The problem about the Pacific Coast between San Diego and Seattle is that the farther north you travel, the more intriguing the seafood becomes, and the prices typically move in the opposite direction of what you might anticipate. A cooked Dungeness crab may be purchased right off a dock in Crescent City, California, a little harbor town on the Oregon border nestled between the Pacific and the redwoods, for about the same price as a lousy sandwich near Santa Monica Pier.
This road trip’s main economic premise is that the seaside favors those who know where to buy rather than where to sit. The divide is real. It takes about 1,300 miles, two weeks, and a foam cooler in the back car to enjoy some of North America’s best seafood without the associated expense.
In San Diego and Los Angeles, the first two days set the pace. Nearly everyone refers to Oscar’s Mexican Seafood in San Diego when discussing fish tacos, and for good reason—it’s inexpensive, quick, and sets the bar for how this cuisine should taste on the Pacific Coast. From there, a different register is available at the Santa Monica Seafood Market in Los Angeles. It is more of a market than a restaurant, and the pricing reflect the fact that the fish has just come off a boat.
For the portions of the vacation where the seafood truly warrants spending money, staying at San Elijo State Beach for about $35 per night instead of paying for a city hotel in Los Angeles keeps the budget intact. Those areas are Monterey and Big Sur. For those who are willing to forego Carmel’s more opulent and pricey dining establishments, the farmers market on Tuesdays and Fridays offers produce and picnic materials, while Fisherman’s Wharf nearby Monterey serves barbecued crab at the docks.
The budget math becomes noticeably better around the Oregon coast. The Charleston Marina, which is close to Coos Bay, is a working dock that sells fresh oysters and crab in the same manner as genuinely useful docks: without a reservation, without a tasting menu, and without employees who thoroughly explain the provenance. The experience includes buying it, eating it close by, and feeling the chill of the ocean.
Fish and chip restaurants in Newport and Cannon Beach are simply what locals eat there; they are not tourist-oriented, as the word suggests in other coastal environments. Although the popular sites fill up on weekends, Oregon State Parks allow free beach camping at certain locations and minor fees at others. They run down the coast with enough consistency that you could theoretically camp the entire Oregon portion without making reservations far in advance.
The aspect of this trip that is most likely to startle someone who has never driven it is the Olympic Peninsula as it enters Washington. There are local seafood restaurants in both Sequim and Port Angeles that charge Peninsula prices instead than Seattle prices, which is a significant difference. Regardless of the schedule, the scenery—the mountains falling into the water, the fog hanging low over the Strait of Juan de Fuca—requires the car to slow down.
There’s a desire to celebrate the endpoint at a sit-down restaurant by the water by the time Seattle shows up on days thirteen and fourteen. Pike Place Market is a better option. You may eat at the market counters, get fish from the stalls, and use the money you save to book housing outside of downtown, where prices are far lower.
On a route like this, the Pacific Coast seems more approachable than it looks from the outside, in part because the marketed version of it—the tasting-menu restaurants in Portland, the boutique hotels in Carmel—coexists with a working-dock version that is equally excellent and significantly less expensive.
The practical risk that is most likely to cause the planning to go awry is the one-way automobile rental price, which may add hundreds of dollars to a vacation budget if a San Diego rental is dropped in Seattle. For those who do not require a car at both ends, the Amtrak Coast Starlight, which travels the entire length of the coast back south, is a good option. Crescent City’s crabs make the preparation worthwhile.
