Pacific Coast Highway: San Louis Obispo to the San Francisco Bay by Matthew Barker

Or strictly speaking Highway 1. Best done in a convertible as you go the whole Kerouac hog through Monterey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Malibu and Morro Bay - look out for William Randolph Hearst’s Castle and the elephant seals on Big Sur. They say: "Every absurd detail of day-to-day life becomes a distant dream” (New York Post) Suggested listening: Art Pepper; Chet Baker