Archive for the 'Monterey Peninsula' Category
Last-minute Labor Day campsites at California state parks
September 3, 2009 1:04pm
Time is running out if you want to reserve a campsite for Labor Day weekend at California state parks. And don’t expect to get a prime spot. Fortunately, about two dozen parks offer camping on a first-come, first-served basis. You just have to get there early; most of these campgrounds will fill up by early tomorrow ( Friday), park officials say. Here are your options:
Reserve a campsite: You need to book at least 48 hours in advance of arrival with the ReserveAmerica service. So the earliest night you can book today is for Saturday, and you need to book by 5 p.m. PDT. More than 30 parks still had weekend campsites available as of Wednesday. Typically, these are primitive sites, and you often must walk a ways to get to them. Or they are inland, in warmer areas. Among the parks with space were Orange County’s Crystal Cove (campsites, not the cottages, which were booked) and Cuyamaca Rancho in San Diego County.
Take your chances: A total of 26 California state parks and recreation areas accept at least some campers on a first-come, first-served basis, usually at sites with few services. Among them are Andrew Molera State Park (pictured) in the Big Sur area, and Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Monterey: Full moon hotel deal gives us something to howl about
July 18, 2009 10:33am
Here’s another one for the “Summer of ‘69” anniversary files. The newly opened Hotel Abrego in Monterey commemorates the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s historical moonwalk with a unique package –only available on the remaining full moon nights in 2009.
Deal: At the 93-room hotel that opened this month, the family-friendly “Moon Over Monterey” offer includes the following components: a room for two nights, a turn-down treat of MoonPies; and a copy of the recently published children’s book “Mission Control, This Is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon” by Andrew Chaikin.
The two-night package will cost you $111 per night (pretax). Use promo code “MOON.”
When: This package is on sale beginning July 20, which was the date, 40 years ago, of the unprecedented landing, and the sale will end Aug. 6. Read the rest of this entry »
Super-cheap flights to Hawaii, Monterey, Detroit, Colorado, Kansas and more
April 14, 2009 7:42pm
The airfare deal that’s getting all the buzz today is the uber-cheap flight to Hawaii. Airfare Watchdog tipped us off to the $214 round-trip flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Honolulu (HNL) on Continental. I tested it on CheapAir.com (one of the suggested links with the AFWD deal) and found the fare available now through June 7. The cost for two passengers May 27 to June 2 came to $245 each after taxes or $490 total for two.
Other insanely cheap airfares from Los Angeles (LAX), pretax:
to Monterey: $38 one way on Allegiant
to Detroit: $21 round trip on Spirit via the $9 Fare Club, $18 more for nonmembers. Select dates only.
Deals worth springing for in Monterey County
February 26, 2009 4:34pm
Thinking about a trip up the coast to the Monterey Peninsula, by road or air? If not, read this post and perhaps you’ll reconsider. As if the region’s gorgeous scenery, prime vineyards, tranquil vibe and world-class aquarium aren’t reasons enough to visit, the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau has put together a new promotion rife with some serious deals.
The “Smile Recovery” promo — I’m already feeling sunnier — offers something for everyone: families on the hunt for fun, couples craving quiet and students seeking shoestring rates.
Deals: Here are some of the more noteworthy offers of the bunch: Read the rest of this entry »
Book your summer Monterey trip now: $99 round trip on Allegiant Air
February 20, 2009 1:15pm
Among the handful of new recently announced Allegiant Air routes from LAX is this: Starting May 3, you can fly up to Monterey (MRY) with the Las Vegas-based airline. Forgoing the five-hour-plus slog on the road each way, you can opt for a trip of an hour and 15 minutes without paying an arm and a leg for it.
(For more on Allegiant Air’s new routes planned to/from our region, read “Allegiant Air to launch LAX service.”)
Nonstop flights between LAX and Monterey will be available Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you book a trip during the promotional period, you’ll pay $39 each way, before taxes and fees. The total I was given for a round trip in May was $99. Read the rest of this entry »
California coast trip, Day 6: From Nepenthe to Half Moon Bay, with stops to chat along the way
January 7, 2009 1:30pm
The day is done, and I have in my right shirt pocket a matchbook from Nepenthe, a Junipero Serra prayer card from the mission in Carmel, and a receipt for a perfectly adequate scallops dinner here in Half Moon Bay.
Which means, dinner snarkiness aside, that I put in a lot of stops along the 167 miles between Ragged Point and here. And it’s a funny thing. Some days, on a trip like this, you fall into a landscape habit and spend the day walking or climbing, but you don’t talk much with other people. Other days, you bounce from one conversation to another, never get to half the spots on your itinerary, yet feel great about the way it turned out.
And then there are days like today: landscape and people, people and landscape.
12 books of Christmas: ‘Route 66 Backroads’
December 21, 2008 6:00am
Whenever I crank up my 1912 Columbia Grafonola, my mother asks why I’d want to play that old windup phonograph when digital music is so much clearer. She’s right, but there’s just something authentic about hearing it on the original.
It’s the same principle with Route 66.
Sure, the interstate will get you there faster, but driving the Mother Road gets you closer to history. If you know someone who’s enchanted with the double six, “Route 66 Backroads,” by Jim Hinckley with photos by Kerrick James, Rick Bowers and Nora Mays Bowers, may be just the ticket (Voyageur Press, $24.99).
12 books of Christmas: ‘Visions of Paradise’
December 20, 2008 6:00am
My new personal hero may be Bronwen Latimer, who created a photographic escape hatch for these gloomy days when the economic news is as overcast as SoCal skies on a stormy day.
Latimer asked National Geographic photographers where, in their view, was heaven on earth. The result is this luscious book, “Visions of Paradise” (National Geographic, $35), which takes a reader to some predictable places (Hawaii), some not so much (Nebraska) and some I’d never heard of (Lago Ypoa National Park in Paraguay).
12 books of Christmas: ‘Galen Rowell’
December 19, 2008 11:42am
You look at the soft-cover version of “Galen Rowell: A Retrospective” (Sierra Club Books, $39.95) and you want to weep — at the beauty of his photography, at the notion that Rowell and his wife, Barbara, were taken too soon. The couple died in a plane crash in August 2002, a shock at the time and a shock still.
This retrospective, with an intro by friend and admirer Tom Brokaw and commentaries by other comrades, contains 180 of his images.
12 books of Christmas: ‘Distinguished Inns’
December 18, 2008 6:00pm
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There is, always, the place that sticks in your mind, that charming little inn that felt almost like home, but with nicer people and better linens.
I love browsing books like “Distinguished Inns of North America (Panache Partners, $34.95) not just because I sometimes aspire to be the kind of traveler who can stay at the Ashby Inn in Paris, Va., but because these lodgings sometimes lead us to places we might otherwise never go.
