Your Monterey County Guide
- Traveling Cat Photos
- Jun 10, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 7, 2025
Monterey is our home base for a very good reason...the wildlife and views. Follow this guide to live and explore like a local.
Monterey, California. Just the name conjures up images of gorgeous shoreline views. But there is SO much more here in this incredibly large county to explore and most of it is for free! There are museums and art galleries, which are low cost, to see along with miles and miles of that incredible shoreline.
Monterey county is an odd shape. It reaches up towards Santa Cruz, over to Pacific Grove, down the coast, almost to San Simeon, East to Salinas and then right down the state almost to San Miguel. It really is a massive county! Inside its borders are the famous Big Sur, Pebble Beach, with its 17 Mile Drive, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Salinas, and Soledad, home to a California Mission and the entrance to the East side of Pinnacles National Park. Right down the middle of this county runs the Salinas Valley, birthplace of author John Steinbeck, filled with miles of fields of everything from lettuce to strawberries to artichokes and more, not to mention miles of vineyards as well. Monterey County has grown to be quite the star in the vintner world. These are all reasons why we made this our home base a decade ago.
While we try to cover all the little tips and tricks that we can think of during our filming process there are just little bits that don’t make the final cut or that we just forgot to mention. So I thought I’d cover a few of those for you right now in this blog with a few free or low cost highlights you can enjoy on a day in Monterey.
First up. Ocean View Boulevard. You have, no doubt, heard of Cannery Row? Well, it wasn’t always named that. Originally it was Old Ocean View Boulevard and extended from near San Carlos Beach all the way to Point Pinos. But in 1958 a marketing department decided to capitalize on John Steinbeck’s novel “Cannery Row” and rename that strip of the Boulevard to attract tourism. It really worked! But if you are not into the crowds on Cannery Row, or just looking for more gorgeous scenery, just follow “The Row” back up to Wave Street and take a right. This is where the modern-day Ocean View Boulevard begins. This is also a great place to find a parking spot, grab your bikes or take a walk along the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail to Lover’s Point. If you keep driving, the Boulevard will guide you right round the point and along the coast to the place where you will see the Point Pinos Lighthouse, always worth a tour, and then it meanders around the stunning coastline until it turns back inland, but we’ll get to “inland” in a moment. First lets talk about the great places to stop along this journey and one, well, necessary stop you may need along the way.
The first stop, after the well known Lover’s Point, is the Sea Arch…yup, there’s an actual arch to enjoy and even a bench to enjoy it from! Right where Esplanade St. and the Boulevard meet is the “Kissing Rock” arch. I point out exactly where it is at because we missed it the first 8 years we lived here. We just drove on by every time…still not sure how we missed it but we don't want you to miss it so enjoy that little tip.
Next up is a favorite beach that is a bit misnamed. Located at Acropolis St. and the Boulevard, is Asilomar Beach. It is where the John Denver Memorial is located (his plane crashed off shore at this location) and is a lovely small pebble and shell beach with incredible rock formations and several tidal patterns that all converge here. Unfortunately, locals do not call this beach “Asilomar” beach. If you asked for Asilomar Beach they’d direct you to one much further down Ocean View. We tend to call it the John Denver Beach. There are picnic tables here, great parking and even some tide pools to enjoy. And there’s another reason why this is a great place to hang out for the day…
A public restroom is located right at the golf course, located less than a block from the John Denver Beach. It is the only public restroom that you will find along this drive. Located right past Asilomar Drive, the exit for the previous beach, and Crespi Pond, is the small parking lot for these restrooms. Good to note even if you are just driving around and enjoying the views.
For me, long before we ever moved here, my favorite view has always been The Great Tide Pool. You will know you are there when the Lighthouse is at your back as you gaze out over a pristine beach and lots of beautiful rocky coastal views. If you get to Lighthouse Avenue, you will be just about a block too far. There are even benches here. It is the very best tide pool spot along the coast, the best place to watch the sunset and it is incredibly dark there at night if you love to star gaze.
All along this drive, from Cannery Row to Lighthouse Avenue, you will see wildlife! From the deer that wander Pacific Grove to sea otters playing in the shallows, seals and sea lions on the rocks, whales and dolphins just offshore to the hundreds of different birds who live here including Brown Pelicans which are majestic as they skim the waves in silky lines.
So far, all of this has been free! But if you have the time to continue your coastal journey we highly recommend 17 Mile Drive. After Lighthouse Avenue, the Boulevard becomes Sunset Drive which will lead you around past Asilomar State Beach, great for surfing, and to the turn off for 17 Mile Drive. There is an admission fee to 17-Mile Drive and is, currently in January of 2026, $12.25 per vehicle. The gate fee is reimbursed with a purchase of $35 or more at all Pebble Beach Resorts restaurants, excluding Pebble Beach Market.
While 17 Mile has simply gorgeous views, not to mention the incredible houses you will see along the way, we are going to recommend a stop at Moss Beach with its wide expanse of sand beach, rocks to stack and picnic tables to hang out at before moving onto Point Joe for the views. Follow that up with a stop where the Brown Pelicans congregate at Bird Rock (lots of Sea Lions and Seals there too!). Note that this is one of the rare public restrooms stops.
We highly recommend downloading a map of 17 Mile Drive to hit the high points, like The Lone Cypress, before starting the Drive because there is almost no cell reception out on the coast. Once you’ve hit the high points you will find yourself winding through Pebble Beach. If you are ready for lunch, our favorite is The Bench which overlooks the 18th Hole. Since this is Pebble Beach, be prepared to pay $20 for a burger. However, the food is amazing so it’s worth the splurge if that’s in your budget. If not, head on over to the Market and grab a scoop or two of their ice cream, a snack for a quick picnic on their lawns and enjoy the views from there before winding your way back up to Hwy 1.
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