Monterey Guide
If you’ve been thinking of going to Monterey, you absolutely should! It’s centrally located in California and it’s SO fun for anyone in the family. The kids had such an amazing time and Jas and I were just as into it. I pulled together all of our faves for this Monterey Guide – happy exploring!
We started off our Monterey trip at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! The kids loved the sea otters, we got to touch the bat rays.
Summer loved seeing all the fish!
The jellyfish were so cool, I could literally watch them for HOURS! We got to watch the penguins get fed. We ended our aquarium trip with ‘linner’ overlooking the water. It was sooo fun and the kids loved it!
We stayed at the Monterey Plaza hotel and I was so excited because I’ve been wanting to stay there for forever. It was UNREAL!!
Our balconies were right on top of the water. It was amazing. And the kids had their own space with a pullout couch to sleep on which was great!
The other balconies overlooked a restaurant!
Pretending for just a sec we’re on a couples retreat, Jas and I overlooked the water right from our balcony. And then we were brought back to reality quickly with the three littles running around in the room!
From here on our [ you just have to visit ] Monterey Guide, we walked from the hotel to see the sea lions that we’re right by our hotel!
I got a lot of funny messages from you guys in my DMs about our attire while on this trip! If you didn’t know, California can get chilly on the coast. We live more inland so it was around 85 at home, but once you get the the coast, especially in NorCal, the temperatures drop like 20 degrees. Which is great to know if you are planning a trip to Monterey! It was chilly, but also nice to have such a change!
We found the prettiest spot for photos right behind lovers point. When we went there were so many pretty purple flowers blooming!
Next, We went for a walk on Cannery Row and it is so cute!!
It has some cute shops and restaurants. We got pizza and then headed to Dennis the Menace Park. We went into the mirror maze, but that was a terrible idea. We couldn’t figure out how to get out and had to go out the emergency exit and set off the alarm. We ended up spending two hours at the arcade!
Dennis the Menace Playground was so fun! They have big goose paddle boats you can ride around on, but it was too windy while we were there.
We had dinner at Schooners Coastal Kitchen & Bar and it was the best dinner spot at the hotel!
The Monterey Plaza had jacuzzis at the top. They have a kid one and one for 18 and over! We just got in the hot tub and all of a sudden Hunty goes “mom your phones in the hot tub!” It was totally under water for like 5 min and shockingly still fine?!
On our last morning we had to come back to Cannery Row for breakfast because the kids were dying to try the cinnamon rolls at Lilly Maes Cinnamon Rolls, and they did not disappoint!
There’s a great little beach right next to the hotel and it was perfect for walking down and playing in the sand with the kids.
We went to Monterey Old Fisherman’s Wharf and it was so fun!
The kids got some balloons and played with bubbles. We took a little boat ride on the Little Mermaid Glass Bottom Boat and we finally got to see some sea lions! They were saying that while we were there, 75% of them were gone because it was mating season and they went to look for warmer water. There were tons of sea otters hanging out outside of the Monterey Plaza. One of my favorite things about Monterey is the clam chowder bread bowls!
We ended the day with a little bit of paddle boating right by Dennis the Menace Park. We wanted to take the swan but it was too windy so people were getting stuck on the other side, but they let us take a normal one out!
Then Jason got us stuck out there! You can’t make this stuff up haha!
The beach/rock area right under Fishhopper on Cannery Row is fun to explore and the kids saw crabs, mussels, anemones, and some people said they say a starfish!
Monterey is an amazing place to see in nature animals, it’s so walkable and they have great food, coffee and fun activities for the kids – I can’t wait to plan another trip back!
And in case you are heading to Disney anytime soon…here are all my tips for navigating!
