Things to Do in Monterey and Carmel

Posted by: Liisa Nygård

The shoreline south of Monterey is one of California’s top places to visit. We were driving down the Californian coast and found so many things to do in Monterey and Carmel that we just had to stay some extra nights to see it all.

This post will tell you what to do in Monterey and Carmel and around them.

Places to see close to Monterey: Pacific Grove

First, there is the postcard-pretty coastal town of Pacific Grove and the scenic 17-Mile Drive that shows you the coast. Then there is Carmel Valley, a wine-growing region and the beautiful Point Lobos State Reserve where you easily spot seals and shorebirds.

And of course Monterey and Carmel themselves have a lot to offer. Both are tourist destinations in their own right.

Below you can see the Monterey and Carmel area on the map on which I also marked the area’s other top places and driving itineraries and distances to them.

Things to Do in Monterey and Carmel: the Map

Top places to visit in Monterey and Carmen on the map

If you are not familiar with California zoom out the map to see where on the Pacific coast Monterey and Carmel are located. It’s a 3,5 hour drive down the coast from San Francisco (130 miles). You can read about the drive from San Francisco along Highway 1 in my post Coastal Drive from San Francisco to Monterey.

From Los Angeles it’s a pretty long distance and driving time will be almost the double. So stay longer once you come to the Monterey area, and don’t just drive through this beautiful region.

If you want to see the destinations more in detail and the distances between them zoom in the map.

Monterey

Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey

Monterey is the Spanish city of California and the state’s former capital. It is a seaside city and a fishing port with a long pier.

Walk on the Fisherman’s Wharf and in downtown Monterey and then visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or why not take a whale cruise from the wharf?

I am showing the main sights of Monterey in my post Coastal Drive from San Francisco to Monterey so you can read more about the city behind the link. Or check out the official Monterey Tourism website.

What I’m telling about Monterey in this post is a whale watching cruise. You will find it at the end of the post.

So this post is more about the surroundings. To start with, next to Monterey lies the pretty community of Pacific Grove.

Pacific Grove

Lovers Point Beach, Pacific Grove, California

The town of Pacific Grove mainly consists of old wooden villas many of which today are inns or hotels. Pacific Grove is a pleasant place to visit, there are small shops, cafes and restaurants in old vintage buildings and from everywhere it’s just a short walk to the beautiful sandy beach.

Pacific Grove in photos

But what we liked most in Pacific Grove was its fantastic Ocean View Boulevard that runs west from Lovers Point and the beach.

As we were visiting in May Pacific Grove’s thousands of purple ice plants were in bloom. To see all that beauty try to visit Pacific Grove in April or May.

Ice plants in bloom, Pacific Grove

Things to do in Monterey and Carmel: Pacific Grove Ocean View Boulevard

On a cloudy day ice plants covering the whole lawn make the Pacific Grove coastline look magic:

Ice plants on a cloudy day, Pacific Grove Ocean View Boulevard

Walking a bit further on from Pacific Grove you can try and spot Monterey Bay whales, they exist behind the strange-looking coastal rocks. However, we couldn’t see any whales but instead there was a seal basking on a rock.

Pacific Grove: seal on the rock

More information on Pacific Grove on the Pacific Grove travel website.

17-Mile Drive

One of the 17-Mile Drive sandy coves

At the southern edge of Pacific Grove comes the Spanish Bay where you can enter the 17-Mile Drive toll road.

It’s not a motorway however, far from that. It’s a narrow winding road that takes you along the Pacific Coast to Carmel. The 17-Mile Drive has been classified as one of the most scenic drives in North America, so don’t miss this small toll road on your trip to Monterey and Carmel!

As the name says the drive is 17 miles long. It’s a loop drive that in addition to Carmel takes you inland to a pretty forest (Del Monte Forest) with cypress and pines. There are park gates at Pacific Grove, Carmel and off Highway 1.

Things to do in Monterey and Carmel: 17-Mile Drive

If you want to see it all the whole loop will take about three hours depending on how much you stop and if you also hike.

There are some fantastic hikes in the forest and along the Pacific shore.

So the 17-Mile Drive is a great nature destination but it’s also a residential area for millionairess that wanted to build their mansions here, at a convenient distance to all the golf courses that exist here.

17-Mile drive wildlife

But for us, the rocky shores and sandy coves were what we wanted to see on the 17-Mile Drive, not the golf courses.

You could spend hours hiking along this coastline and observing its flora and fauna!

17-Mile Drive in photos

More on the 17-Mile Drive on the Pebblebeach.com website.

But then, there’s something else when you drive on – you can also spend hours looking at Carmel fairy-tale cottages…

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Fairy-tale cottage in Carmel, California

Carmel-by-the-Sea is a hillside village that has a large amount of Hansel and Gretel cottages.

There are twenty-one of them in all so you can see fairy-tale cottages all around the village. They were created by Hugh Comstock in the 1920s and 1930s. He wanted to build houses of this kind for his wife. He built one, built another and bought more land for more houses that today are worth millions. And that gradually became the general building-style of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Carmel-by-the-Sea at the distance of 4 miles from Monterey

Otherwise Carmel has a lovely beach, the historic mission building Carmel Mission and a lot of art galleries, small shops and cozy cafés along the main street Ocean Avenue.

And not to forget, there are lots of wine-tasting rooms where you can sample wines of the nearby Carmel Valley. Carmel is a perfect tourist destination!

Carmel River State Beach with a lagoon and wetland nature preserve

Carmel-by-the-Sea in photos

More information on Carmel on the official Carmel travel website.

A short drive south of Carmel you will find the other remarkable nature destination of the Monterey and Carmel area, the Point Lobos State Reserve.

Point Lobos State Reserve

China Cove, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve

Point Lobos right off the Cabrillo Highway has an amazing ocean setting. The state reserve is small enough to easily be explored on foot. You can drive in the nature reserve, park your car and take short hikes, the most popular of which are the Cypress Grove Trail, the Sea Lion Point Trail and the Bird Island Trail.

These photos are from the Bird Island Trail in the southernmost part of the reserve, and I can tell you that we enjoyed this hike. First there was a seal colony, mothers nursing their pups and hunting for fish in the shallow waters.

Bird Island Trail, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California

Walking on there was the Bird Island with a shorebird colony, a beautiful sight at a distance but very noisy at a closer distance

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve shorebirds, California

Views of the Bird Island

And we also spotted a whale, really! A big one and quite close to the shore. Our first whale in California and our first whale ever!

Cypress Grove Trail

View from Cypress Grove Trail

Driving back from the Bird Island trail there is an easy trail to a cove where you can see sea otters.

Sea otters are funny animals, just floating on their backs in the water and yet looking very active. Californian sea otters have been near extinction and now increasing again. And they only live in this area, along the Big Sur coastline.

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve: Cypress Grove Trail

Spring really is a perfect time to visit California. It’s less crowded on the roads and in spring you will have the best chances to see flowers in bloom and California wildlife.

Whalers Cove

Whalers Cove seen from the trail, Point Lobos State Reserve

Our last destination in the State Reserve was Whalers Cove that also has a lot of seals along its sandy beach. You can observe seal moms feeding their pups right on the seashore below you.

From Whalers Cove there is a trail leading to the next cove, Bluefish Cove, and back through the forest. Whalers Cove also has an old fishing hut that now serves a small museum.

Whalers’ Cove in photos

Above some more views of Whalers Cove: the old fishing hut, seals on the beach and rocky shoreline towards Carmel-by-the-Sea only a few miles away.

Seals in Whalers Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve

More information on the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve:

Big Sur

The state reserve of Point Lobos is where the world-famous Big Sur coastline begins. It is a dramatic coastline where many curves and high bridges were needed to get the US Highway 1 through the steep area.

Visiting the Big Sur coastline, California

The northernmost bridges are a very short drive from Carmel so drive a bit longer and go and see the Big Sur bridges on your trip to Monterey and Carmel.

I will tell about Big Sur in a later blog post so we will not travel that far south this time. Instead we will go inland, to Carmel Valley that was our base for exploring the Monterey and Carmel area.

Carmel Valley

Carmel Valley vineyards

The wine-growing region of Carmel Valley is just a 15-minute drive from Carmel-by-the-Sea. The valley is backed by the Santa Lucia Mountains and the countryside is fantastic with its horse ranches, vineyards and forests.

The center of Carmel Valley is the small community of Carmel Valley Village that has art and antique shops, fine dining restaurants, country pubs – and a lot of wine-tasting rooms:

Talbott Vineyards tasting room

Don’t miss Carmel Valley tasting-rooms on your trip to Monterey and Carmel. Most of them are located right in the village center, at walking-distance from each other. That makes touring them super easy.

Carmel Valley wine tasting in photos

These photos show different Carmel Valley tasting-rooms, from the family-run Talbott that offers high-quality Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs grown in the Santa Lucia Highlands and on a steep mountaintop near Monterey to the Cowgirl Winery that has made tasting super easy. Simple glasses and good instructions, that sounds very American!

A Carmel Valley pub

Carmel Valley in itself is mainly farming and forested area and most of the vineyards are somewhere else, in the Santa Lucia Highlands and in the Salinas Valley. The village also has some original country pubs used by the locals, like this one.

Some more photos of Carmel Valley pubs and fine dining – and some Carmel Valley scenery:

Carmel Valley, California in a photo gallery

We were so lucky that we happened to find this place, Carmel Valley! It began with a hotel booking. We were on vacation and wanted a pool, an outdoor hot tub and a sunnier inland climate than the daily coastal fogs on the Pacific coast. Carmel Valley has a sunnier climate than the coastal resorts and it’s a bit warmer than on the coast where it can still be chilly in spring.

If you want to know where we stayed, it was Contenta Inn in Carmel Valley Village. A good motel that met our needs and very peaceful and quiet in the spring. The location was perfect in the village center, at walking-distance from dining and tasting rooms.

Our hotel in Monterey and Carmel: Carmel Valley Inn

Information on the Carmel Valley on the Monterey Tourism website.

The sunny Carmel Valley was a lovely place to stay at, just a short drive from Carmel along the valley road.

And on a not so sunny day we took our last Things to do activity in Monterey. We went on a whale watching cruise on the stormy Monterey bay:

Monterey Bay Whale Watching Cruise

Whale watching in Monterey

Why did we go on a whale cruise in Monterey, and not somewhere else?

Monterey Bay is the best place in the US to view whales, year-round. That’s because of a canyon that exists in Monterey Bay. The canyon is very long and deep, it’s the continuation of the Grand Canyon. It is 2 miles deep at its deepest point and that makes it possible for big marine mammals like whales and dolphins occur near the coast.

Their food is fish and krill and they feed within the canyon. Since there is food they can stay here all year round. The only exception are the grey whales that migrate between Alaska and Mexico. They can only be seen here in winter and spring.

Monterey whale watching cruises

Whale Watching Tour Organizers

The cruises depart at the end of the Fisherman’s Wharf where you can find a number of different tour providers. We took a Princess Monterey Whale Watching tour that took about 3 hours.

Other tour providers are at least the Monterey Bay Whale Watching Center that says to have 4 hour tours and Randy’s Whale Watching & Fishing. All tour providers give an almost 100 % guarantee to spot whales.

Going on a Monterey whale watching cruise

So we went on a tour and the whales didn’t mind the rain. They appeared to us, all the time and at both sides of the vessel. We were busy running around the boat that was rocking in the strong sea waves, to spot as many whales as possible.

The first whale we saw

This one only showed his back and others came still closer and breached, just like the huge humpback whale below. Humpback whales are the most curious and playful of all the whales and there were many of them around us that day. And there were dolphins as well.

More whales in Monterey Bay

After the whale experience it was now time to continue our journey south to Big Sur and on.

Californian windmill, US Highway 1

So these were my top picks of the things to do in Monterey and Carmel in Central California. Hope the article was useful to you and if you want to read more about California you will find my other California posts here: