I've ridden Santa Barbara to San Diego about 8 years ago. It's pretty straight forward. LA county (mainly longbeach and Torrence) can be a little tricky in some places, I just never found any great way thru. Check Camp Pendleton. I don't know why, but I've heard on rare occasions riders not being allowed to ride thru the base and in that case you just ride the shoulder of the 5 which is very large.

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Peak NA Cocktails for Recovery
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Thanks for the response. I do anticipate the city areas will be more zig-zagging our way through, but we both ride in urban areas a lot, so I think we'll be ok with it. Camp Pendleton is an interesting one...my buddy checked into the passes that allow you to ride on base, and apparently they're not currently giving them out. So we'll be on the freeway for those ~7 miles.

You might have luck just rolling up to the entrance of the base and seeing if they’re let you thru. That’s all I did. They asked to see my ID and let me go on my way. Never had a pass or anything.

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Peak NA Cocktails for Recovery
WAE Clothing
Youtube

Might be worth a shot. We'll see how lucky we're feeling on the day!

I live in LA and have gone south to SD and north to SB on multiple occasions. For camp Pendleton you used to just need to show ID but now you technically have to pre register for a bike pass. if you live in SD, might be worth the time to go in person and get on. I've ridden on the 5 for that stretch going south and it was fine. Mostly since traffic is always at standstill and shoulder is very wide.

I've always just stuck to the coast, mostly the PCH the whole way and here are a few notes about the routes i've used.

After Pendleton, you take the bike path thru San Onofre state park. It's actually the old route 101 and fun part of the ride, although road surface is broken up in some places. That ends at Cristianitos Rd and you ride north for a few blocks and then take left and follow bike route detour. This avoids congestion thru San Clemente and lets you back out on bike path along the ocean and thru Doheny state park. from there, you can get back on PCH, which can be a bit congested with cars but not too bad. Next town heading north is Laguna beach. the bike lane disappears and it can get very crowed with beach traffic during the summer. after LB you head into Crystal Cove. that is beautiful beach and park and huge wide shoulder/bike lane. you will stay on PCH thru Corona del Mar, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal beach. There is dedicated bike lane or shoulder this whole part and pretty safe. Long Beach is where some of the issues start. Always a pain for this portion and many different options. I always take left on 2nd street, thru Belmont Shore onto Ocean ave past LB Aquarium, mall and Catalina ferrys where you can pick up the LA River bike path then exit onto Anaheim st. now this is real sketchy part since there is truck and car traffic for couple miles. some take PCH, some go further north to hit Sepulveda or Carson. none are great options. the bad part is couple miles until you hit Palos Verdes drive. That will take you all the way into the beach cities. from there you can take bike path with a few offs and ons, all the way until you hit Will Rogers park before Malibu. then PCH the rest of the way to Pt Magu. Thru Malibu PCH is hit or miss. the bike shoulder can disappear at times putting you right into the right lane. It's mostly on the first few miles so be careful. I like to be in bigger group thru there. avoid high traffic times, rush hours and weekends. there is beach route thru Oxnard that takes you to Ventura and bike path next to 101. then back on PCH thru Capinteria and into SB. In Ventura, you can detour inland if you have the time and want some hills. good bike path along 33 into Ojai and then around Lake Casitas onto route 150 and then 192 that drops you off just south of SB. great route with lots of fun hills and view of lake.

There is so much to see and do along the way. Definitely some of the parks are worth stopping for. In Malibu, there are some breathtaking beaches, like Matador. and thru that Malibu, some of the most amazing canyon climbs, Topanga, Latigo, Encinal, Decker, Mulholland. this is where you see all the car commercials filmed. Stop at Neptunes for some seafood and hand out with bikers and surfers.

here is link to the route from SB to Manhattan beach. I cannot seem to find recent ride to SD. guess it's been a while. happy to answer any questions and sorry if this is rambling. it's mostly pretty stress free with a few very high stress sections.

https://www.strava.com/routes/2751129652126191410

You've already had some good adivce in here. I'll add this.... the bit that I think is the worst is getting from Long Beach to Palos Verdes. You'll want to take Anaheim St (go to Google Maps and zoom into any section where you're buidling your route and then hover over the "layers" icon in the lower left of the map and when the "biking" icon pops up click on that - it'll help your planning a ton). There's a segment in and around the Wilmington neighboorhood that offers everything terrible for cyclists: rail road tracks, rail road tracks that are at an angle to the street, junk yards and all the metal shavings/glass that come with them, literal junk yard dogs - many of them chained up but he's charging pretty hard... is that chain gonna hold?

If you're gonna do this in a day (doable) then take the inland side of Palos Verdes (via Carson & Torrance) as it's flatter/faster. If you're goinig for the joy of the journey then take PV Drive South to PV Drive West for the magesty of the Pacific and Catalina looming.

Another note - one of your biggest gaps without "resupply" (to bring a bike packing term into this) will be from Malibu to Ventura: PCH & Trancas at the north/west end of Zuma beach in Malibu (market there called Vintage Grocers with a great prepared foods bar - of if you roll in late there's a Chevron station) to a big ass mall on Channel Islands Blvd near Victoria in Ventura. It's only 27 miles, it's pretty flat but you wouldn't want to go blazen by Trancas nearly empty and get denied at Neptunes Net (it's the only game in that stretch and they can be funky).

Lastly, when you come off the bike path at Rincon and you want to get to Carpinteria... Don't ride up the on-ramp to the 101. While it's legal there's no zen in that. If you're on a road bike take this route here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/43202518 and if you're on a gravel bike take this route here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/43202537

Ian

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Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan

Thanks Steve and Ian for the responses; tons of great info in there! Will have to sit down with the route this weekend and try to wrap my head around all you've said here.

I used to ride through camp pendleton but they’ve not given out new permits since covid lockdowns or so. As far as I can tell, you can only opt to take the 5 fwy route nowadays.

The 5 fwy shoulder is not “wide,” but basically you get to use the shoulder that has enough space for broken down vehicles, and I would advise being mentally prepared for what felt like 5 miles of this.

I also agree that between long beach and san pedro it gets ugly. Here is how I’ve navigated that part in the past:

https://strava.app.link/HXof7HoqtAb

I think it would be a shame to go inland in Palos Verdes, it is one of best parts, particularly after enduring the port. You can pretty much take beach bike paths/Sepulveda/PCH beyond malibu once you get to torrance beach.