Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). 'Big Splurge' Anniversary trip was a success!
It was fairly low key. The only spending was fuel, hotel, and food. 100% just nature and the great outdoors, otherwise. But the hotels were expensive.
This trip really narrowed down my focus. I had wanted to travel and explore the central coast more. It's always been my happy place. So... We expanded and explored a bit. & nope. This is the place. If we redid the same trip over again, I would have just stayed in Pismo for the week. I do have a renewed appreciation for how special it is.
We had about 20 miles of coastline completely to ourselves. Unreal.
Our trip (distance) was cut a little short re: Highway 1 closure that cut off a lot of our access to Big Sur. We can save the windy/steep coastline road for a future trip. I guess the road has been washed out for about 3 years (according to the northern most hotel that we stayed at). I am sure we have driven that stretch before but we had wanted to stop and do more camping (further north) this trip. It just wasn't worth the extra time and drive to go all the way around.
Too far north (absolutely gorgeous but no wifi or cell service):
Too far south:
Pismo Beach:
I paid for the trip when the hotel charges posted to the credit card. I sent $1,200 to the restaurant/fuel card. (We ate *very* well). & sent $2,500 to the travel card to pay for the hotels. That should cover it.
That reminds me, we did expand our horizons and try some new food places in Pismo. Realized why we always go to the one place. (Which is somewhat a cost thing because the cost is unreal/low, in addition to the amazing food). But we tried some things. & then we just ended up focusing on all the best places we always go to. (Lots of amazing Italian food.)
So yes, we seemed to fail on all fronts, as to trying new things. But hey, at least we tried. I suppose that's not totally fair. We enjoyed the northern notel we stayed at, and discovered we had the coastline to ourselves.
Grand Total: $3,700
Note: We took out MM(22) for a handful of extravagant meals, so it wasn't just the two of us. We spent most of the week just a few miles from his college campus.
This was probably our biggest 2-person domestic splurge. We came in slightly under our 2017 Europe trip (that we did soley because it was an incredible deal). & I mean, the $3,850 Europe trip was far more extravagant as to how many places we went and things we did. The non-stop flights were unreal (something like $500) and the exhange rate was very favorable at the time. I paid for all the tours (different cities/countries) with credit card points.
The obvious thing I would do to redo this trip is camp on the weekend to save $800. I mean trading out a very ho hum (but the most expensive) hotel in more out of the way city and trade it for camping in a cabin with a full bath and kitchen, on a lake. We had planned to do that anyway but it was a 2-night minimum. & I didn't want to stay that long. Hindsight 20/20, I'd make that switch. I'd also eat out a lot less and just eat more leftovers.
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