The Final Stretch of the Journey down the Pacific Coast Highway

You've almost completed the journey!  Congratulations.  The road trip started out with food carts and a video game arcade.  A cheese factory and lighthouse followed that.  Then you ran into sand dunes and ancient trees.  Not to mention all the ocean views that were nearby.  That's why I love this road trip, there is so much variety of what to see and do.

After exploring the Howland Hill Road portion of the Redwood Forest and heading to Crescent City. Continue south on 101 until you get to Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway.  This road takes you to more hiking trail heads through the Redwoods.  Circle Trail is a quick walk to see Big Tree.  Which is a must see.  I'd recommend looking at the other trails here and figuring out which one you would like to go on based on time and difficulty.  After you've had your fill of this portion of the Redwoods head to your final stop on the journey in Eureka, California. There are numerous hotels and places to stay in Eureka.  Check  out the Best Western Plus Bayshore Inn.  They usually have very good room rates.

If you have some time while in Eureka, Sequoia Park Garden, Humboldt Bay, and Carson Mansion are all worth a visit. I'd go to Lost Coast Brewery for good grub and good beer.  Head back to your room for the night and get ready for the trip back.  You can either head back to Portland on 101 north, or you can cut across to I-5. It's up to you. 101 will take longer, but the views will be better.

Road trips are awesome.  Taking a road trip like this lets you see so many different things. This trip is the kind of budget trip I like.  Most of the costs of the trip are going to be up front.  You need to pay for the plane tickets, the rooms, the car, and gas.  Most attractions on this road trip are going to be free or have a minimal cost.  Every food place I've listed here will have a plethora of options for less than 15$.  You can always get a foam cooler and stock it up for the trip too.

Final Costs:
I'm going to recommend going as a group of four for this trip so you can split fuel, rental car and rooms.

Your lodging for the trip will end up at about 120$ a night. Luckily, I picked a four night road trip, so that's how much the hotel will cost per person.  You can get a rental car for about 70$ a day.  For gas, I'm assuming you'll fill up 6 times at 40$ each time.  For the rooms and gas however, I'm over estimating, it will probably be less than that.  60$ a person for gas, and about 80$ each for the car.  So all in all you'll be paying 260$ each for the room, car and gas.  On this trip, You could get by with 100$ of spending money for the whole trip if you don't eat out very much and stick to fast food or your cooler.

So, on the low end of your budget, you're looking at 360$ for this road trip.  That's a very budget friendly price.  If you want to eat at all of the fun restaurants, I'd add another 100$ to your budget and you will be set.

Budget Friendly Ratings(1-10): 

Lodging- 4
Transportation-3
Food- 7
Activities-10

This is my favorite kind of budget trip, because you're not going to feel like you're missing much when it comes to the activities.  If the activities cost a lot, it can leave the budget traveler feeling left out.  That is not the case here. You should be able to do every single activity I listed even on the smallest budget for this trip. If you want to save more money, you could take a bigger group and just go vacation rental homes the whole way on the coast.  I hope you enjoyed my road trip guide.  I look forward to writing much more budget oriented travel guides in the future.

Thanks for reading!