Stupid Travel (Driving) question - LA to Monterey

[Alex]

They're almost the same.

I-5 north to 152 West is 343 miles.
101 north is 344 miles.

Google lists the first route as 5 hours 28 minutes and the latter as 5 hours 50 minutes.

So unless time is absolutely crucial it is a wash. That said, I've done both drives many times and the time of day would play a huge role since the traffic between LA and Santa Barbara seems to really slow down that time while once you get to Valencia I've never hit traffic north of there (except once but that was because the Grapevine was actually closed).

But if time is not extremely pressing then I'd go with 101. More places to stop, more things to see while driving.