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Ocean-gazing Monterey is enjoying something of a renaissance right now, both on the small screen and IRL. More relaxed than San Francisco, with a cooler climate than California’s southern stretches and a world away from edgy LA, the Golden State’s lesser-known city is where many Californians are heading to rest and reset.
21 March, 2022
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Monterey County has come a long way since it served as the setting for John Steinbeck's 1945-published novel Cannery Row, which opens with a description of the city's docks. While you'd be hard pressed to recognise Steinbeck's Cannery Row - or its salubrious fictional characters - in the revamped sardine factories lining Monterey's waterfront today, this understated Cali town retains a magical, Janus-like character.
Bohemians, artists and literary types persevere, alongside a TV exec or two. The backdrop to HBO's hit series Big Little Lies, Monterey County pairs its well-heeled beachfront properties and glossy-haired luxe living with the city proper's quirky galleries, cafés and literary hubs (stop by the quaint Old Monterey Book Co. to pick up a Steinbeck or three).
Jump into a car or on a bike and dip in and out of the peninsula's secreted-away settlements: historic Pacific Grove, with its Victorian clapboard cottages, the chocolate-box cobbles and unusual architecture of storybook Carmel-by-the-Sea and the artist enclave of Moss Landing, just a 25-minute drive away.
Like its residents, Monterey County is well-heeled and well-kept - but its discerning side keeps good company with quirkier, under-the-radar spots. San Francisco urbanites are starting to recognise the bubble of calm that surrounds this area, but guarded residents keep their favourite hangouts under wraps. A stroll away from Cannery Row's hubbub, you'll find Italian restaurants and chic French bistros. Venture further afield to the satellite villages dotting the peninsula and local brew houses and sustainable vineyards to rival Napa's begin to appear. Wherever you go, however, you'll encounter glorious landscapes - the shimmering sea mists, stretching shorelines, endless horizons and boulder-strewn coastline punctuated by wind-whipped beaches that led Steinbeck to call Monterey "a dream".
Just two hours' by car from San Francisco (and another five from Los Angeles), Monterey County is the perfect stopover on a road trip down the Pacific coast. Whether you're a literary pilgrim seeking what Steinbeck described as the city's "quality of light" or a BLL fanatic wanting to get lost in the show's setting, it's time to turn up that Michael Kiwanuka track and hit the highway. Let's hit the road.
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