We spent a short weekend in Big Sur California this weekend, and it was WONDERFUL! This was a last minute trip because we had a Delta companion fare that was expiring at the end of the month, as well as 2 Regional Upgrades that also expired at the end of the month. Somehow, we were able to use both!!
Day 1: January 20, 2023
We took a flight from Atlanta (ATL) to San Jose (SJC) with Delta companion fare. Since it was last minute, the price was high, so with the companion fare it cost about $800 total. We also applied the Regional Upgrade Certificates which cleared at last minute and we were both upgraded to first class. The service was AMAZING on our flight. The two flight attendants worked nonstop. We even had pre-flight service, which is something I have so rarely seen since COVID. We were given some choices for breakfast: Quiche, French Toast, or Charcuterie. I chose the French Toast, which was really more like Bread Pudding but it was very good. Teddy had the Charcuterie. Every option came with a bagel.
We booked our rental car with Hertz. Since we have Gold membership with Hertz, we were able to go straight to the car lot and choose the car we want. Always check the board and make sure your name is on the board before going to the lot, and read the lot name next to your name in case you got a free upgrade! We were upgraded to Five Star and there were a good selection of cars available, such as Toyota Camry, Chevy Impala, Hyundai Santa Fe etc. We settled on a Chevy Equinox.
Next, we made our drive towards our hotel. There are many attractions along the way that seemed interesting. The things we considered were:
- The Mystery Spot
- Winchester Mystery House
- Testarossa Winery
- Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
- 17 Mile Drive
We only have enough time for one activity today. After some discussion, we settled on the 17 Mile drive. The 17 Mile Drive is located in Monterey, California. It costs $11.25 to enter but if you dine in one of the restaurants inside and spend at least $35, the restaurant will take the entrance fee off your bill (so make sure you bring your admission receipt with you when you eat!). There are 17 recommended stops to make along the drive, and each stop has parking lots or areas to pull over to park.
We didn’t stop at all of the stops because we didn’t have the time but the whole drive was SO BEAUTIFUL. Since it was already after 1pm, we decided to do the drive backwards so we could make it to the restaurant areas first – starting with the Visitor center and work our way back up.
For lunch, we ate at The Tap Room. We did not have a reservation but we got seated right away. The view was beautiful here, overlooking the golf course. There is indoor and outdoor seating. We chose outdoor at first but the sun was quite brutal so we moved inside. We got a drink and shared an appetizer of The Tap Room Platter, which was plenty of food for the two of us.
Must Stops Along 17 Mile Drive
- Pebble Beach Golf Links. The iconic 18 hole public golf course with beautiful ocean as the backdrop.
- Pebble Beach Visitor Center. The visitor center has the history of Pebble Beach on full display in multiple languages. You can also shop for souvenirs here.
- The Lone Cypress. A lonely cypress tree perched atop rocky pedestal overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This tree is the logo for Pebble Beach Resorts.
- Cypress Point Lookout. This is a beautiful lookout point for sunsets. We saw a seal laying on the sandy beach here as well.
- China Rock. China Rock was the site of a small Chinese fishing village in the late 1800s.
- Bird Rock. Bird rock is a big rock full of wildlife. We saw 3 sea lions sunbathing on it as well.
- Fanshell Beach Overlook. This was a beautiful beach spot with lots of mussels and kelp.
After our beautiful drive, we checked into our hotel, Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. Our room is the Monterey Suite One King Bed. It’s beautiful, with two 65″ smartTVs, lots of closet space and drawers and 1.5 bathrooms. This was one of the most functional, spacious hotel rooms we’ve ever stayed at.
We are Hyatt “Discoverist” which entitles us to free bottled water daily, however, they have switched from disposable water bottles to reusable, refillable bottles and there are stations near the elevator of every floor to refill the water bottles. The bottles are pretty nice, they say Hyatt and Monterey on them and they are for us to keep, a nice little souvenior.
Montrio Bistro
Next up is dinner. We have a reservation for Montrio. We honestly aren’t that hungry because of the late lunch, so Teddy only ordered a Caesar Salad and I ordered a White Sturgeon. Montrio is a cool looking restaurant – it used to be a fire station and they converted it to a restaurant. You can still see the big garage doors and all the water pipes inside. I thoroughly enjoyed my White Sturgeon which had butternut squash, forbidden rice, and sautéed broccolini. The fish was cooked to perfection – soft and delicious. The forbidden rice was al-dente. The butternut squash was diced and not mushy. The broccolini was just the right amount of crispness. For drinks, Teddy had the Old Fashioned and I had the Open Sesame. I loved mine.
Day 2: January 21, 2023
For our second day in Monterey, the plan is to visit the coast and make stops along the way. We booked a private tour with California Pacific Excursions and was assigned to our driver, Carlos. But first, breakfast.
Schooners
For breakfast, we dined at Schooners, a beautiful restaurant located inside the upscale hotel Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa. The view was amazing and the service was phenomenal. I ordered the Dungeness Crab Benedict and Teddy ordered the Seafood Omelet. He also got a fresh squeezed healthy juice. Everything was divine!
Now our bellies are full, we drove back to the hotel and our private driver Carlos was already waiting for us with bottled water. The best thing about having a private driver (especially a good one like Carlos) is that we can spend the entire day admiring the sights and not have to worry about missing anything. We are able to cover so much more in one day than if we did everything ourselves. The following is our itinerary. We started the day at 9am and finished a little after 4pm. We spent as much time as we wanted at each location because Carlos never rushed us.
Stop #1: Drive Through Carmel
We didn’t stop much in Carmel because most businesses weren’t yet open at 9am. Carlos offered to stop at a coffeeshop if we wanted to but I turned it down since we had just finished coffee at breakfast. Carlos drove through the famous streets of Carmel and pointed out many of the cool looking houses. One of them is the Clinton Walker House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. There is also the Butterfly House. The only stop we made here was for the Carmel Beach, but due to high tide, all of the staircases were blocked off for safety.
Stop #2: Mission House
This is a big part of Carmel history. It costs $13 to go inside which we chose not to do. We are here for nature, with a small amount of history/culture. So outside is all we needed.
Stop #3: Carmel Highlands Vista Point
Beautiful road side stop with views from all directions.
Stop #4: Garrapata State Park
Here, Carlos parked at the Soberanes Point Trails Trailhead and we hiked up to the Soberanes Point, then hiked back down and further down towards the ocean. The view was so grand that we spent a long time here.
Stop #5: Kasler Point
Lovely view of the ocean here!
Stop #6: Notley’s Landing Vista Point
Stop #7: Bixby Creek Bridge
This was so majestic and beautiful!
Stop #8: Hurricane Point View
Hurricane Point has amazing views. So much so that I have it as the featured image of this blog post.
Drive by: Point Sur Lighthouse
We did not stop at Point Sur State Park but Carlos told us about this park briefly. There are lots of hiking trails and a lot of history here as well.
Stop #9: Big Sur River Inn General Store
Big Sur River Inn was a nice pit stop with clean bathrooms and a general store that sold some food, beer, and souvenirs. We each bought a can of hard kombucha and enjoyed them in our limo.
Stop #10: Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
Lots of beautiful redwoods and hiking trails here. We walked around the river and did a little hiking.
Stop #11: Post Ranch Inn
Post Ranch Inn is a beautiful boutique hotel with gorgeous views. The rooms here are standalone little villas perched over the cliff side. Rooms start around $2000 a night. We made our lunch reservation here at Sierra Mar, a restaurant that’s breath taking as it sits at the corner with walls of windows of the ocean view. The restaurant is reservation only and they check to make sure your name is on the list before letting you into Post Ranch Inn. The lunch is on a prix fixe menu, with 3 courses, for $75 per person. The food was amazing, and with the view and excellent service, this was a must-do.
Both Teddy and I thought the Coffee Pot de Crème was a cup of coffee. When the maître D realized our confusion, he immediately offered us coffee on the house. Even though it was clearly our error and ignorance. And oh, by the way, the Coffee Pot de Crème was simply amazing. We both licked the whole bowl quickly.
Nepenthe is a popular lunch spot. There is a shop and a full service bar as well. Of course, plenty of ocean view too. If you want to have lunch here, you would definitely want to get a reservation too because the wait time is an hour or longer. Since we already had lunch, we were just here for a drink. We decided to purchase a bottle of wine because they allow you to take the rest home and drink later.
Stop #13: McWay Falls Road Side Overlook
McWay Falls has been on my bucket list since I was in high school. I don’t know why, but the idea of a waterfall falling from mountaintops directly into the ocean just fascinates me. There are only 2 waterfalls like this in the continental US, the other is near San Francisco, called Alamere Falls. Alamere Falls is a lot grander, but the simplicity of McWay Falls makes it more mysterious to me, and the fact that there is no way to go down to the bottom… (Well, there is a way, but it would require a private boat, and from what I hear, the view from down below isn’t as nice.) Caution: It is illegal to hike down to mcWay Falls. It is extremely dangerous, people have died, and if caught, the fine is serious.
Stop #14: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
During our visit, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park was closed for cars but open for foot traffic. We stopped here for a bathroom break and checked out the McWay Falls Trail to see what we could see. We know the trail was only half open due to recent heavy rain and rockslide. Turns out the trail closes right at the McWay Falls viewpoint so we got some nice pictures at the overlook here as well.
Stop #15: Vista Point
Stop #16: Henry Miller Memorial Library
An eccentric little library that celebrates the life of Henry Miller. This was our last tour stop before being dropped off at our hotel. We had such a wonderful day. We did so much, yet never felt rushed. We now have to get ready for our dinner restaurant.
Since we didn’t get to walk around Carmel this morning, we decided to leave a little early and walk the streets first. We came across the Monte Verde Inn, and thought it was beautiful.
Next, we visited Meuse, a beautiful gallery featuring the works of Simon Bull.
Next is time for dinner!
Catch
I was shocked that the restaurant offers black caviar as a complimentary amuse bouche.
The lobster sandwich had a ton of lobster meat. The service was top notch. There was some live Latin music that was quite good, and the drinks were delicious. I do wish the lobster had a little more seasoning – look, I get it, when you have super fresh seafood you don’t want to cover up the mild tastes with strong flavors, but this lobster was screaming for some seasoning. I still enjoyed it very much. With the amount of lobster they put on there, you can’t go wrong really.
Day 3: January 22, 2023
We really don’t have a lot of time this morning other than grabbing some breakfast and walking the beautiful grounds of our hotel, so that’s what we did.
We had breakfast at our hotel restaurant, Sea Root. They offer a-la-carte menu as well as a buffet/all-you-can-eat. The buffet is $27 a person which includes coffee/juice. We went with the buffet option because we discovered the amazing juice bar!
The juice bar was AWESOME. There’s no limit and you can make whatever you want. The juicer worked great. We each had about 4 glasses of fresh squeezed juice.
The buffet also has a good selection of breakfast items like pancakes and smoked salmon.
Next, we walked around the beautiful grounds.
Conclusion:
This concludes our short trip to Monterey, California. We enjoyed everything very much and I feel so lucky that the road was back open for me to view McWay Falls. We were told that there would be no internet and no cellular service south of Monterey, that turned out to not be entirely true. There was spotty service along the whole way, which was enough for me to get by for work. It’s definitely not an area that could carry out phone calls because how frequent the service would drop off. It seemed most of the coverage is from AT&T (our T-Mobile phones have free roaming and it was showing AT&T as the network). This was a very last minute trip and I’m so glad that it all worked out great. I highly recommend traveling to California in January. The weather was a little chilly but the prices were much better than peak seasons and it wasn’t as crowded.