. May be a little cheaper up in Carlsbad. Carlsbad sounds like it suits your needs. There is also Oceanside (a little more north of Carlsbad). Although it has a lot of military people there if you have an opinion about that. Those two cities are also cheaper than the other San Diego cities (you should check out Cardiff, Encinitas, Solana Beach - they are all small beach communities, but they run together. They're south of Carlsbad).

Up in northern califorian, Santa Cruz is beautiful. I lived there for 7 years. You might find the people weird/too many hippies (not sure where you're from), but I love it. Very liberal. It's about 60,000 people and you get the redwoods and the ocean. And a world-famous surf break (Steamer's Lane). It also has a couple smaller beach towns next to it - check out Aptos. It's maybe 10 minutes away.

Everything in LA is going to be crowded/large/crazy freeways. Can you tell I'm not a fan? =)

[bustinchops71]

Rincon up in Ventura is a cool place. Not sure what the waves are like during the summer months tho? When you come thru Oceanside make sure to get to Trestles! Encinitas is a super cool surf town... as well as the other nearby communities she mentioned. Cheers!

[scsurf]

Did ya ever make it out to Cal? how was it? Did you get the pm I sent?