Hotels in/near Carmel

[originalkk]

Hi,
We'll be driving down the coast highway from SF to LA in August, and are intending to stay a night in or near Carmel, before continuing down the Big Sur coast the next day.

I wonder if anyone has any hotels they could recommend? It would be for my teenage son and daughter and myself. Thanks very much.

 

[GrandBob]

The Monterey Peninsula is a major tourist area, and has tons of lodging, from B&Bs to motels to larger hotels. And with pricing from expensive to "you gotta be kidding!"

If you could narrow down what you have in mind, perhaps we can make some suggestions. Also, do you specifically want to be in Carmel, which is one of the pricier areas, or is anywhere on the peninsula OK? Monterey/Pacific Grove/Carmel is a small area -- you can get from one to the other quite easily, and usually within 10 minutes or so.

HTH,
Bob

 

[sndral]

Just curious why Monterey instead of Santa Cruz w/ teenagers? The Boardwalk in Santa Cruz is a big draw for most teens. I recommend the places near Asilomar in Pacific Grove when people ask me where to stay on the Monterey Peninsula.

 

[originalkk]

Just curious why Monterey instead of Santa Cruz w/ teenagers? The Boardwalk in Santa Cruz is a big draw for most teens. I recommend the places near Asilomar in Pacific Grove when people ask me where to stay on the Monterey Peninsula.

Good idea! - I hadn't considered staying near the attractions of Santa Cruz, as we'll be spending the previous night in San Francisco, and had planned to spend the next night a bit further down the coast!

We wanted to get a good run at the Big Sur coast down to Pismo Beach the following day, also wanted to have a look at Monterey, and Carmel was a bit further south. No particular reason for Carmel itself. I guess the distance between Santa Cruz and Carmel isn't that great though.

Any recommendations for places to stay in the Santa Cruz area, or maybe the Monterey Peninsula generally?

Thanks very much.

 

[sndral]

I don't know Santa Cruz as well as the Monterey Peninsula, but one plan could be to leave San Francisco and reach Santa Cruz by noonish. Spend the afternoon at the boardwalk and then have dinner at http://www.shadowbrook-capitola.com/ . But that would leave you with a long drive to reach Pismo the following day. I don't know much about places in Santa Cruz, I usually drive up from Monterey . I have stayed @ http://www./harborlightsmotel.net/ in Capitola, dated, but reasonably priced and right on the water by the pier.
If you drive on to Monterey instead, you'd arrive early afternoon. Stroll around the shops in Carmel and/or the beach, or visit the Aquarium on cannery row (I'm biased towards the aquarium, I volunteer there.) The place I recommend to friends is http://pacificgardensinn.com/ . It's by the Asilomar conference grounds in Pacific Grove, in a quiet treed area. Asilomar beach is beautiful at sunset. You can rent rooms on the conference grounds, too (http://www.visitasilomar.com/) very nice but no TVs or phones in the rooms -breakfast in the dinning room is included, and the grounds are very nice, forested, wooden/rock buildings, a walkway to Asilomar beach, quiet, peaceful and beautiful but minutes to downtown Pacific Grove or Monterey and 15 minutes to Carmel. I've also stayed at the Embassy Suites for conferences, it's nice inside, and having the suite setup and breakfast is great, but it is right next to the freeway. I've stayed @ Casa Munras for a conference as well, it's located in downtown Monterey, and if you're there on a tues. night it's an easy walk to the awesome farmers market. I'm sure there are others which are equally nice, these are just places I'm familiar with.
BTW, just beyond Big Sur is http://www.nepenthebigsur.com/ , the cafe is a great lunch stop on your way to Pismo, and the gift shop is lots of fun. The cafe is an open terrace with amazing views.

 

[originalkk]

Thanks very much sndral - that's very useful. Pacific Gardens Inn looks very nice. Love the look of the Nepenthe cafe - that'll definitely go on our list for lunch!

 

[7165red]

You might like to check out www.tripadvisor.com go to forums click on CA you will find posts for Carmel and to the left side of the page there will be a list of hotels for Carmel and the surrounding area. It's really a great site because they post photos and reviews. I use trip advisor often. I love Carmel and as I remember I stayed at the Mission in. There are so many lovely hotels to choose from. Enjoy you up coming trip and I wish I could go too.