By Emma Krasov. Photography by Yuri Krasov
What’s called low season on Monterey Peninsula in Northern California, is in fact a mild winter of fresh ocean air, pleasantly cool weather, partly cloudy skies with occasional bright sunshine (or a rain shower), gorgeous views of the roaring Pacific from multiple vistas, and [attention!] fewer crowds.
For one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, which often runs out of lodging and parking spaces in summer months that counts for something!
Take advantage of the calmer times in local tourism, and head for Carmel-by-the-Sea, where the beauty of nature is reflected in art, architecture, and the very soul of this coastal fairy-tale town.
Book your stay at the unique, family owned Hofsas House Hotel, in operation for more than 75 years, perpetually ranking high for its location, service, accommodations, and amenities. This is a place where you immediately feel at home, where hospitality is a way of life, and where you’ll enjoy a cozy Bavarian-style room décor, a heated outdoor pool, and pet-friendly rooms, while a walking distance away is a long sandy beach where dogs run off-leash.
A daily breakfast of fresh pastries from a local bakery is included with the room stay, and you can consume it on your private balcony or a terrace with an ocean view. From here, you can watch the movement of Pacific Gray Whales traveling southbound, indicated by sparkling fountains from their blowholes.
If staying in room 36, you literally are embedded with art, since a local artist, Marie-Clare hand painted the room’s door, and a headboard on the bed. Due to the hotel building’s unusual configuration on a hilly terrain, it looks like a one-story vintage inn from the street façade, but appears to be a four-story modern structure from the back, towering above its swimming pool and parking lot.
Due to the town’s optimally small size, walkable streets, lined with old trees, flowering bushes, and dense patches of fantastically looking succulents, boutique shops and varied restaurants of any imaginable kind, abundance of art galleries with shiny windows, and dog-friendly policies—both within the town and in the hotel—Hofsas House is one of the most coveted properties here, in close proximity to practically everything Carmel-by-the-Sea has to offer. For reservations and information, visit https://www.hofsashouse.com/.
To explore the town’s environs and indulge in one of the best dinner choices on Monterey Peninsula, take a short drive to the neighboring town of Pacific Grove, where besides multiple, world-renowned tourist attractions you’ll find a restaurant like no other, Mezzaluna Pasteria and Mozzarella Bar.
This place has an extensive menu of house made pasta, cheeses, ice cream, and delectable seasonal dishes, like mushroom-based creations in the winter season, when chanterelles, boletes, trumpets, oyster mushrooms, etc. are in full bloom in California.
Start with a cocktail—special to the venue, like San Vitor or traditional, like Black Manhattan—they all are good! Try an appetizer staple, Pate di Anatra (duck liver pate) that comes with grilled bread and house made condiments, or freshly made Burrata con Fungi in a skillet of fried just-foraged mushrooms.
Other popular dishes that are always on the menu, are Linguine con Aragosta (lobster pasta) and Spaghetti Carbonara. For a wonderful dessert to round up a great meal, order Affogato with your choice of a housemade scoop, or a three-scooper of amazing flavors, like pistachio, honey-lavender, and of course, chocolate. For reservations and information, visit https://www.mezzalunabythesea.com/.
In Carmel, there are plenty of spaces for short and long, easy and a bit more challenging nature walks. The Carmel Meadows Trail, a coastal path with scenic, rugged views of the ocean between Carmel River Stare Beach and Monterey Beach starts near Highway One north of Monastery Beach. Along the sandy path, you’ll see picturesque bluffs, coastal shrubs, scrubs of sage, ice plant, and aloe vera, and tiny gray rabbits darting across the trail in front of you.
An absolute champion among the surrounding Carmel-by-the-Sea nature parks would be Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, located a short drive from Hofsas House Hotel. Here, you’ll find all kinds of Northern California landscapes at once.
Cypress groves and flowering meadows, pine forests and thickets of bushes on hills above the cliffs, sandy beaches where harbor seals nurse their young, and a historic Whalers Cove with its own museum. Called “the greatest meeting of land and water in the world,” Point Lobos will beautifully round up your Monterey Peninsula experience. To learn more, visit https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=571.
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