You were warned - just some suggestions (gasp) -

Travel Day 1 - Leave LA on SR1 (Malibu - coast road) - follow SR 1 to junction with US 101 at Oxnard. Late breakfast/early lunch stop in Santa Barbara. Visit Mission Santa Barbara - lovely Spanish era mission in the foothills above the city. Continue north on US 101 to SR1 exit to Morro Bay. Overnight at Morro Bay or, if time, continue to Cambria.

Travel Day 2 - Early start, north on SR1 to Hearst Castle at San Simeon. Tour Hearst Castle. Continue N. on SR1 to Big Sur. Late lunch or early meal (or snack) at Nepenthe, Orson Wells & Rita Hayworth's famous pad. Continue north on SR1 to Carmel/Seaside for overnight.

Travel Day 3 - Prowl around Carmel/Seaside shops. Visit Cannery Row (Steinbeck associations) in Monterey. Continue north on SR1 to Santa Cruz. Ride on the roller coaster at the amusement park in Santa Cruz. Continue north on SR1 to San Francisco for overnight.

Travel Day 4 - Leave SF on US 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge. Exit on SR1 toward Stinson Beach. North on SR1 to Mendocino for overnight. Picturesque village used in several films.

Travel Day 5 - North on SR1 to junction with US 101 at Leggett, continue N. on US 101 to (also Victorian-era) Ferndale for the overnight. For dinner, head into Eureka, follow signs across the bay to Samoa, dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse, last surviving log camp mess hall - comfort food served "family style" by your granny. Or, somebody's granny.

Travel Day 6 - North on US 101 through the Redwood groves - stopping at as many as possible. Bet you five quid this will be the highlight of the drive. After Crescent City, continue on US 101 into Oregon. Overnight at Gold Beach, stopping for gobsmack moments at view pullouts off the road.

Travel Day 7 - Continue north on US 101, pulling over for oohs and ahhs as needed; don't miss the sand dunes near Florence, or Heceta Head Lighthouse a bit north of Florence. Overnight at Yachats (Ya-hahts.)

Travel Day 8 - Keep heading north on 101 - all the way to Astoria, then over the bridge at the (amazing) mouth of the Columbia River. Overnight in Long Beach, Ilwaco, or Oysterville along the Long Beach peninsula, opposite Willapa Bay. Reason for this overnight is dinner at the Ark restaurant, in Nachotta, a few miles north of Long Beach.

Travel Day 9 - Back to the river, east on SR4 past several historic towns (big Lewis and Clark associations around here) to Interstate 5 at Longview. South on I-5 to junction of I-205, south on I-205 back over the Columbia to the junction of I-84; east on I-84 to Troutdale exit; overnight at McMenamin's Edgefield, the former Multnomah County Poor Farm transformed into a hotel/B&B/cinema/brewery/winery/distillery/golf/garden… place. www.mcmenamins.com.

Travel Day 10 - East on the "old" Columbia Gorge Highway (not I-84; the old road starts in "downtown" Troutdale near the Edgefield) - stopping at various outlook points to goggle at the amazing Columbia Gorge. Visit Multnomah Falls (or other falls accessed off the old road) and the hatchery at Bonneville Dam. (See the enormous sturgeon hovering like dinosaur submarines in the ponds.) Cross the river at Cascade Locks or at Hood River (windsurfing capital of the Americas/world) and continue east on Washington SR 14 to Maryhill. Visit the Maryhill Museum, with views back toward Mt. Hood on the Oregon side. Also don't miss the copy of Stonehenge just east of US 97 on the Washington side. Backtrack to The Dalles (Oregon) for the night - several okay hotels and B&Bs.

Travel Day 11 - North on US 97 from Maryhill, over Satus Pass and through the Yakama Indian Reservation, to Toppenish. Lunch at the tribal headquarters; try the buffalo burger. Overnight somewhere in the Sunnyside-Yakima corridor for serious wine tasting - some of the best wines being made in the US nowadays. See http://www.wineyakimavalley.org/wineries/index.asp .

Travel Day 12/13 - North on US 97 through more red-rock country to Chelan. Overnight. Next morning, take the Lady of the Lake cruise up amazing Lake Chelan deep into the heart of the Cascades. Back to Chelan that night. No-car day.

Travel Day 14 - North on US 97 through the heart of the US apple growing region and major cowboy-and-Indian country to the Canadian border, overnight in Osoyoos or west on BC 3 to Princeton or Hope. BC 3 is one of the most beautiful drives in the region at this time of year. Stop at fruit stands or buy some most excellent BC hard cider or (also excellent) wines from this part of the province.

Travel Day 15 - into Vancouver.

Note these are travel days only. Obviously you should spend some additional time in San Francisco or LA or Vancouver or… Plus I'm cutting out Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula, Mt Rainier, Crater Lake, etc. etc. - you can't do it all.

What you'll see, though, is the amazing variety of this part of North America. Look at it - Malibu mansions, Spanish missions, rugged coastal scenery, the tallest trees in the world, more rugged coast, the great river of the West, desert and red rocks and wineries and Alpine lakes and… and… Not to mention some cities that scream to be explored and savored.

I've done all of these routes - together or separately - I don't know how many times, and I've had the pleasure of showing them off to visitors from the US and overseas on a few occasions. I still get excited just writing about it.

Of course these are just suggestions. There are infinite riffs on this theme. Happy planning.