Carmel: Highway 1's Is-It-Even-Real Coastal Village
Built by artists, sustained by the good life in every register: a coveted version of Cali.
Samantha Cycles
POPULATION: 3,220
Lodging: La Playa Carmel
BEST DAY OF THE YEAR: Carmel Art Walk
COFFEE: Cafe Luna
Big Sur & HWY 1
Sea creatures and legendary poets, redwood forests and winding roads, secret beaches and famed retreats.
Carmel-by-the-Sea was created by artists, an origin story which comes through in its visually charming atmosphere, cypress-lined blocks holding fairy-tale cottages. The square-mile of downtown feels more like a quaint stop in the Swiss Alps than a stereotypical California beach town. (If you’re feeling inspired by the local visionaries, pick up a canvas and some watercolors at Imagine art supplies in Pacific Grove, then memorialize the moment en plein air.) Of course, the creative life has its eccentricities, and so does Carmel: There are no street lights (making for pitch-black, starry nights), no national chain restaurants, and no street addresses. Instead, homes are known by names like “Almost Heaven” and “Sea Urchin,” whimsy straight out of an English village.
Once you’ve got your bearings, start your day with atour of Carmel’s galleries: Zantman Art Galleries, Dawson Cole Fine Art, Gallery Sur, and Marjorie Evans Gallery are all standouts, but let your eye guide you among the many possibilities. Next, stroll past the cottages around Ocean Avenue: The Cheese Shop for your dairy needs, Thinker Toys for beach-house puzzles and games. From here, head toward a nook that meets your sensibility: a scone and Earl Grey for afternoon tea at Tuck Box, or a whiskey at the local haunt Sade's Cocktails. The most irresistible branding behind the bar around here? Hit the Alvarado Street Brewery’s Carmel Bistro and ask about “Yeast of Eden,” its series of saisons and wildales channeling local fruit and mad-science brewing techniques. Flying Fish Grill takes a cozy, Asian-inflected approach to wild-caught fish, where the almond-crusted Chilean sea bass is the hit on maximum rotation. Seventh & Dolores gives bodacious six-on-the-shell-and-a-massive-steak energy a modern inflection, with a Niman Ranch partnership and floods of coastal light.
Whatever your chosen path, don’t miss sunset, whether at Carmel River State Beach, where the river flows into the ocean, or from the patio at Mission Ranch.
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