Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove. Image credit: Hemis/Alamy
Diving into the Past and Ocean Playgrounds
Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail. Image credit: David Zaitz/Alamy
Fairy-tale-style cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Image credit: Marco Catteneo/Alamy
Rugged Cliffs and Reclusive Redwoods
A veritable sizzle reel of jaw-dropping scenery, rich local history, astounding wildlife, and outdoor adventure, California’s Monterey Bay area and its cliff-edged neighbor to the south, Big Sur, deliver sensory drama at every turn and in any season – creating the rare feeling that you’ve stepped into an extraordinary place that’s about to exceed every expectation.
With San Francisco and its quintessential sights like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, and Alcatraz as your starting point, set off south until the city melts away to reveal a mountain-backed coastline scented with the rich smell of redwood and cypress.
Cannery Row – known to locals for its dozens of 20th-century sardine-canning factories, and known to literary fans by the John Steinbeck novel of the same name – served as a vital food hub until the 1950s. Today, it’s a busy waterfront hotspot for shopping, dining, or even biking along the Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail, an 18-mile paved, ocean-view path that follows the old railway line and delivers sweeping Pacific views and beachside areas for taking in the sound of crashing waves.
World-renowned for its ocean conservation work, the Monterey Bay Aquarium submerges visitors into the underwater world that exists in the cold waters just offshore. Peer into huge living kelp forests and go deep into immersive exhibits showcasing Central California’s robust marine ecosystem. And it’s that same robust ecosystem that draws the area’s largest aquatic visitors: whales. As a result, whale watching is practically a year-round hobby here. With gray whales in winter, humpbacks from spring through fall, and even an occasional orca, sightings can be made every month from both the shore and a boat tour, where you may encounter a bus-sized creature.
Take iconic Highway 1, scheduled to reopen in March 2026, south from Carmel toward Big Sur, and the scenery grows ever more cinematic as you skim the ragged edge of the continent. Be sure to pull over at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, a dazzling jewel in California’s state park chain, and a convergence of cliff-hugging ocean views, rugged-but-easy trails, and unforgettable wildlife encounters, with sea lions and sea otters often spotted bobbing, barking, and frolicking in the surf. If that’s too much for you, around every bend is another view with another viewpoint more stunning than the last.
Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, California. Image credit: Nyokki/Shutterstock
Experience the spectacular landscapes, charming villages, and cultural treasures of Monterey County, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Big Sur
Year-Round Wonders of California’s
Central Coast
Destination: California
March 2026 (Volume 31)
Towering redwood trees. Image credit: Maurizio Rellini/4Corners
Everyone who comes to this area leaves with a favorite table-side view, a newly conquered kayaking cove, or a fleeting moment of wild wonder, and each is convinced theirs was the most extraordinary. And they’re right. Somewhere within this landscape shaped by fog and tide, farmland and wind-carved cliffs, I’ve gathered my own favorites, too. What lures me back here isn’t the familiar. It’s the thrilling certainty that something new will upend my senses, steal my breath without warning, and remind me that some landscapes aren’t meant to be known just once, but discovered again and again.
A Place to Visit Again and Again
The scenery grows ever more cinematic as you skim the ragged edge of the continent
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This is where Mother Nature really starts to flex. Cliffs plunge into frothy emerald water, mountains rise like ancient guardians, and redwoods stretch toward the stars, which coat the sky like white paint on clear nights. But this seemingly welcoming beauty can also block roads with landslides, cutting Big Sur off from the rest of the coastline. When this happens, Big Sur aficionados, officials, and locals alike will often helicopter in and out whenever possible.
The gateway to Big Sur and star of a million photographs, the Bixby Bridge is an ideal spot to stop and, of course, snap a photo of your own. Further down the coast and around a few more bends that would give a person with a fear of heights vertigo, is The Village, where you can grab coffee and daily-made pastries. Or nab a table at Nepenthe, where road-trippers have enjoyed pinch-me coastal views and California comfort food from the cliffside terrace since 1949. If you’re a word nerd, you can geek out at the Henry Miller Memorial Library, a rustic cabin filled with books and art, with chairs set up beneath towering redwoods, and a stage that hosts concerts, cultural events, and an occasional poetry slam.
McWay Falls on the coast of Big Sur. Image credit: Mariusz S. Jurgielewicz/Shutterstock
Ocean Avenue is Carmel’s unofficial main street, with art galleries, shops, and wine-tasting rooms, all of which make it hard to keep to a plan. Zigzagging around the intersecting streets, you can find one-of-a-kind treats, such as the herbal tinctures, oils, and candles made in small batches at Earth Cura, a modern apothecary.
Dining is equally enchanting, and you’ll find anything from Michelin-Star meals at Aubergine to the upscale California fare of Lucia’s at Bernardus Lodge, whose menu is fed by a two-acre organic garden and an arsenal of Italian honeybees. For morning fuel, you won’t be able to resist the all-day brunch menu at Stationæry. And a wander along sandy Carmel Beach is a must, where locals wrap up in sweaters for morning walks, let their dogs chase the surf, and watch the glowing Pacific Ocean sunsets.
Sea kayaking alongside a humpback whale in Monterey Bay. Image credit: Cavan Images/Alamy
The Lone Cypress on 17-Mile Drive. Image credit: Cavan Images/Alamy
BY Kimberley Lovato
Mother Nature was in a good mood when she painted Monterey County, brushing its rolling hills and arcing bays with evergreen and oak forests, and bordering its coast with blooming scrub and blankets of wildflowers. Its eponymous capital city, located about 120 miles south of San Francisco, is steeped in state heritage that comes alive along the city’s unique two-mile, self-guided Path of History (marked by yellow tiles embedded in the sidewalks). Find yourself passing 55 culturally significant sites, including adobe buildings hearkening back to when California was an outpost of the Spanish Empire, the Custom House (California’s oldest government building), and Colton Hall, where California’s first constitution was drafted.
Postcard Scenery and Fairy-tale Cottages
Further south, the infamously winding coastal 17-Mile Drive connecting Monterey and Pacific Grove to Carmel-by-the-Sea was first opened in 1881 by railroad tycoons. Now, cars cruise the two-lane ribbon, guiding wide-eyed wanderers through coastal forest, past Spanish Bay, and to the Lone Cypress, a wind-twisted tree perched on a granite outcrop. Estimated to be more than 250 years old, it’s as legendary as the nearby Pebble Beach Golf Links, a world-renowned course along the 17-mile route that has seen players tee off above the craggy cliffs and crashing surf for decades.
Just beyond lies Carmel-by-the-Sea, a village that looks like it’s from a storybook. If the crooked chimneys, flower box-framed windows, and thatched-roof cottages straight out of Hansel and Gretel don’t charm and delight you, this piece of local lore might: for more than a century, and up until 2024, Carmel had no street addresses at all, a delightful quirk that sent residents and visitors navigating by storybook clues and fanciful names like the Honeymoon House and The Tuck Box, a cottage that now serves breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea.
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