Travel // Monterey and Carmel

Something exciting has happened around here… We’ve had a make over 😊 What do you think?
I’m loving the feel and look of it.
Anyways… we’re about half way through our California road trip… We’ve seen San Fran, travelled up to Napa Valley and then jumped over to Yosemite. By the time we’d finished up in Yosemite we were looking forward to some warmer weather along the coast.
I’d been looking forward to visiting Monterey and Carmel especially due to the iconic scenes from Big Little Lies. (I’m definitely looking forward to series 2 but got a while to wait still! Who’s with me?)
Although we only stayed in Monterey for 1 night we got some of the best photos of the holiday. Monterey has some of the most pretty and beautiful coastal views I’ve ever seen and the sunsets at Pebble Beach were just breathtaking.
I hadn’t realised that Monterey had been famous for its canning industry so I learnt something new. The sea front of Monterey was a little busy but it was a pleasant change to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco which was overrun with tourists. It had a nice colonial kinda feel to it with all the wooden houses and they were all painted in fresh colours.

With our airbnb (see below) we got free tickets to the Monterey Aquarium which we headed to as soon as we arrived in Monterey. We’d set off early from Yosemite (about 7:30am) to start the 3 hr 45 mins drive. To break up the drive we stopped off at the Gilroy Outlooks and did our fill of shopping so we got to Monterey at about 2pm.
By getting the free passes as part of our Airbnb we saved $100 between us! It was a nice way to break up the day. Both of us love the sea and wildlife so really enjoyed it.
Ready for some scrolling? It was so hard whittling down all the photos from the Aquarium but these are some of my favourite…
Love this guy chilling out… Took us ages to try and get an action shot as he was constantly swimming around in every direction!
This is the view from the wildlife viewing station. Apparently you can see whales from here at certain points in the year which we weren’t fortunate to see but you can just imagine how amazing that would be. We were happy enough just staring out across the bay… 
Following the Aquarium we were fairly hungry so headed over to Hula’s Island Grill. We’d found it online and it had good reviews on trip advisor so pottered on over. There was a bit of a queue but we settled ourselves down at the bar with cocktails and luckily it was happy hour! The food was worth the wait… I had prawn tacos and the hubby had tuna tacos – both were insanely tasty and we polished off the lot!
If you’re in Monterey I’d highly suggest a trip there especially during happy hour so you get your fill of cocktails 😛
After having our fill of tacos we set off back to Pebble Beach. Because our airbnb was situated within Pebble Beach on the 17 Mile Drive, we didn’t have to pay the admission fee. Because we were heading off fairly early again to Santa Barbara we decided to go for a drive along 17 Mile Drive just before sunset. This was amazing and we saw an amazing sunset – one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. We parked up along the road at a few different spots and enjoyed the view. Make sure to watch the sunset time-lapse below!
How amazing is that view?! It was the perfect end to the day before heading back to our airbnb to settle down for the night.
As I mentioned our airbnb was a great find. (Here’s the link.) It was a converted garage on the side of a house with a separate entrance. It was fully fitted with a kitchen and had a nice bedroom for the evening. It was all we needed for one night.
After a good nights sleep we set off across to Carmel for a quick stop before getting back on the road down to Santa Barbara.
Carmel was gorgeous and I wish we had had longer there. The beach and views were what I had thought the California seaside would look like. The sand was white and unspoilt and the views out to sea were just something. See for yourself… 
Before we knew it we were back on the road for our next stretch of the road trip – The Big Sur and Santa Barbara.
Has anyone else been to Monterey and Carmel? What was your favourite part?
Hope you enjoyed the sunsets above! Got me day dreaming now…
Keep a look out for the next part of the Road Trip – The Big Sur and Santa Barbara.
Cathers x
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