COASTAL CALIFORNIA | CARMEL
Planning a trip to Carmel, California
THE BEST WAY
From LAX, United and American Airlines offer nonstop service and US Airways offers connecting service (change of planes) to Monterey airport, about five miles from Carmel. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $332.
WHERE TO STAY
Highlands Inn Park Hyatt Carmel, 120 Highlands Drive; (831) 620-1234, www.highlandsinn.hyatt.com. You can't beat the views from here, and the other amenities aren't bad either, such as the wood-burning fireplaces, the pools and the pair of on-site restaurants. Though 94 of its rooms are now time shares, the inn still has 48 hotel rooms. Doubles from $155, more for suites.
La Playa Hotel, Camino Real and 8th Avenue; (800) 582-8900 or (831) 624-6476, www.laplayahotel.com. This an old-fashioned fancy hotel, with terrace restaurant, colorful gardens, spa treatments and free parking. Some of its features are tired — the furnishings and bathroom in Room 154, for instance. But it's two blocks up from the beach and four blocks downhill from the shops and restaurants of town. 75 rooms and five cottages. Doubles from $165.
Carmel Comfort Inn, Torres and Ocean Avenue; (831) 622-7090 or (800) 424-6423, www.carmelcomfortinn.com. Nineteen rooms, many with new furniture and carpets. There's no pool and the traffic of Ocean Avenue passes close by, but this is a handy location just above the town's main shopping streets. Doubles from $89.
Bodie House, Weston Private Drive; (831) 624-8111, http://www.kimweston.com/wildcat_hill/bodie_house.htm. One guest room. Bodie House is the oldest building on a property south of Carmel that's been in the Weston family for three generations. Built as a garage, it now holds a sitting room, bedroom, kitchenette, compact bathroom and copious art, including nude photography. $150 per night.
WHERE TO EAT
Cantinetta Luca, Dolores Street between Ocean and 7th avenues; (831) 625-6500, http://www.cantinettaluca.com. This is the newest of the eateries listed here (it opened in late 2006), and it delivered the best meal of my visit: a risotto made with chanterelle mushrooms from Big Sur. A busy dining room wraps around a shapely bar, with a small counter in back overlooking the kitchen action. Prices up to $64, which buys a 24-ounce Florentine-style T-bone. Lunch and dinner.
Village Corner, Dolores and 6th Avenue; (831) 624-3588, www.carmelsbest.com. This dining room and patio go back more than 55 years. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with dinner entrees priced at up to $30.25 for filet mignon.
The Grill on Ocean Avenue, between Dolores and Lincoln Lane, Carmel; (831) 624-2569, www.carmelsbestrestaurants.com. Open for lunch and dinner with dinner entrees up to $34 for macadamia-encrusted rack of lamb. I had a good Black Angus burger ($12), and quietly wished the pictures on the wall featured something other than golf courses.
Hog's Breath Inn, San Carlos between 5th and 6th ; (831) 625-1044, www.hogsbreathinn.net. Clint Eastwood has sold this place, but his picture is still up on the walls, and the restaurant's steady tourist traffic and T-shirt sales suggest that his celebrity touch hasn't worn off yet. The patio, with a fireplace beneath a mural of green hills, is pleasant. Too bad my dinner (Dirty Harry Dinner, chopped sirloin and mushrooms for $19.50) wasn't better. The dining room didn't offer much atmosphere either.
California Market Restaurant, 120 Highlands Drive; (831) 622-5450, www.highlandsinn.hyatt.com. Downstairs from the Highlands Inn's fancy Pacific's Edge restaurant, there's California Market, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in rooms and a patio with commanding views of breakers on the rocks. (Every table has a pair of Bushnell binoculars next to the salt and pepper.) I ordered the $16 continental breakfast, which included oatmeal, granola, baked goods, cheeses and fruits along with coffee and juice. The search for parking can take a while if you're not a hotel guest.
TO LEARN MORE
Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau, (888) 221-1010, www.montereyinfo.org.
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