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Carmel Travel Guide: Reviews, photos, & videos
Tiny Carmel-by-the-Sea, population 4,000, has an almost unreal feel: the beaches are blindingly white, the streets are immaculate and thanks to a city-wide ban, neon signs and fast food restaurants are nowhere in sight. Tall cypress and eucalyptus trees shade the streets and leave a fresh scent in the air. A former artists’ colony, Carmel has attracted many luminaries over the years, including Sinclair Lewis and Ansel Adams. Artists still dominate private and public life in Carmel—actor and director Clint Eastwood was the town’s mayor for a term.
Visit the Carmel Bach Festival, held over the course of three weeks in July and August every year, or, if you arrive later, the Carmel Shakespeare Festival from August to October. Explore the grounds of the Carmel Mission. Established in 1770, the mission is the second oldest of California’s Spanish missions. Moss coats the adobe buildings and from the tower of the basilica eleven bells call to mass. Hike the Mission Trail, winding its way from the Carmel Mission through 35 acres of meadows and oak forest. Visit Point Lobos State Reserve about three miles south of Carmel—a 550-acre wildlife refuge of rocky headlands and deep coves where seals, sea lions and otters by far outnumber people. Continue south on Highway 1 to Big Sur, for the astonishing landscape of plunging cliffs and waves crashing against the rock sides that inspired Henry Miller, Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac.
