Local Attractions around Monterey, CA

Our Hotel is near the Famous Monterey Bay Aquarium

Attracting nearly two million visitors each year, the site of one of the world's most spectacular aquariums was not chosen at random. On the border of one of the largest underwater canyons on earth (wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon), it's surrounded by incredibly diverse marine life. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best exhibit aquariums in the world, and one of the largest -- home to more than 350,000 marine animals and plants. One of the main exhibits is a three-story, 335,000-gallon tank with clear acrylic walls that offer a stunning view of leopard sharks, sardines, anchovies, and other sea creatures swimming through a towering kelp forest. The outstanding Outer Bay exhibit features creatures that inhabit the open ocean. This million-gallon tank houses yellow fin tuna, large green sea turtles, barracuda, sharks, the very cool giant ocean sunfish, and schools of bonito. The Outer Bay's jellyfish exhibit is guaranteed to amaze, and kids will love Flippers, Flukes, and Fun, a learning area for families.

A favorite exhibit at the aquarium is "Sharks: Myth and Mystery," which features nearly two dozen species of sharks and rays from around the world. The Splash Zone exhibit (designed for families with kids up to 9 years old) features daily programs and exhibits of black-footed penguins, invertebrates, and fish whose habitats are coral reefs and the cooler waters and rocky shores of Northern California. Additional exhibits re-create other undersea habitats found in Monterey Bay. Everyone falls in love with the sea otters playing in their two-story exhibit. There are also coastal streams, tidal pools, a sand beach, and a petting pool, where you can touch living bat rays and handle sea stars. Visitors can also watch a live video link that transmits from a deep-sea research submarine thousands of feet below the surface of Monterey Bay. Choose the Sanctuary Beach Resort; we’re easily among the most relaxing and indulgent of the hotels near the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Fisherman's Wharf

Just like San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, this wooden pier is jam-packed with crafts and gift shops, boating and fishing operations, fish markets, and seafood restaurants – all trawling for tourist dollars. But Monterey's wharf does have redeeming qualities: The natural surroundings are so beautiful that if you cast your view toward the bobbing boats and surfacing sea lions, you might not even notice the hordes of tourists around you. Grab some clam chowder in a sourdough-bread bowl and find a seaside perch along the pier. Or, when the wind picks up, find a bay-front seat at one of the seafood restaurants.

If the seaside sights have got you itching to set sail, boats depart regularly from Fisherman's Wharf and will lead you on a number of ocean adventures

Cannery Row

Once the center for an industrial sardine-packing operation immortalized by John Steinbeck as "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream," this area today is better described as a strip congested with tourists, tacky gift shops, overpriced seafood restaurants, and an overall parking nightmare. What changed it so dramatically? The silver sardines suddenly disappeared from Monterey's waters in 1948 as a result of over fishing, changing currents, and pollution. Fishermen left, canneries closed, and the Row fell into disrepair. But curious tourists continued to visit Steinbeck's fabled area, and where there are tourists, there are capitalists.

After visiting Cannery Row in the 1960s, Steinbeck wrote, "The beaches are clean where they once festered with fish guts and flies. The canneries that once put up a sickening stench are gone, their places filled with restaurants, antique shops, and the like. They fish for tourists now, not pilchards, and that species they are not likely to wipe out." And I couldn't put it any better.

Colton Hall

Built to serve as a public school and town meeting hall, Colton Hall now offers visitors a re-creation of the meeting room where California's first Constitution was drafted in October 1849 and exhibits on early Monterey. Colton Hall is a landmark in the City of Monterey, once the capital of Alta California.

Location and Hours: Colton Hall Museum is located on Pacific Street, between Madison and Jefferson streets. The museum is open daily 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day. Map and directions

Phone: 831.646.5648 / Fax: 831.646.3917
Address: Colton Hall Museum, City Hall, Monterey, CA 93940
Email: Colton Hall