The Monterey History and Art Association has many self-guided and docent-led tours that cover more than 40 historical buildings, all in under an hour. The Monterey Path of History Tour is the perfect way to see the adobe buildings where early Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo pioneers lived, worked, and traded.
Put on your sneakers and hit the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail by foot or bike and enjoy the sights and sounds of the Monterey Bay as you wend your way along the waterfront.
Keep the nautical theme on your journey and stroll into the Maritime Museum located in the Custom House Plaza. The museum is home to more than 6,000 artifacts and more than 50,000 photographs chronicling the maritime history of the area. The plaza is also often the site of festivals and celebrations, including wine tasting events sponsored by the Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association.
Directly across from the plaza is the world famous Fisherman’s Wharf, the historical center of the commercial fishing industry, and it is still active today with shops and restaurants like Old Fisherman’s Grotto, where owner Chris Shake can be found every day outside his restaurant, rain or shine, giving samples of his clam chowder to hungry tourists.
If you want more formal dining, try The Sardine Factory, immortalized in Clint Eastwood’s movie, Play Misty for Me. Or, for a romantic evening and the best French food on the peninsula, Fresh Cream Restaurant, with its harbor views, cannot be missed.
Spend a day at the Monterey Museum of Art, whose focus is collecting the work of artists on the peninsula and the West Coast. This museum has in its permanent collection, early California paintings that chronicle the peninsula’s legacy as an important and influential art colony. The holdings start from the mid-19th century and go in the 1940s and include the work of Armin Hansen and William Ritschel. The collection also includes works by photographers Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.
For collectors and enthusiasts of Thomas Kinkade paintings, a trip to the Harry A. Greene Mansion is a must. Located on Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey, the Thomas Kinkade National Archive houses the largest collection of the painter’s original works in the world.
