Highway 1 locks up from about 11am to 4pm every single day of Car Week. Not slows down. Locks. The people who do this well don’t sit in it. Most of what separates a good Car Week from a miserable one is knowing that kind of thing before you leave the house.

So I put all of it in one place. Where the cars actually are for free, which days are worth your time, how to get around the traffic on the back roads, where the locals actually eat, and what to do if it’s your first time out here. It’s the guide I wish somebody had handed me years ago.

It’s free, and it’s right here.

If you’d rather jump straight to one piece of it: the schedule, parking and traffic, where to watch, where to eat, the backroads, and the first-timer rundown.

Grab a coffee, be patient, and enjoy the week. You came for the cars, but the drive out is half of why this place is what it is.