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Started By
Message
re: Monterrey, CA and Carmel by the Sea
Posted on 3/10/22 at 9:58 am to CaliforniaTiger
Posted on 3/10/22 at 9:58 am to CaliforniaTiger
quote:
love that area near cambria
Me too! My fav wineries are in Paso Robles then I hop over to Cambria. Always stay at The Fog Catcher Inn and eat at The Sea Chest.
0
Posted on 3/10/22 at 10:27 am to JustForThisThread
A car is pretty much mandatory.
If you decide to focus on Monterey Co. Then use the regional airport there. It has connections to Dallas and Denver. That will save you lots of uninteresting driving.
In Monterey the Aquarium is one of best in US and has a history of interaction NOLA aquarium. The harbor area and adjacent Cannery Row (boutiques) can fill a day.
Salinas has a nice small museum in the historic district just a few blocks long.
Fires in summer 2020 and earlier impacted a number of vinyards. Be sure to get up to date info when planning tastings.
If you decide to focus on Monterey Co. Then use the regional airport there. It has connections to Dallas and Denver. That will save you lots of uninteresting driving.
In Monterey the Aquarium is one of best in US and has a history of interaction NOLA aquarium. The harbor area and adjacent Cannery Row (boutiques) can fill a day.
Salinas has a nice small museum in the historic district just a few blocks long.
Fires in summer 2020 and earlier impacted a number of vinyards. Be sure to get up to date info when planning tastings.
Posted on 3/10/22 at 11:54 am to Tree_Fall
Wow. Thank you for all of the great info and personal recs. So much info to sort through and will be hard to decide what we should do. I should have searched harder before posting as there is already lots of info on this area.
This is kind of a last minute trip idea as we are looking at the Middle weeks of May. With these dates it doesn't look like we can do Tickle Pink Inn so may have to find somewhere else.
I haven't looked yet but are the Wine Tastings something that has to be booked out further in advance or is this something you could even decide to go do while out there?
To Longhorn22: Would you mind sharing contact details for the picnic on the beach in Carmel? Would love to be able to do the same and surprise wife. Definitely a great way to score some points!!
This is kind of a last minute trip idea as we are looking at the Middle weeks of May. With these dates it doesn't look like we can do Tickle Pink Inn so may have to find somewhere else.
I haven't looked yet but are the Wine Tastings something that has to be booked out further in advance or is this something you could even decide to go do while out there?
To Longhorn22: Would you mind sharing contact details for the picnic on the beach in Carmel? Would love to be able to do the same and surprise wife. Definitely a great way to score some points!!
Posted on 3/10/22 at 2:06 pm to JustForThisThread
To piggyback, I've been thinking of a similar trip but haven't started a thread yet so I'll ask here. I'm sure I'll start a thread after I've done some more research as well.
I was planning on flying in to San Fran and renting a car and heading down to Santa Cruz and playing golf at Pasatiempo and spending the night there, then heading down the Carmel/Monterey for a couple nights, then heading down to Big Sur (should you stay here and devote a night to it or is it mostly the drive through it)? Then after Big Sur heading to Pasa Robles for a night and hitting up a winery or 2 and then heading back to San Fransico to leave.
So essentially a Santa Cruz/Pasatiempo, Monterey/Carmel, Big Sur, Pasa Robles road trip.
How many days would you devote to the trip and how would you split those days up between the locations? Is 1 night Santa Cruz, 2 nights Monterey/Carmel, 1 night Big Sur, 1 night Pasa Robles enough? Or just 2 nights in Big Sur with a day trip to Pasa Robles?
I was planning on flying in to San Fran and renting a car and heading down to Santa Cruz and playing golf at Pasatiempo and spending the night there, then heading down the Carmel/Monterey for a couple nights, then heading down to Big Sur (should you stay here and devote a night to it or is it mostly the drive through it)? Then after Big Sur heading to Pasa Robles for a night and hitting up a winery or 2 and then heading back to San Fransico to leave.
So essentially a Santa Cruz/Pasatiempo, Monterey/Carmel, Big Sur, Pasa Robles road trip.
How many days would you devote to the trip and how would you split those days up between the locations? Is 1 night Santa Cruz, 2 nights Monterey/Carmel, 1 night Big Sur, 1 night Pasa Robles enough? Or just 2 nights in Big Sur with a day trip to Pasa Robles?
This post was edited on 3/10/22 at 3:24 pm
Posted on 3/11/22 at 10:35 am to JustForThisThread
quote:
To Longhorn22: Would you mind sharing contact details for the picnic on the beach in Carmel? Would love to be able to do the same and surprise wife. Definitely a great way to score some points!!
Definitely. That day was very "easy going"....we stayed at Hotel Pacific in Monterrey due to price + space + fireplace etc. It's a great rate.
Just a heads up, you think you are staying by the coast so you want to pay "extra" for the views etc....but the amount of time spent at the room is not alot other than to recharge. If yall choose to stay at the room alot and relax there then sure...but we didn't we got up early each morning (jet lag mostly) and were coming in after sunsets somewhere...so a place like Hotel Pacific was clutch.
I wasn't too sure about some of the older "Inns" in Carmel, but really wish we would have trusted it a little more. They were really nice and the websites don't do them any justice.
The picnic day we needed that relax day after the hiking day we had in Big Sur....
17 Mile Ride (does not take long at all..90 min to 2 hours) but you can make it last however long you'd like. I think we had a 1:30 Resi at THE BENCH, overlooking the 18th Green, with the perfect back drop...watching golfers finish up their round. Was really cool and could have stayed there all day. Wrapped up the day with the picnic... was already setup. I went the snacks route and planned accordingly by bringing the leftover pizza and bottle of wine we had planned to drink for the Sunset...was perfect to play off that without her knowing about the picnic..lol and is less to have food brought out etc (things may have changed now though and things may be more convenient)
pillowsandpicnics is there IG
LINK
There's their website, I just slid into their DMs and told them what I was trying to accomplish and they helped out. It worked out perfectly. Very reasonable and easy to work with.
Posted on 3/11/22 at 10:42 am to DukeSilver
quote:
How many days would you devote to the trip and how would you split those days up between the locations? Is 1 night Santa Cruz, 2 nights Monterey/Carmel, 1 night Big Sur, 1 night Pasa Robles enough? Or just 2 nights in Big Sur with a day trip to Pasa Robles?
Like any trip, you could def spend more time in each town/area....it's really awesome out there.
But, you can also do something like what we did.
At the time prices of flights were cheap to fly in and out of LAX on SW so that's how we ended up with our trip being setup like that. Ideally you'd drive north to south or south to north. It was still during COVID times, so we avoided MAJOR CITIES at all cost. Didn't do anything in LA and thats not what the trip was setup for...enjoyed everything you DONT hear about Cali...lol
I'd personally save anything SF or north of that for another trip...would do anything South of SF to LA...
Depending on the amount of vineyards you want to tackle 1 day is enough in Paso...
Big Sur can be done in 1 day, but also could do more....
Monterrey/Carmel same can be 1 day...but also could do more
Ofcoarse we'd love to go back and when we do our plan is to post it up in Carmel and enjoy just relaxing on the beach etc... but this go around I WILL play Pebble....so yeah
Posted on 3/11/22 at 3:28 pm to longhorn22
Go whale watching from out of Monterey. They have boats that go out for a couple hours and you can see humpbacks/blue whales/killer whales pending the time of year. Highly recommended.
Posted on 3/12/22 at 7:38 am to Musashi
Not sure how old the couple is, but I’d recommend skipping whales and soaking up all that you can do in the area… so much to do. Would do something like that on a return trip when older and may not want to hike and get around as much.
Posted on 3/12/22 at 7:58 pm to JustForThisThread
That’s awesome you have decided to head there. I got married at the Hyatt resort in Carmel Highlands 5 minutes south of Carmel-By-The-Sea. I’m thankful for it anytime I end up talking about California or weddings. I would say there is no better hotel in the area in terms of view and accomodations.
The Tickled Pink Inn is great as well. I’ve stayed there before too. If you want to stay in town, a bunch of friends stayed at the Carriage House and I’ve stayed at Wayside Inn. Both places were charming and nice. If you stay in Carmel, everything is essentially in walking distance as far as restaurants, bars, art galleries, and their city park is actually the beach at the foot of Ocean Ave.
You absolutely need to rent a car if you want to see the Big Sur coast and do the 17 mile drive. Going into the valley is not doable on foot really either and it’s better to have your own car than try and call for Uber.
You can fly into San Jose and drive down, or there is an airline called JSX that does flights to Monterrey that you may want to look into. Not sure where you live or how convenient it might be to use them.
Also, January is really the only rainy month (of course that’s when I got married). Every other month should have essentially perfect weather.
Point Lobos is a nearby hiking area and there are other areas on the peninsula as well.
I haven’t been back since I got married there so I’m a bit jealous of your trip.
The Tickled Pink Inn is great as well. I’ve stayed there before too. If you want to stay in town, a bunch of friends stayed at the Carriage House and I’ve stayed at Wayside Inn. Both places were charming and nice. If you stay in Carmel, everything is essentially in walking distance as far as restaurants, bars, art galleries, and their city park is actually the beach at the foot of Ocean Ave.
You absolutely need to rent a car if you want to see the Big Sur coast and do the 17 mile drive. Going into the valley is not doable on foot really either and it’s better to have your own car than try and call for Uber.
You can fly into San Jose and drive down, or there is an airline called JSX that does flights to Monterrey that you may want to look into. Not sure where you live or how convenient it might be to use them.
Also, January is really the only rainy month (of course that’s when I got married). Every other month should have essentially perfect weather.
Point Lobos is a nearby hiking area and there are other areas on the peninsula as well.
I haven’t been back since I got married there so I’m a bit jealous of your trip.
Posted on 3/14/22 at 6:10 am to kciDAtaE
I once fed a bag of California walnuts to the squirrels at the Bixby Bridge overlook. I was lucky to get out of there alive.
Posted on 3/14/22 at 3:12 pm to Saint Alfonzo
We are struggling to line up babysitters and hammer down a date. Our best bet may be end of April into May for 4 nights. Hopefully this isn't too last minute to get everything booked. We are both 36 and yes would like to do some Hiking. Flying out of New Orleans so looks like United flights to San Fransico aren't too bad.
If we went the North to South route, is keeping home base somewhere in Monterrey doable? We both typically like to stay at one place rather than multiple checkin and checkouts. Or with the driving we'd be doing are we better off spending nights separately as we head south? Seems consensus is to break it up. We would love to see a vineyard or 2 in Paso Robles so i think this answers my own question and would have to spend a night there. At that point is it easier to keep heading south to Fly out of LAX or head back north to SF?
This trip is harder to plan than i thought as there is just so much to do.
If we went the North to South route, is keeping home base somewhere in Monterrey doable? We both typically like to stay at one place rather than multiple checkin and checkouts. Or with the driving we'd be doing are we better off spending nights separately as we head south? Seems consensus is to break it up. We would love to see a vineyard or 2 in Paso Robles so i think this answers my own question and would have to spend a night there. At that point is it easier to keep heading south to Fly out of LAX or head back north to SF?
This trip is harder to plan than i thought as there is just so much to do.
Posted on 3/14/22 at 5:59 pm to JustForThisThread
If you are in the LA area the Reagan Museum is worth a visit. Allow a few hours. We always rent a convertible because there is stuff to see on both sides of the highway. Like others have said it is a fantastic part of the country.
Posted on 3/14/22 at 7:30 pm to kciDAtaE
If you want a romantic location, head North of San Francisco. Check out Mendicino. It's a picturesque village on the coast. There isn't a commercial sign around. You can rent a cottage sitting high above the surf, cliffside......very secluded. Keep traveling up the coast and you head into the Giant Redwood Forest. The trees are amazing!
On the way up, stop at some wineries in Napa or Sonoma, and stock up on wine for the evenings, watching beautiful sunsets. It's not as publicized as Monterey, but just as beautiful, and not as pretentious.
You can fly into Sacramento (easier to navigate than The Bay Area).
On the way up, stop at some wineries in Napa or Sonoma, and stock up on wine for the evenings, watching beautiful sunsets. It's not as publicized as Monterey, but just as beautiful, and not as pretentious.
You can fly into Sacramento (easier to navigate than The Bay Area).
Posted on 3/15/22 at 7:57 am to JustForThisThread
quote:
We would love to see a vineyard or 2 in Paso Robles so i think this answers my own question and would have to spend a night there. At that point is it easier to keep heading south to Fly out of LAX or head back north to SF?
I'd def do North to South then and end in LA.
I'd do it similar to what we did though and just use the fly in city as a start/end spot....don't plan to do much or anything at all in those cities, (you'd prob end up going back at some point and those places are more time consuming).
Unfortunately a few weeks before our trip they had bad storms come thru and messed up parts of the PCH near Ragged Point. So instead of changing our trip or flights we just tuffed it out and drove up from LAX
Malibu->Santa Barbara->Solvang->Paso->Monterrey->Big Sur->Carmel->Monterrey->Santa Barbara->Fly back from LAX.
It really wasn't that bad. Obviously the original plan was to drive the entire PCH, but couldn't in the Cambria area so just drove the 101 and it was a really easy drive and scenic in parts with all of the agriculture they grow in those valleys.
Ideally a north to south or south to north trip is easiest...
Again, on the hotel situation... it can be done however....but if yall are trying to cram in a good bit and are venturing out often you won't use your hotel for anything other than a home base.
I would rec. to book the convertible asap...also call them to get a better price (saved $150 by calling vs seeing prices online)
Posted on 3/15/22 at 7:58 am to Pablo945
quote:
If you want a romantic location, head North of San Francisco. Check out Mendicino. It's a picturesque village on the coast. There isn't a commercial sign around. You can rent a cottage sitting high above the surf, cliffside......very secluded. Keep traveling up the coast and you head into the Giant Redwood Forest. The trees are amazing!
saving for future trip.... we'll def be doing north of SF next go around....then the Oregon Coast. Would love to just go for an extended time, but realistically have to break the trip up for us...
Posted on 3/15/22 at 11:58 am to longhorn22
For those mentioning Paso Robles, this place has been on my list. Looks pretty sweet.
Sensorio Paso Robles
Sensorio Paso Robles
Posted on 3/15/22 at 6:16 pm to TTB
We finally got our dates down and gonna start booking everything. Flying to SFO and flying out of LAX. We'll have 4 nights in between.
Day1 (Arrival) Carmel By the Sea - Plan to take it easy as I'm sure we'll be wiped by end of the day. Walk around the town, check everything out and maybe grab early dinner and see the beach. Considering sneaking in the 17 mile drive this day but that may too much driving for a day.
Day 2 - More Carmel by the Sea area. Maybe 17 mile drive here instead. Check out Monterrey and maybe a little hiking in Pacific Grove.
Day 3 - Drive down to Big Sur. Spend day hiking and exploring off the path beaches and what not. I've seen Nepenthe mention twice for lunch so probably stop there as well. Spend night in Carmel again.
Day 4 - Wake up and drive down to Paso Robles. Plan to schedule 2 Vineyard tours or tastings. Still not sure what that involves if a tour is different than a tasting but assume a full day there is enough. Spend the night.
Day 5 - Wake up way too early for the 3 hour drive to LAX to go home.
This is my itenary off the top of my head. Appreciate any critiques or further suggestions if anything too good to miss I left out. Is only 1 day in Paso Robles enough? Any rec's for lodging in Paso Roble? Ive seen a Marriot and Holiday Inn but curious if there are any other little charming places that are better to stay at.
Also plan to arrange the Picnic (thanks Longhorn). Just haven't decided if the beach in Carmel or Big Sur will be better. Waiting for response from Pillows and Picnics for their suggestions.
Day1 (Arrival) Carmel By the Sea - Plan to take it easy as I'm sure we'll be wiped by end of the day. Walk around the town, check everything out and maybe grab early dinner and see the beach. Considering sneaking in the 17 mile drive this day but that may too much driving for a day.
Day 2 - More Carmel by the Sea area. Maybe 17 mile drive here instead. Check out Monterrey and maybe a little hiking in Pacific Grove.
Day 3 - Drive down to Big Sur. Spend day hiking and exploring off the path beaches and what not. I've seen Nepenthe mention twice for lunch so probably stop there as well. Spend night in Carmel again.
Day 4 - Wake up and drive down to Paso Robles. Plan to schedule 2 Vineyard tours or tastings. Still not sure what that involves if a tour is different than a tasting but assume a full day there is enough. Spend the night.
Day 5 - Wake up way too early for the 3 hour drive to LAX to go home.
This is my itenary off the top of my head. Appreciate any critiques or further suggestions if anything too good to miss I left out. Is only 1 day in Paso Robles enough? Any rec's for lodging in Paso Roble? Ive seen a Marriot and Holiday Inn but curious if there are any other little charming places that are better to stay at.
Also plan to arrange the Picnic (thanks Longhorn). Just haven't decided if the beach in Carmel or Big Sur will be better. Waiting for response from Pillows and Picnics for their suggestions.
Posted on 3/15/22 at 11:32 pm to JustForThisThread
So how important is a convertible for the driving? Of course I want one now after hearing everyones recommendation but apparently picking up in San Francisco and dropping off in Los Angeles is so much more expensive. $1,000 more. Picking up in LA and dropping off in San Fran or flying in and out of San Fran the prices are much cheaper and the same. But San Fran to LA for any car, not just convertible is so much pricier. I'm curious why that is.
This has me 2nd guessing the order of the trip now. Do I travel South to North now or just keep same plan but drive back to San Fran and fly out.
This has me 2nd guessing the order of the trip now. Do I travel South to North now or just keep same plan but drive back to San Fran and fly out.
Posted on 3/16/22 at 9:10 am to JustForThisThread
Why not just fly in and out of san fran? Its a very similar drive from Pasa Robles to both it seems like, both roughly 3.5 hrs.
Posted on 3/16/22 at 3:23 pm to DukeSilver
Yes, thats what we'll be doing. That 3hr drive in the morning on travel day back home just had me anxious so rearranged the itinerary so that Paso Roble is not at the end of the trip.
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