The next stop on our California road trip was Monterey. I will be honest, before booking and planning this trip I didn't really know that this place existed. But it is now probably one of my favourite places I have ever visited, and I certainly want to go back. Going from the middle of nowhere in Yosemite to Monterey was wonderful! I particularly enjoyed having some fresh air and wind back in my life. Monterey is a picturesque little city commonly known for its cannery and fish district. It's also a very popular destination if you want to go whale watching and there is lots of cute little sea otters swimming around the harbour!
Hotel
In Monterey we stayed in a gorgeous little boutique hotel called Hotel Pacific, 5 minutes from the sea front. This was probably one of my favourite hotels that we stayed at throughout our California trip. As you can tell from the photograph above, there was ALOT of space! We stayed in a Junior Suite which had breakfast included. We were here for two nights so only really took advantage of the breakfast for one of the nights. This is the only element that lets this hotel down. There wasn't really much of a choice of food to eat. Which is odd when they state a continental breakfast. Regardless the stay was enjoyable and I wish we had longer to stay to take advantage of the large suite we had!
What to do?
The two days that we had in Monterey were well planned out. On the day we arrived, we visited the Aquarium which was booked at the check in desk of our hotel to save waiting in queue times. The aquarium is certainly a must see for me, although I am very biased as its a family tradition to visit an aquarium whenever we are away! Next on our 'to do' list was a trip Whale Watching. Now, although this is a great experience and certainly something I am glad I can say I have done, I am not sure I would hurry back to do it again. To be blunt, the trip isn't great if you get sea sick. No matter how much they tell you that you will be fine, there was probably only a handful of people who were ok on our boat. My dad and I being two of them who managed to cope! I managed to get some really great pictures of the fin and humpback whales which was amazing! Another must see whilst staying in Monterey was the 11 mile drive. The drive basically takes you along the coastline ending at Pebble beach golf course. My dad was so excited about this as he is an avid golfer! There was so much more to see and walk around so was gutted that we didn't have a lot of time in Monterey.
Tips & Tricks!
I loved taking photographs in Monterey, it was probably my favourite place we visited for photographs as I love the seaside. I wish I knew before we left how pretty it would be at nighttime. I would have brought a small tripod as it was hard to get a decent picture of the gorgeous fairy lights down the pier. One other thing I would have brought would be a thick coat. Don't be fooled, although its California in August, Monterey is a very windy place! Much like San Francisco, I should have checked the weather before leaving!
I hope you enjoyed this post. I loved reliving my memories through some of the photographs! (Apologies for there being a lot of them, but wanted to be able to look back on this post!)
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