Pfeiffer Beach shuttle service

The Central Coast is a booming tourist destination during the summer, and with the rise of social media, locations like Big Sur are sometimes getting too crowded.

Owner of Sur Transportation, Weston Call said, “So tourism levels 10 years ago were at this level, and I guess you could call that sustainable. This is overcapacity, this is the past five years of Big Sur. Now we are up here, well beyond over capacity.”

Growing up close to Big Sur, Weston has seen the growth with his own eyes. He says people travel to Big Sur to get that wilderness feel, but when the traffic gets backed up, that can be hard to do.

“Last week, on Monday, they turned around 1,074 cars at the top of the canyon,” Weston said.

Sycamore Canyon Road leads to Pfeiffer Beach. It’s a long, winding, one-lane road. Not only does it lead to one of the most iconic landmarks along the Big Sur coast, it also hosts a residential community and while tourism is a vital part of life in Big Sur, too much can be bad.

“If it’s all traffic down here too, visitor experience down here is diminished,” Weston said. “You know, you’re not experiencing nature, you’re not experiencing wilderness, you’re experiencing traffic jams. Number two, people live here. People did not move here, or choose to live here, to be in traffic jams”

Weston started his company to help shuttle people around the Big Sur coast and said there has always been a need for the service. Last weekend, he started the Big Survice, a shuttle service that goes to and from Pfeiffer Beach, to help solve the traffic problem. Here, you can park for $10 and shuttle to the beach for $5.

Weston has a website to help plan your next trip to Big Sur: https://www.lovebigsur.com/