Carmel-by-the-Sea
Founded by writers and painters after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Carmel has no street numbers, no pavements in much of town, no traffic lights and, famously, a bylaw once requiring a permit to wear high heels. Leave the car: what matters is the cottages, the white beach at the end of Ocean Avenue and the Carmel Mission a mile south.
Why go
A town founded by artists and run by their rules — no street numbers, no traffic lights, no neon. Point Lobos — a reserve of cypress and cove immediately south, called the greatest meeting of land and water. The mission — Junípero Serra's 1771 headquarters, restored, with his grave under the sanctuary floor. Seventeen-Mile Drive and Big Sur — the coast in both directions, and Carmel sits in the middle of it.
The character
Carmel was founded as an artists' and writers' colony after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when refugees with no money bought cheap lots among the pines. They wrote the town's rules and their descendants have defended them ever since: no street numbers or mail delivery — residents collect post at the office, which was designed to make them meet each other — no street lights, no pavements in much of town, no chain restaurants, and permits required to cut a tree. The famous ordinance about high heels was passed to protect the city from lawsuits over the tree-root-buckled paths, and it is still technically in force.
The effect is a village of a few thousand people in a pine forest above a white beach, where the houses have names instead of addresses and the commercial street is one block from cottages that look like illustrations. It is precious, and knows it. What saves it is the coast: Point Lobos is ten minutes south and is genuinely one of the finest stretches of shoreline in North America, and Big Sur begins twenty minutes further on.
Places of character
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve — cypress groves, sea otters and coves; go at opening, the car park fills by ten. Carmel Mission — 1771, adobe and stone, with a bell tower and Serra's grave beneath the sanctuary. Carmel Beach — white sand at the foot of Ocean Avenue, with cypress and dogs off the lead. Tor House and Hawk Tower — the poet Robinson Jeffers built both by hand from granite hauled up from the cove. Scenic Road — the clifftop lane along the beach, with the town's best houses and no through traffic. Seventeen-Mile Drive — the toll road north through Pebble Beach to the Lone Cypress.
The way to do it
Park once and walk — the town is six by six blocks and everything is on foot. Get to Point Lobos early; it is the reason to be here and the car park is small. Take Scenic Road rather than Ocean Avenue back from the beach. And drive south into Big Sur for at least a morning, as far as Bixby Bridge.
One perfect day
Coffee before eight, then straight to Point Lobos at opening: the Cypress Grove trail, otters in the kelp and sea lions audible from the cliff. Back to town late morning for the mission, which takes an hour and is genuinely moving. Lunch in a courtyard. Afternoon on Carmel Beach with the fog usually gone by two, and a walk along Scenic Road past Jeffers's stone tower. Late drive south on Highway 1 to Bixby Bridge for the light. Dinner early in the village, and a walk back through unlit lanes with the houses named ahead of numbered.
Grand hotels
L'Auberge Carmel — a 1929 inn on a corner of the village, twenty rooms and the best table in town. Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur — forty minutes south on a cliff at 350 metres; the definitive address on this coast.
When to go
Best expression: September and October — the fog lifts, the water is warmest and the light is long. Consider: February for grey whales passing Point Lobos and empty hotels. Avoid if possible: June and July mornings, when the marine layer can hold until afternoon.
The frame
Ideal stay 2 nights · Minimum 1 night · Best arrival by car from San Francisco, two hours · Airport MRY, 10 km · Walkability total within the village · Best without a car no — the coast needs one