Attractions & Tours

Things to Do in Monterey

Tours, attractions, and experiences in Monterey — booking direct where we can, vetted affiliate partners where we can't.

13 attractions

Scenic Drives

Monterey Scenic Drives

2 listings

Featured

17-Mile Drive & Pebble Beach

The famous private coast road through Pebble Beach — the Lone Cypress, Bird Rock's seals, white-sand Spanish Bay, ghost-tree Pescadero Point, and the 18th at Pebble, all for a gate fee refunded against resort lunch.

Scenic DriveGolfCoastline

2-3 hoursGet Tickets

Big Sur Coast Drive

The greatest coastal drive on earth starts at Carmel's edge — Bixby Bridge, McWay Falls dropping onto a turquoise cove, condors over Highway 1, and redwood canyons meeting granite surf for fifty vertiginous miles.

Scenic DriveBixby BridgeMcWay Falls

Full dayGet Tickets

Tours

Monterey Tours

2 listings

Featured

$$$

Monterey Bay Whale Watching

The best whale watching in North America, honestly — a two-mile-deep canyon starts just offshore, so humpbacks lunge-feed, gray whales parade, blues cruise summers, and orcas hunt the edges. Year-round sailings from the wharf.

WhalesWildlifeBoat Tour

3-4 hoursGet Tickets

Monterey Bay Kayaks

Paddle the sanctuary at otter level — guided tours and rentals from the harbor beach and Elkhorn Slough, where sea otters, harbor seals, and pelicans share the water with you. Beginner-friendly, biologist-led, unforgettable.

KayakingOttersWildlife

2.5-3 hours (tours)Get Tickets

Natural Wonders

Monterey Natural Wonders

2 listings

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve

"The greatest meeting of land and water in the world" — painters' coves of jade water and wind-carved cypress just south of Carmel, with sea lions on the rocks, otters in the kelp, and trails that fit any legs.

State ReserveHikingWildlife

2-4 hoursGet Tickets

Monarch Grove Sanctuary

Pacific Grove's winter miracle — thousands of monarch butterflies clustering in a eucalyptus grove from October to February, hanging in living garlands that explode into orange flight when the sun warms them. Free, docent-staffed, fifteen quiet minutes.

ButterfliesSeasonalFree

30-60 minutesGet Tickets

Historic Sites

Monterey Historic Sites

2 listings

Carmel Mission Basilica

The most beautiful of California's 21 missions — the 1797 stone basilica with its Moorish tower and star window, bougainvillea courtyards, five museum rooms, and the tomb of Junipero Serra before its altar.

HistoricMissionArchitecture

1-1.5 hoursGet Tickets

Monterey State Historic Park

California's founding downtown — the adobe capital where the state began: Custom House (California's first state landmark), the hall where its constitution was written, and a self-guided Path of History through gardens and whalebone sidewalks.

HistoricWalking TourFree

1.5-2 hoursGet Tickets

Aquariums

Monterey Aquariums

1 listing

Featured

$$$

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The best aquarium in America, arguably the world — a three-story kelp forest breathing with the tide, sea otters at play, the Open Sea's tuna and sunfish gliding through blue, all in a converted cannery hanging over the bay itself.

AquariumWorld-ClassFamily-Friendly

2-4 hoursGet Tickets

Historic Districts

Monterey Historic Districts

1 listing

Featured

Cannery Row

Steinbeck's sardine street, reborn as the bay's social waterfront — cannery warehouses turned restaurants and tasting rooms, the recreation trail running through, otters in the kelp below, and the aquarium at the end.

HistoricWaterfrontDining

2-3 hoursGet Tickets

Towns & Villages

Monterey Towns & Villages

1 listing

Carmel-by-the-Sea

The storybook village — one square mile of fairy-tale cottages, hidden courtyard galleries and wine rooms, no street addresses, dogs welcomed everywhere, and a white-sand beach under cypress at the foot of Ocean Avenue.

VillageBeachGalleries

Half dayGet Tickets

Waterfront

Monterey Waterfront

1 listing

Old Fisherman's Wharf

Monterey's chowder-and-sea-lions pier — free samples at every restaurant door, whale boats and sails departing alongside, candy and salt-water taffy, and the harbor's resident sea lions providing the soundtrack.

WaterfrontDiningSea Lions

1-2 hoursGet Tickets

Outdoors & Adventure

Monterey Outdoors & Adventure

1 listing

Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail

Eighteen car-free miles on the old railroad grade — the showpiece stretch links the wharf, Cannery Row, and Lovers Point past otters, harbor seals, and tidepools. Rent a bike or surrey and the whole shoreline becomes one ride.

Bike PathFreeWildlife

1-3 hoursGet Tickets

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