Monterey Peninsula for the win

The “point” on Scenic Road looking south towards Monastery Beach and Point Lobos

I am lucky that I’ve been visiting the Monterey Peninsula regularly since I was in college. My friend Meagan from my freshman year dorm is a native of this region and thanks to her, I spent a lot of summer weekends exploring Point Lobos and having parties on the beach with her and her friends. More recently, my folks have been renting a beach house for two months out of the year in Carmel. Naturally, as the adult child of retirees, I crash their annual beach vacation.

Carmel Beach looking north towards Pebble Beach Golf Club

If you go

Don’t miss Point Lobos - the crown jewel of the California State Park system -although sometimes the parking lots fill up so try to time your visit. Late afternoon golden hour on a weekday is a good bet.

Carmel Beach is great to walk along the sand or up on Scenic Road, Carmel River State Beach is great, Ribera Beach is great. The water is cold, I don’t have a lot of experience here actually swimming and be aware there are very dangerous beaches here including the steep Monastery Beach where a lot of scuba divers put in because it gets super deep really close to shore.

The Aquarium is awesome - I had the opportunity to visit at night when I was down there for the DTC wine symposium in January. I will say, it is nice to go when there are no kids.

What to eat locally

1) Strawberries grown by P&K farms at the Monterey farmers market are amazing

2) The artichokes and lettuces of this region are world famous for a reason - check out the Earthbound Farm stand in Carmel Valley. I want to learn more about what happened to mache rosettes (scientific name: valeriana locusta) - why can’t I find these anymore?

3) Sea Harvest is my favorite kind of fish shop, they are a retailer and wholesaler and they have restaurants attached to the shop. This is what you call high turnover product. Their fish is FRESH. They also make cioppino which I love to order as take out. It is owned by fishermen with the goal of selling the freshest local and imported seafood.

4) The cheese shop in downtown Carmel is very fun and has a nice wine shop in the back. I recently tried the Fromage Blanc from Carmel Valley Creamery - very delicious clean cream flavor.

5) My mom really likes the coffee and baked goods from Rise and Roam.

6) There are several really nice groceries in Carmel. In Monterey, Elroy’s is very bougie but you know I love all that kind of stuff.

7) Mission Ranch, owned by Clint Eastwood, has a fun piano bar with good energy and a beautiful view of sheep grazing in the meadow near the Carmel River.

How to get there

Typically I have either driven down from the Bay Area or flown from Seattle into San Jose, rented a car and driven down from there. The traffic in Silicon Valley is no joke, sometimes this journey can take a long time. This trip, for the first time, I flew into the Monterey airport. Alaska has a direct Seattle Monterey flight now. The schedule is limited but the airport is like two miles from Carmel so it’s real easy to get to.

I had a window seat of course and enjoyed this new to me flight path over Point Reyes, then I read my book for a bit and then I looked out the window again as we cut south-east over rows and rows of lettuce farms, turning west exactly along Highway 68 over Laguna Seca raceway.

Erica OrrApril 27, 2026