Monterey Travel Answers

Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz is the best place for tide pooling according to my brother who has been there last week.

It's been a long time since I was there, but my kids liked Dennis the Menace Park, and we went down to Point Lobos State Park, and farther south to China Beach. We also went to Pinnacles State Park and Fremont, but those are not shoreline parks.

I would recommend: - Point Lobos Park with the sea lions - Carmel Mission, one of the most beautiful missions we visited during our California trip. - Carmel itself, a quaint on-USA village. happy travels Jaap

It'simply a very beautiful area you're going to. I have read some advises of others which are great. I just missed one ... I would suggest (we have done it also) to rent a car and simply drive the California State Route 1. It is famous for running along the most beautiful coastline in the USA. Have stops at Carmel, San Luis Obispo and maybe some deserted beaches. We loved the drive! Have fun.

I had one more question. Are the Muir Woods a good place to see the redwood trees? The kids really want to see some. Thanks for all the ideas!

Yes, it is! The founder of the park once said:"This is the best Redwood tree-lovers monument that could possibly be found in all the forest of the world."

You also couls see redwoods in 'Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park'along Highway 1.

Hi, You might also want to check out Asilomar State Beach: seemonterey.com/pacific-grov... as well as Pacific Grove, two nice little towns a bit south of Monterey that might be of interest for strolling around and nature walks/tidepools. You can rent bikes near Cannery Row and ride around to Pacific Grove as it's pretty flat which might appeal to your girls. And there is a youth museum as well: http://www.mymuseum.org/ And yes, Muir Woods is an amazing place to see redwood trees up close. There is a beach as well, but not so great really for tide pooling: pointreyes.org/muir_beach_ma... However, if you are driving down the coast from SF to Monterey, one of the best tide pool beaches is http://fitzgeraldreserve.org/ Fitzgerald Marine Reserve...field trip spot #1 for school kids in the area :) Have fun!

Good suggestions above. I agree that Point Lobos is a beautiful hike; good place for a picnic. But if your girls are like mine were, "hike" does not sound all that exciting to them. How about kayaking on the Bay or at Elkhorn Slough? If the weather is good, I highly recommend it. You can get everything you need here: http://www.montereybaykayaks.com/ Also, you can rent bikes at the Monterey Bay location and ride along the boardwalk to Lovers' Point and beyond. It's an easy ride for kids. There are a number of other places to rent bikes too. Badger

My girls at that age just went along on whatever we wanted to do. Of course we didn't have the internet when we lived in Monterey (1964-1966) for them to get dissatisfied with their parents. They were then 2 or 3 and 4 or 5, but we kept on going on 'walks' until we moved here when they were 7th and 5th grade. We did the Mist Trail and others in Yosemite, Fremont Park, Point Lobos, Big Basin, Pinnacles, Sequoia NP, and many others. Never got to Muir Woods although that looks awesome. Not sure that canoes would be a good idea unless they are really good swimmers, and one of mine didn't learn to ride a bike well (without training wheels) until she was in 2nd grade. (She is now doing sprint triathlons at age 50 so she did get comfortable with a bike eventually.)

Thank you all for the awesome ideas. I have one more question. We currently made reservations at the Portola Inn & Suites. Do any of you know about this hotel? I read reviews and they are all over the board. So depending on the review the staff is either "wonderful" or "lousy", the hotel is either "great" or "I'll never stay here again". Is there any other city we might want to consider (PG, Carmel, Seaside, Marina) or is Monterey the place to be? Thanks for all your input!

Seaside or Pacific Grove maybe. There wasn't much in Marina when we were there and Carmel is likely to be expensive. But generally Monterey is still in the middle of everything.

We liked our stay in Carmel very much (and not too expensive), a quaint un-American village.

Monterey is most central and offers probably the widest range of lodgings and prices. But you might want to check out Pacific Grove or see if there is availability at the Asilomar conference center. Carmel tends to be more expensive for everything (food, lodging) although it is quite charming. I now take most of these ratings sites with a grain of salt as people's experiences are so subjective. For me, the prices, location, and cleanliness ratings are most important since I am not going to be spending most of my time in the hotel itself and clean is more critical to me than whether the staff is overly friendly. Good luck and enjoy your stay!