We said goodbye to San Francisco and hit the road to visit Monterey and Carmel. From San Francisco, it takes about two hours to reach Monterey.

On the way, we made a short stop in Santa Cruz. We did not stay long, but we saw quite a few wooden houses and beautiful beaches. We immediately felt a very calm, zen atmosphere in the city. During our walk toward the beach, two American women kindly offered to take pictures of us without us even asking. That is also what America is like. 🙂

We then got back on the road to visit Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea. The scenery quickly changed, and we immediately noticed how much more natural, even wild, it looked in some places. I took a few photos from the car as we arrived near Monterey Bay.

Once we arrived, finding a parking spot was not easy. Monterey is not a very large city, but it is definitely touristy. We had chosen a hotel on Cannery Row, where most of the activity is concentrated. Cannery Row, literally the old sardine street, used to be home to the fish canneries. Today, it is a lively tourist area with many shops, restaurants, and the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

After parking, we dropped our bags at the hotel and went for a walk on the Monterey pier. Monterey Bay is absolutely beautiful, and we saw sea lions sunbathing lazily on the rocks. It was such a joy to show that beautiful sight to our son.

For dinner, we decided to try a restaurant from the famous Bubba Gump chain. It was only a five-minute walk from our hotel, which really matters when you are traveling with a little one. After dinner, we walked along the boardwalk to enjoy the beautiful view Monterey offered us.

The next morning, after a gigantic breakfast, we headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is one of the biggest and most beautiful aquariums in the world. Monterey Bay is home to many marine species, including seals and elephant seals.

One of the aquarium’s unique features is that it draws water directly from the bay, while also protecting and caring for the surrounding wildlife and plant life. We spent a good three hours visiting it. It is beautifully designed and truly impressive. I am deliberately not giving too many details, because if you go there yourself, you should keep the surprise.

After that lovely visit, we drove to Carmel, just a few miles from Monterey. As a fun fact, Clint Eastwood served as mayor there from 1986 to 1988. He introduced some rather surprising local rules, such as removing all traffic lights at intersections and banning tree cutting within the town limits. You also will not see flashy billboards, neon signs, or streetlights, because they would interfere with the landscape.

Carmel is a small town that feels cozy, upscale, and very touristy. You will find charming houses, paved streets, and plenty of boutiques and restaurants. For lunch, we ate at Hog’s Breath Inn, a lovely restaurant with an outdoor oven where they host barbecues in the evening. The restaurant once belonged to Clint Eastwood.

As a Clint Eastwood fan, after lunch we went to see the Mission Ranch hotel that belongs to him. When booking our stay, I had hesitated for a long time between that one and the hotel we had chosen. The atmosphere is completely different from Cannery Row. Mission Ranch is a former ranch with small bungalows spread across a magnificent property with animals and the ocean in the distance. If we ever return to Carmel, that is where we will stay, even though we loved our oceanfront hotel in Monterey.

To drive back toward Monterey, we took the famous 17-Mile Drive, a coastal route that feels almost outside of time. There is a small toll to take this road because it is very popular and highly touristic. Honestly, it is absolutely worth the detour, because the scenery is once again completely different and far from the classic California clichés. You suddenly find yourself on a wild coastline, and we even got to feed squirrels there (not wild ones, though!).

After such a long day visiting Monterey and Carmel, we did not have the energy to go out again that evening. We had dinner at the hotel and quickly fell asleep in front of American TV in our king-size bed.

After spending a few days visiting Monterey and Carmel, new adventures were waiting for us the next day, even farther south!