MONTEREY, CA

While no longer the county seat nor even its largest city (both honors rest with blue-collar Salinas), Monterey remains the area's best-known and most popular destination. A city of only 32,000, it attracts easily 100 times as many tourists each year. What do they come for? They come for the history, the culture, the food, and the shopping.

Downtown

Monterey's carefully restored downtown is, in fact, the historical cradle of California. From 1775, when it became the capital of the Spanish colony of Alta California, through Mexican rule and the brief period of independent California, the whole state was governed from Monterey. Landmarks from each of these periods are preserved in the adobe Colonial-style houses that line the streets of the district. Monterey State Historic Park, though it has seen fit to join the Wi-Fi revolution, is still probably the best place to catch a glimpse of the olden days. Historic buildings and pleasant gardens are the name of the game here, and the site plays host to historical reenactments and festivals such as the Monterey Living History Festival every... more