Monterey is a coastal town of about 30,000 people on the central California coast, roughly two hours south of San Francisco and just north of the dramatic scenery of the Big Sur. It has a more layered history than most California towns: it was the capital of Spanish Alta California from 1770 until 1846, then briefly the capital of the American state, and its old adobe buildings (the Custom House, Colton Hall, the Cooper-Molera Adobe) make up the best surviving collection of Spanish-colonial civic architecture in the state. In the early 20th century, Monterey became the largest sardine fishing port in the world. The canneries along what is now Cannery Row packed fish by the tens of millions of cases until the sardines vanished in the 1950s, leaving behind the empty buildings that John Steinbeck made famous in his 1945 novel.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium, housed in one of those old canneries at the end of Cannery Row, is the town's main draw today — and genuinely one of the best aquariums in the world, with a vast kelp forest tank, a million-gallon Open Sea exhibit, wild sea otters in the bay outside the windows, and a long tradition of serious marine research and conservation. It is the first place in the world that successfully kept and displayed great white sharks, and the focus throughout is on the rich ecosystem of Monterey Bay just outside the doors. Give yourself most of a day. Cannery Row itself is now lined with tourist shops and restaurants — not the most soulful experience, but Steinbeck's old haunts are marked with plaques, and a bronze statue on the sidewalk honours him.
The 17-Mile Drive, which loops out of Monterey through the Del Monte Forest and along the coast past Pebble Beach and the Lone Cypress (the one on the Pebble Beach logo), is one of California's classic scenic drives. Carmel-by-the-Sea, at the southern end, is the famously quaint artists' village of white-picket cottages, wine tasting rooms, and fairy-tale architecture (no street numbers, no mail delivery). Further south, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is as dramatic a stretch of rocky Pacific coast as you will find anywhere — sea lions, otters, and in winter migrating grey whales visible from the shoreline trails.
Monterey itself is best explored on foot: the old town, the harbour, Fisherman's Wharf (touristy but the sea lions sprawling underneath are worth a look), and the handsome Custom House Plaza at the waterfront. Eat fresh fish at one of the wharfside restaurants, and spend an evening walking the paved coastal path that runs for miles north and south along the bay. It is the perfect first stop on a drive down Highway 1 toward Big Sur.