Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA

 Road trip itinerary to Carmel-by-the-sea, California

Girls Weekend Road Trip from SoCal to Carmel

Most people take a trip to carmel as a romantic getaway. However, we did a girls road trip and I wouldn't have had it any other way! What I found most interesting about Carmel-by-the-sea is that there are no addresses to locate businesses. There were only street names and business names. For example, Damatra Cafe is on the corner of Ocean and Linlcon St. .

We started our trip from Southern California at around 10am. 

Saturday

I love to have trips planned down to the "T", but one stop on the way caught our eyes and so we decided to make a spontaneous stop. We stumbled upon The Lavender Garden. It was in Mid-December, so there was no lavender at the time, but it was still nice to walk around the tiny shop and look at all the lavender goodies. We then got back on the road again. We got to Carmel close to sunset, it was unlike anything I had ever seen in my whole life. The sunset was B R E A T H  T A K I N G, something I will never forget. 

We stayed at the beach for about 30 minutes, admiring the sunset and taking photos, then we headed to the hotel which was about a 10-15 minute drive from the beach. 

We stayed at the Best Western Carmel's Town House Lodge, which was perfect as it was within walking distance of almost everything else we did. Carmel is expen$ive, expect to spend at least $200 a night! 

After cleaning up a bit, we headed out for a late dinner. We did not have any dinner reservations the first night as we weren't sure what time we would get there with traffic, etc.. We walked around and quickly found a Mediterranean restaurant called Dametra Cafe. As we went during covid times, all the restaurants had mandatory outdoor seating, but it was still beautiful. We enjoyed dinner and then continued to explore the town. Everything was lit up for the holidays so it was really nice to just walk around and window shop. As we were walking, we noticed a beautiful lit walkway and decided to walk through. To our surprise, we found that it led us to a hidden tiny garden that lead us to a wine tasting room! Galante Vinyards Tasting Room There we sat, shared a bottle, and enjoyed the night. I ended up taking a bottle home as it was THAT good. As cerfew for covid was 10pm, we headed to our hotel to call it a night. We drank a bottle of wine as we made face masks, relaxed, excited for what next adventure we would stumble upon. 

Sunday

The next morning we got up nice and early. If you're anything like me, 8am is pretty early for a day off. We grabbed a pastry and coffee (a must) from the famous Carmel Bakery. There is no indoor or outdoor seating, so we took our pastries and walked around. We headed to walk around town and saw a cute "Instagrammable" clam and came across a cute little park called Devendoft Park where we enjoyed the rest of our coffee and got to see the live fish in the mini man made pond.

We then looked around to see the cute fairy-tale homes. We definitely got a workout as there were many hills, so bring comfy shoes! I used a fish eye similar to this one to get great photos. 

We continued exploring and walked into Pilgrims Way Community Bookstore, which had a beautiful hidden garden behind it. Check it out if you have time! We then went out to have lunch at the Folktale Winery & Vineyards. We had THE BEST BRUSSEL SPROUTS. We had reservations so it was super easy to get seated, however, I could tell it was pretty popular as every seat was filled.

After lunch and a few drinks later, we went to rest at the hotel. We got up rested and excited to try the greatly reviewed restaurant La Bicyclette for dinner, but to our surprise, the menu was not as wide as it was online. We decided not to eat there after all. After walking around for about an hour to try to find a place to eat dinner, we decided to eat at Alvarado Street Brewery & Bistro located at the Carmel Plaza. They had the most delicious pink drink!  Here is the link to my grey coat, which was perfect for the weather.

Monday

We got up early with hopes to have some clam chowder for breakfast from the Old Fisherman's Wharf (not the best idea) as we ended up waiting around for everything to open. After eating a delicious bread clam chowder bowl, we headed to a creative residence called the "Butterfly house" located at 309 9th St, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. It was very unique and the residence even had a pretty chair you could sit in to take photos. We also stopped by the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary but sadly there were very little butterflies. We only saw two of them. Even still, it was a nice area to walk around in. 

We then headed to Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Other than the beach, this was by far my favorite part of the trip. We hiked the China Cove trail. It was peaceful, parking was close by, and the entrance was clearly marked. The hike was easy and had the best views of the beach and the seals and only took about 1 hour to complete. At around 1pm, we then headed back home for a long 7 hour ride. Well worth it!   

3 Day Itinerary in Carmel

Saturday

• Drive from OC
• Stop by Lavendar Garden
• Drive to Carmel Beach - see the sunset
• Dinner at Dametra Cafe
• Drinks at Galante Tasting Room

Sunday

• Breakfast at Carmel Bakery
• Walk through Devendoft park
• Carmel Walks - see cute fairy-tale style homes
• Pilgrims Way Community bookstore and Secret Garden
• Lunch at Folktale Winery
• Rest
• Window shop and Dinner at Carmel Plaza

Monday

• Butterfly house
• Monarch Sanctuary
• Old Fisherman's Wharf (better to do later in the day)
• Point Lobos Natural Reserve - Hike China Cove Trail
• Head back to OC

-Out of Office.

With love, Erica

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