Monterey, California

Monterey, California, United States

Sunrise light falls on the fishing boats and wooden docks of Monterey Harbor with historic buildings in the background.

Monterey gives you a working harbour, a historic adobe old town and a bay full of sea otters, sea lions and kelp forests.

The place

Monterey sits on the southern shore of Monterey Bay, on California's Central Coast. It is a city of about 30,000 people in Monterey County, and it is compact enough to explore on foot. The waterfront, the historic old town and most of the main sights lie within a short walk of one another, so you can spend a morning moving between adobe houses, the harbour and the bay without needing a car.

The town's character comes from its layers. Spanish soldiers and missionaries built the first settlement and a church that still stands. Mexican administrators, American troops and later a fishing industry, a naval school and a research community each left their mark. You can see this in the streets, where whitewashed walls sit beside wooden houses and the working harbour still smells of the sea.

The bay is the main reason to come. The Monterey Bay Aquarium draws the biggest crowds, and the coast beyond it offers sandy beaches and rocky points where you can watch sea otters drifting in the kelp. Weather on the coast can be cooler and damper than the inland towns you may have passed through, so bring a layer even on a bright day.

Expect busy weekends and summer afternoons, when parking in the central streets takes time. Walk where you can, leave the car near your base, and allow a full day if you want to see the aquarium properly.

Its story

The land around Monterey Bay was home to the Rumsen Ohlone long before any European ship came into view. They lived in coastal and inland villages and made their living by fishing, hunting and gathering from a shoreline full of life. Their shell middens, heaps of discarded mussel and abalone shells, still line the rocky coast from the harbour down towards Carmel. They show a settled and well-fed landscape, not an empty one.

The bay takes its name from Sebastián Vizcaíno, who anchored in the harbour in December 1602 and named it Puerto de Monterrey after the viceroy of New Spain, the Conde de Monterrey. The spelling echoes a town in Galicia in north-west Spain, where the viceroy's family came from, so a small piece of Spain travelled with the name to the Pacific.

Spanish settlement came much later. In 1770 Gaspar de Portolá and the missionary Junípero Serra founded the presidio and the church that became the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo. In 1777 Monterey became capital of the Province of the Californias, the administrative and military centre for both Alta and Baja California and the only official port of entry. Mexican independence kept the town as capital of the Mexican Department of the Californias.

The town changed hands again in 1846, when American forces seized it during the Mexican-American War. Monterey stayed the seat of the interim American government until 1849, and it hosted California's first constitutional convention. Several adobe buildings in the old town survive from these years of upheaval, and they remain the clearest record of how the place was governed and fought over.

What to see

Culture

Monterey's culture is shaped by its coast. The animals that bring people here, sea otters, harbour seals, sea lions, pelicans and dolphins, are part of daily life in the town as much as an attraction. Offshore lies the Monterey Canyon, a deep underwater canyon that brings scientists close to the deep sea within hours, which helps explain why research and education are so visible along the waterfront. Divers of every level come for the kelp forests, and scuba classes are held from the shore at San Carlos State Beach. The old town takes a quieter pride in its past. Its adobe houses, the Presidio and the Ohlone shell middens belong to a living community, so read the interpretive panels and do not treat burial or sacred ground as a backdrop for photographs. Keep at least the distance park staff ask for when watching sea otters and seals, and never feed or approach them.

What to wear

Traditional dress in the Monterey area belongs first to the Rumsen Ohlone, whose clothing was made from what the land and sea provided. In warm weather many people wore little, and in cooler months they wore robes or capes of woven plant fibre, rabbit skin or sea otter fur, the last a prized material. Their basketry, woven tightly enough to hold water, is the textile tradition most visitors will meet in museums. The Spanish and Mexican years brought a different wardrobe: wide-brimmed hats, short embroidered jackets and leather boots worn by ranch hands and officials, and long skirts and shawls for women.

Today the town dresses for the sea. Fishing crews wear waterproof jackets and boots, while visitors and locals mostly wear fleeces, jeans and trainers, with a light jacket for the evening. Shop windows along the harbour sell the sweatshirts and caps that people buy as souvenirs.

For a visit, dress in layers. The coast can be cool and damp even in summer, and a windproof outer layer makes the wharf far more pleasant. Wear closed, grippy shoes for wet rocks and the harbour walkways, a sun hat for the open streets of the old town, and cover your shoulders and knees when you go into the cathedral.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. April and May bring milder weather and fewer crowds than midsummer, and September and October are often the clearest months on the coast. Summer mornings can be foggy and cool, and the busiest weeks are around summer holidays.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Fly into San Jose International Airport or San Francisco International Airport, then take the Monterey Airbus or a rental car for the last leg. The drive from the Bay Area follows the coast road south, or the faster inland route to the Monterey Peninsula.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

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