The direct route up I-5 gets you from LA to San Francisco in about six hours — but it skips almost everything worth seeing. Highway 1, the coastal route, takes longer and is worth every extra minute.
Start in Santa Barbara for an easy first stop, then continue toward San Luis Obispo. From there, the drive winds through Big Sur, arguably the most dramatic stretch of coastline in the country, with cliffside pullouts at almost every turn.
Plan for at least two nights along the way. Trying to do Big Sur in a single afternoon means missing the point of it — the views reward slowing down.
A car with reliable range and decent trunk space is ideal here, since gas stations get sparser through the Big Sur stretch. Fill up before you enter, not after.