Must-see attractions in Monterey

  • MONTEREY, CA - APRIL10:  The exterior of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, located at Cannery Row two hours south of San Francisco, is viewed on April 10, 2018, in Monterey, California. An estimated 15 million domestic and international travelers visit California each year generating more than $100 billion in revenue and creating more than one million jobs in the arts, entertainment, recreation, food service and accomodations sectors. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

    Monterey Bay Aquarium

    Monterey

    Monterey is practically synonymous with its world-class aquarium overlooking Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which protects dense kelp forests and…

  • Monterey, CA -18 February 2018. The Monterey State Historic Park is composed of a number of significant historic houses and buildings interspersed throughout Old Monterey.

    Pacific House

    Monterey

    Find out what's currently open at Monterey State Historic Park, grab a free map and buy tickets for guided walking tours inside this 1847 adobe building,…

  • Garden at Monterey State Historic Park.

    Monterey State Historic Park

    Monterey

    Old Monterey is home to an extraordinary assemblage of 19th-century brick and adobe buildings administered as a state park and linked by a 2-mile self…

  • Monterey Museum of Art

    Monterey

    Downtown, MMA Pacific Street is particularly strong in California contemporary art and modern landscape painters and photographers, including Ansel Adams…

  • Dali17

    Monterey

    Escaping WWII in Europe, Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí lived and worked in the Monterey and Carmel area in the 1940s. Comprising over 300 Dalí…

  • Stevenson House

    Monterey

    Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson came to Monterey in 1879 to court his wife-to-be, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne. This building, then the French Hotel…

  • Monterey, CA - Aug. 2, 2012: Cannery Row. The site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories, Cannery Row is the waterfront street in the New Monterey section of Monterey, CA; Shutterstock ID 1265631838; your: Bridget Brown; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI Image Update

    Cannery Row

    Monterey

    John Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row immortalized the sardine-canning business that was Monterey’s lifeblood for the first half of the 20th century. A…

  • Custom House

    Monterey

    In 1822, a newly independent Mexico ended the Spanish trade monopoly and stipulated that any traders bringing goods to Alta (Upper) California must first…

  • Cooper-Molera Adobe

    Monterey

    This stately early-19th-century adobe home was built by John Rogers Cooper, a New England sea captain, and three generations of his family resided here…

  • Monterey Museum of Art – La Mirada

    Monterey

    Southeast of downtown Monterey, MMA La Mirada is a silent-film star’s villa, a building whose humble adobe origins are exquisitely concealed. It is now…

  • Cannery Workers Shacks

    Monterey

    The trio of tiny original one-room cabins where cannery workers shacked up provides a sobering reminder of the hard lives led by Filipino, Japanese,…

  • Colton Hall

    Monterey

    Peek inside brick Colton Hall, where California’s first constitutional convention took place in 1849. Once the capitol of Alta (Upper) California, today…

  • Presidio of Monterey Museum

    Monterey

    On the grounds of the original Spanish fort, this specialized museum (of interest only to history buffs) looks at Monterey’s history from a military…

  • Monterey Museum of Art – Pacific Street

    Monterey

    Downtown, the MMA Pacific Street is particularly strong in California contemporary art and modern landscape painters and photographers, including Ansel…

  • Old Monterey Jail

    Monterey

    Featured in John Steinbeck’s novel Tortilla Flat, this small granite prison was built in 1856. Over a century of use, not one prisoner ever escaped.

  • California's First Theater

    Monterey

    Originally built as a lodging house and tavern in 1847, and used as a theater from 1850, this building is currently closed for renovation.

  • Steinbeck Plaza

    Monterey

    Along Cannery Row, stop at Steinbeck Plaza to soak up bay views and snap a photo of yourself with a bronze bust of the famous writer.

  • Old Whaling Station

    Monterey

    Open to the public, this fine adobe structure was originally built in 1847 by Scottish settler, David Wight.

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