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I am planning a San Francisco - Los Ángeles bike trip next spring. Is it better to do LA to SF or SF to LA? Thanks, regards from Mexico City

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    "Better" by what criteria? This seems rather open-ended and subjective, which doesn't really work on this site because such questions tend to turn into discussions.
    – David Richerby
    Sep 28, 2018 at 20:38
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    Might be better on travel.stackexchange.com
    – Criggie ♦
    Sep 28, 2018 at 21:53
  • @Criggie Would be quickly closed on Travel as an off-topic itinerary planning question, IMO.
    – David Richerby
    Sep 29, 2018 at 11:40
  • @DavidRicherby ok - another example of need for a "localknowledge.se" site where all the regionalised questions should go ?
    – Criggie ♦
    Sep 29, 2018 at 11:49

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Assuming you're riding the Pacific Coast route, North-to-South is clearly the favorite over South-to-North, at least among Crazy Guy on a Bike users. I'm not sure why that is. I'd recommend reading some of those tour diaries to see if they explain the reason.

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    I haven't done it, but I would assume that one consideration would be that north-to-south would put you on the ocean side of the road for better views as you ride.
    – Noah Sutherland
    Sep 28, 2018 at 22:54
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    The views are fine in either direction. More riders go south because LA is south but also east of SF (LA is farther east than Reno Nevada), and the prevailing winds are from the west, so although you get a cross wind while heading south it's sort of a cross-tail wind. If you head from LA to SF, you get a sort of cross-head wind. Nonetheless, many people ride in both directions: north-to-south is a (little) bit easier, south-to-north is a (little) bit more challenging.
    – R. Chung
    Sep 28, 2018 at 23:24
  • @R.Chung in particular SF to LA along the coast seems to head almost east at times (like the last day or so), but never more westerly than SW for significant times. This seems more appropriate than the average. So with a prevailing westerly you have the choice of sometimes cross and sometimes tail or sometimes cross and sometimes head.
    – Chris H
    Sep 29, 2018 at 12:11

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