The Shady Side of California - Part 2 - Monterey & Big Sur

[Disney Wishing]

This was our first time visiting Monterey and we fell in love with the place. The ocean views are absolutely stunning and it makes you instantly relax. We spent 4 nights at the Intercontinental Clement, picking up a deal in June for our August trip. We picked this hotel for it’s central location on Cannery Row and so as we could quickly get of the sun when needed. We loved the hotel. The staff were wonderful, the sea front location was beautiful, although we went with a standard room to help the budget. Rooms were huge and spotlessly clean, the bathroom was as big as my kitchen at home! Despite being in the main tourist hub it was surprisingly quiet. Would go back in a flash.

Favourite things we did in Monterey were:

Recreational Path - This former railway line runs all the way along the front and makes for some great walking. The views along the way are stunning and there’s plenty of Picnic Benches, small parks, wildlife and benches along the way. There are various places to rent bikes or surrey bikes along the way but we just enjoyed walking. We went up through Pacific Grove to Lover Point on a couple of evenings and down past Presidio all the way along to Fishermans Wharf on another.

Lovers Point & Beach House Restaurant - This small park and beach is in Pacific Grove about 20 minutes walk past the Aquarium. Really well kept and just a lovely setting to be in. Good place for children to have a paddle and you can spot otters and seals about too. We ate at Beach House Restaurant while we were here on our first evening. Food and service was fabulous. They have the sunset special menu if you order before 5.30pm which is $9.90 for a main and beer or wine is $3 per bottle or glass. We did book in advance for a table at 5pm and it was a good job we did as they weren’t taking any more walk ins at that time.

Monterey Bay Aquarium - The tickets are not cheap for this at $49 per person but it was a very good aquarium. Spent around 4 hours here in total. The exhibits were very well done, we particularly enjoyed the Open Ocean Section and Kelp Beds. We tried to see the otter feeding but it got a bit crowded so saw them when no feeding was on instead. So cute! Took in a couple of the talks which were really interesting.

First Awakenings Breakfast - Hidden away in the American Tin Cannery just past the Aquarium. Great service and outstanding food. Couldn’t even manage to finish mine. Go Hungry.

Taste of Monterey - Wine Tasting Bistro which was located across the way from our hotel. They do a 3 pour flight tasting for $15 (much cheaper then when we visited Napa) and the wines were all local and lovely. We brought a bottle to drink back at our hotel. You also get the bonus of a full ocean view. We ordered some of their food plates which made for nice tapas style meal.

Big Sur - When we first starting planning Monterey I didn’t realise how close Big Sur was. Once I knew I tried to figure out a way to see it. Given the fact I had to stay out the midday sun was a bit of a problem but I eventually came across a company called DreamCaster Voyages who offered a private tour at a fair price. They picked us up at 3.30pm and took us down the PCH to various viewpoints along Big Sur including Bixby Bridge, Big Sur Lodge, Hurricane Point and some other stops that I sadly can’t remember the name of. We ended the tour with a sunset on Monastery Beach near Point Lomas which was stunning. Brilliant afternoon/evening in a very beautiful part of California.

Monterey Airbus - We used this company to get to Monterey without driving. For $45 person they picked us up from SFO airport and dropped us off at our hotel. Really comfortable bus and nice to sit back at let some-one else do the driving so we could all enjoy the view. We also used them to get from Monterey up to San Jose airport for our flight to Disneyland.

Getting up earlier at watching the sunrise - Ok this was just me as there was no getting the teenager up at 7am. I loved getting up earlier, grabbing a coffee and sitting on the boardwalk watching the sunrise. Hardly anyone was around expect the seabirds, otters and seals. One of those perfect moments in life.

Above would be our highlights but we also did a few other things. After much debate we decided against Whale Watching as we would be restricted to the late afternoon trips and my son gets travel sick so we weren’t sure whether to risk it. We ended up with lovely mild but sunny weather so we may have found the sea calm enough. Maybe next time.