Hello! I'd like to help others not make the same mistake I made when thinking about your itinerary and hotels in Big Sur.
When choosing the days for our road trip from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, I didn't think ahead to what day we would be driving through Big Sur. We are doing our trip around the end of October, partly to travel off-season and avoid some of the crowded conditions. But our Big Sur days landed on the weekend, which isn't ideal. So you might want to think about this ahead of time when planning.
Also, this is important because I found out that the hotels (there aren't that many) in Big Sur have a 2 night minimum booking on weekends. We decided to split up our days in this area by staying one night in order to have more time for stops and hiking, but we only needed one night. I booked a room at the Big Sur Lodge, and it is not super obvious on their website that there is a 2 night minimum; only after I booked it did I see that. Other hotels state the 2 night minimum pretty clearly.
I cancelled Big Sur Lodge, and started searching for a place to stay for 1 night. I called Deetjen's Inn, and the person there was nice enough to allow me to book a room for one night, although it's more than I'd like to spend. Oh well - live and learn!
