Carmel by the Sea

Carmel by the Sea, or simply Carmel, is a small city in Monterey County. It’s famous for its stunning natural scenery and artistic heritage: in 1910 the San Francisco Call reported that 60% of Carmel’s houses were built by citizens who were “devoting their lives to work connected to the aesthetic arts.” That legacy remains: the city has had several mayors who were poets or actors, including none other than Clint Eastwood himself. You wouldn’t fool around in his town.

The city is singularly devoted to its canine citizens, allowing them into most establishments, so beware if you have a fear of dogs! But it all adds to the feel of Carmel as a rather quaint sort of country club. Ocean Avenue, the village’s slow-traffic main drag, is always full of well-groomed gents drifting by in their convertibles; sweet little Comstock cottages, with their stone chimneys and pitched gable roofs, can be found all over town. For someone actually from a quaint village in the UK, it must be quite a curious experience to find it transplanted to the sunny clime of California.

However, this atmosphere is perhaps unsurprising given that Carmel was founded as a seaside resort in the 1880s, quickly attracting artists and writers such as Sinclair Lewis and Jack London to its picturesque patch of coastline. There are still over 100 galleries downtown, but any trace of Bohemia is long gone — property prices have soared as people have realised just how delightful Carmel is.

From Carmel you can explore the Carmel Mission, Point Lobos - a wonderful park that juts out into the pacific - and of course the 1.5 miles of white sand on Carmel Beach.