Big Sur
United States
Ninety miles of cliff road between the mountains and the Pacific, with redwoods in the canyons and nowhere to stay that is not booked months ahead
Photo by Jason Hogan on Unsplash
Photos by Thomas Marban, Andrew Ridley, Tristan McKenzie and Fabian S on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of United States
April to June, and September to October (the fog sits on the coast through high summer and the winter brings the landslides that close the road)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 160mm in Jan
Where it is
36.27°N, 121.81°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Drive it slowly, and use the pull-outs
- See McWay Falls in the afternoon light
- Walk among the redwoods at Pfeiffer
- Find Pfeiffer Beach’s keyhole rock at sunset
- Check the road is open before you leave
Big Sur travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget United States
ExpensiveCards everywhere, but carry some cash: the entrance booth at a park may be card-only or cash-only depending on the day, and the last petrol station before a park often is too. Tipping is 18–22% wherever somebody serves you.
ATMs & cards
Draw in the last town before the park: machines inside the parks are few, charge heavily, and run out at weekends. Chase, Wells Fargo and the credit-union machines are the cheapest; the ones in petrol stations are the dearest.
Avoid these
- the machines inside the park and at petrol stations, which charge heavily and empty at weekends
Use these instead
- Chase
- Wells Fargo
- any credit union
Draw in the last town before you go in. Decline the conversion.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of United States
SafeThe road is the hazard: one lane each way, blind curves, cyclists, and landslides that close it for months at a time without warning. Check Caltrans before driving. There is little phone signal, few petrol stations, and the beaches have rip currents and cold water rather than swimming.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (5 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Highway 1 itself — blind curves, cyclists, and landslides that close it for months
- the beaches — rip currents and cold water; this is not a swimming coast
- a low tank — the petrol stations are few and the prices are famous
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa United States visa rules
Travel authorisation requiredup to 90 days$40
ESTA under the Visa Waiver Program. Romania was admitted in 2025 and then suspended again, so Romanian passports currently need a full visa — this one has flipped twice, so check the official link rather than trusting anything written down, including this. Bulgaria and Cyprus have never been in the programme. ESTA is refused if you have travelled to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia or Yemen since 2011 — those trips mean a full visa instead.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 180 days
Visa required in advance$185
A B1/B2 visitor visa, with an in-person interview. Waiting times run to many months in some countries — start early.
How to get it: Apply for ESTA at esta.cbp.dhs.gov at least 72 hours before travel. Every other site charging for this is a reseller.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: travel authorisation
ESTARequired
At least 72 hours before you fly. Most come back in minutes, some take days.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- a credit or debit card
- your employer's name and address
- any other citizenships you hold
The page calls itself the "Official ESTA Application Website" in its own title, because the trade in charging for this is large. Valid two years, not per trip.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of United States
LimitedRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
The care is excellent and the bill is the risk. There is no universal system, an ambulance ride alone can run into four figures, and an uninsured hospital stay can be genuinely ruinous. Comprehensive travel insurance with a high medical limit is essential — this is the one destination where skipping it can cost more than the trip by an order of magnitude.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodA handful of restaurants along ninety miles, all expensive, some very good. Nepenthe for the view, Big Sur Bakery for the rest. There is no supermarket; bring what you need.
Getting around
Car needed- UberWorks here
- LyftWorks here
- BoltNot here
- From the airport
- JFK to Manhattan $70–95 by app, against a flat $70 yellow-cab fare plus tolls
- Against a taxi
- In most American cities there is effectively no taxi trade left to compare with.
The price on the screen is before tip, and a tip is expected.
Time zone and your working day
America/Los Angeles — 3 hours behind you
5 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 12:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–14:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 12:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 12:00–20:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of United States
Why these are United States's numbers and not Big Sur's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.4× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 1.7× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Big Sur, so these are medians for all of United States. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for United States, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
American English — local usage
- HelloHey / How are you doing?
- The bill, pleaseCan we get the check?
- To go, not eaten inTo go
- Fizzy drinkSoda
4 more phrases
- The undergroundThe subway
- QueueLine
- Ground floorFirst floor
- Thank you very muchThanks so much
Religion
Christian majority, no state religion
Constitutionally separated from the state, and enormously varied by region — the south is far more observant than the coasts.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Tip 18-20% at restaurants and bars — servers are paid below minimum wage and depend on it
- Expect sales tax to be added at the till, not shown on the shelf price
- Make small talk with strangers; friendliness is genuine and not a prelude to anything
- Carry ID if you look under about 35 and intend to drink
Don't
- Do not skip the tip to make a point — take it up with the manager instead
- Do not discuss politics, guns or healthcare with strangers unless invited
- Do not stand too close; personal space is larger than in Europe or Latin America
- Do not joke about security at airports or borders
Where to stay in Big Sur
No Holistay rentals in Big Sur yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Big Sur on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Monterey Regional MRY
40 minfrom the airport· 45 km as the crow flies
40 min to the north end of the coast road.
Also worth pricing: San Francisco SFO — three hours, and where the flights are.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
