We are booked to go to California for my husbands 40th birthday in November. Our current itinerary is as follows -

Fly into SFO (2 nights)>Staying with a friend in Watsonville (1 night)>Morro Bay (1 night), *2 nights unplanned*, LA (1 night)>fly home

For the 2 nights unplanned we were thinking Santa Barbara or maybe Santa Monica? Is there somewhere else I haven’t thought of that is quintessential California coast? We’d like to stay in the same place for both nights since we’ll be moving around quite a bit and doing a lot of driving since a big part of our trip is doing the PCH. My husbands actual birthday is the 6th day of our trip and we’d like to not be travelling or driving at all that day.

We’d enjoy wine and cocktails, good food, exploring (beach walks, leisurely bicycle rides etc, easy hikes), finding local shops. Not crazy about art, history and shopping but not opposed to a bit of it just wouldn’t plan a trip around it.…