A day out to Monterey
Monterey · 37 stops · 7 legs · 34 with pages
Monterey sits at the south end of its own bay where Highway 1 meets the peninsula, with Pacific Grove around the point and Carmel over the hill.
Monterey is a working harbour, and the eating runs from the wharf up Alvarado Street and out along Lighthouse Avenue toward Cannery Row. Pacific Grove is quieter around the point, Carmel is a village you park once and walk, and Carmel Valley gets warm enough inland to grow the wine.
The order below comes down the bay through Seaside, works through Monterey and Pacific Grove, then goes south to Carmel and turns up the valley. Nobody does all of it in one day, so take the half that suits the weather and check hours on each page.
Thirty-seven rooms have a page here, nine in Monterey, eleven around Carmel and ten more up Carmel Valley Road, with Pacific Grove and Seaside filling the rest. Big Sur starts south of Carmel, and this day turns inland up the valley and stops there.
Seaside2
Highway 1 comes down the bay through Seaside, where Broadway Avenue has picked up a brewery and a dining room.
MaligneBib
Solid · Restaurant · Seaside · $$$
book ahead
Klaus Georis wraps beets in cheesecloth and smokes them two days before he slices them thin and rolls them into cigars.
Monterey5
Alvarado Street and the old town sit a block up from the harbour, and the municipal wharf is a short walk from either.
Alvarado Street Brewery
Listed · Brewery · Monterey · $$
walk-in
Mai Tai PA took gold at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival in the international-style pale ale category, against a field of about 6,000 beers.
Parker-Lusseau Pastries
Listed · Bakery · Monterey · $
walk-in
Anne Parker Johnson and Yann Lusseau handed the bakery to Jeanne Brooks of Bees Knees Bakery in spring 2026.
Lighthouse Avenue and Cannery Row4
The road west out of town runs through New Monterey and drops onto Cannery Row at the water.
Pacific Grove5
The town wraps the end of the peninsula, and Lighthouse Avenue and Forest Avenue carry most of the cooking.
Passionfish
Solid · Restaurant · Pacific Grove · $$$
book ahead
Berk Guvenc bought this room in July 2024 and wanted bream on the menu. Bream is not on the fully sustainable list, so it is not on the menu.
Happy Girl Kitchen Co.
Listed · Provisions · Pacific Grove · $$
walk-in
Todd and Jordan Champagne spent a summer on a family fjord farm in Norway, milking the cow and putting up the garden, and came back to California to sell five pickled vegetables under the name Fearless Pickles.
Pavel's Backerei
Pacific GroveMonterey and Carmel
Carmel-by-the-Sea6
The village is a small grid of numbered avenues above the beach, and half its doorways sit back in courtyards off the street.
Chez Noir★
Destination · Restaurant · Carmel-By-The-Sea · $$$$
booking essential
Jonny Black ran Atelier Crenn as Dominique Crenn's first executive chef, then took a Craftsman house in Carmel and put a four-course menu of abalone, skate and dry-aged fish in the front room.
La Bicyclette RestaurantMichelinjust added
Solid · Restaurant · Carmel-By-The-Sea · $$$
book ahead
The Georis family opened La Boheme on this Carmel corner in 1974, one prix fixe dish a night with the month's menu taped in the window.
Mundaka Restaurant
Carmel-By-The-SeaMonterey and Carmel
La Balena
CarmelMonterey and Carmel
The mouth of the valley5
Carmel Valley Road leaves Highway 1 through two shopping courts, then runs east past a farm stand and a winery.
Rio Grilljust added
Listed · Restaurant · Carmel-By-The-Sea · $$$
book ahead
The pork belly is cured, smoked and baked across three days, then flash fried to order and finished with brown sugar and a hit of jalapeño powder.
Carmel Valley Village10
The fog gives out a few miles up the road and the valley warms, and the tasting rooms sit within a few streets of each other.
Chesebro Wines & Art / Cedar Lane Vineyard
Listed · Producer · Carmel Valley
19 E Carmel Valley Rd. Details to come.
Massa Estate Organic Vineyards
Listed · Producer · Carmel Valley
69 W Carmel Valley Rd. Details to come.
Mercy Vineyards Tasting Room
Listed · Producer · Carmel Valley
40 W Carmel Valley Rd A. Details to come.
Where this came from
Drawn from Jeff's saved places, checked August 2026.