Originally Posted by
darthbimmer
Your route is reasonable. It's the one I'd choose to see the best part of the Central Coast en route to Las Vegas while minimizing overall drive time.
Reaching LV by sunset would require extreme measures. Google Maps' estimate of 10:22 drive time is suspiciously low IMO. I've driven each part of the route several times and would estimate the whole at 13 hours of driving, best case. Add in time for even minimal gas/food/photo stops-- as well as allowance for a bit of heavy traffic or construction delays you're practically guaranteed to encounter somewhere along the route-- and you're looking at 16 hours end to end. Figure "before sunset" means you want to roll in to Vegas by 8pm, so you'd need to be on the road from SF at 4am. And again, that's assuming something close to best case. Do you have an evening engagement in Vegas you're trying to meet by arriving before sunset? If so taking this day-trip is very risky.
I believe 10:22 is theoretical drive time where by Google Maps just take the distance for each stretch and divide by the maximum speed limit without taking into consideration other factors.
As at the time of posting which is around 5:45pm PDT, it's quoting me 11:53 and I see a number of traffic accidents, constructions and heavy traffic.
According to some website, the sunrise time on the day I'm planning to to take this drive, is around 5:50 and sunset is around 8:36. I don't have any evening plans, it's more like trying to set a goal on what time to reach LV. Why I want to leave before sunrise is cause at least for the early part of the journey from SF to Monterey, I'll be travelling on major highway hence driving in the dark would be less of a concern. As I approach Monterey, it would have become brighter and hence the stretch between Monterey and Cambria I can do it in daylight.
Then from then on it will be a drive to LV. I was hoping to reach before sunset so that I wouldn't have to drive in the dark towards the end of the day, though I believe the last part towards LV would be quite a major highway? It's fine if I were to reach after sunset given that the time listed for sunset might be theoretical hence it will still be bright for sometime after that.
Also I was like looking at alternatives where by I just drive a part of the PCH where by I will take the fastest route to Monterey then drive to Bixby Bridge before backtracking and head to LV via 101. But apparently that's a longer drive according to Google Maps.
Any opinions would be appreciated!