DESTINATIONS CALIFORNIA | THE US


Where to


STAY


Occupying a picturesque bayfront location on historic


Cannery Row, the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa is a short walk from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and offers a broad range of amenities including spacious ocean-view rooms, a Jacuzzi, private beach and


sauna. In-house dining options include Schooners Coastal Kitchen & Bar while the


Lobby Lounge is an ideal spot to soak up piano music with a pre-dinner cocktail.


Rooms from £218 per night. montereyplazahotel.com


One of Lake Tahoe’s finest boutique hotels, The Landing Lake Tahoe Resort & Spa offers a four-star boutique


experience and commands a prime waterfront location. All


rooms feature stone fireplaces, and many have spectacular


lake views. On-site restaurant Jimmys serves a selection of regionally inspired specials that celebrate the best of each season and has a 1,500-bottle wine vault.


Rooms from £200 per night. thelandingtahoe.com


CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Monterey Bay Aquarium; shops on Ocean Avenue, Carmel-by-the-Sea; Carmel Beach; Monterey Canning Company, Cannery Row PICTURES: Visit Monterey; Shutterstock/ZikG, Benjamin Mark Demarest


My previous visit predated the smartphone, but now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the world-famous facility is a must-see attraction in Monterey. The not-for-profit organisation is a leader in science education and a global voice for ocean conservation through active programmes in marine science and public policy. More than two million visitors a year enter its doors to marvel at the impressive exhibits. Chief among these is the


1.2-million-gallon Open Sea, which showcases a vast blue world featuring green sea turtles and hammerhead sharks, a massive school of Pacific sardines, the elusive ocean sunfish and iridescent mahi-mahi. Visitors frequently sit mesmerised for hours watching the smaller fish swimming between bigger predators or awaiting feeding time, when hammerheads and tuna speed past, sardines swarm in glittering schools and turtles glide past as though choreographed in some hypnotic dance.


travelweekly.co.uk


This pretty, one-square-mile city looks more like a Tolkien-esque fairytale village


STORYBOOK STREETS From Monterey we take the short journey south to Carmel-by-the- Sea. This pretty, one-square- mile city is tucked away along California’s scenic coast, but looks more like a Tolkien-esque fairytale village. The narrow, hilly streets are full of intriguing restaurants, wine- tasting rooms, boutique shops, art galleries, around 40 inns and hotels and a beautiful white sandy beach, popular with surfers and considered one of the finest in the world. The words ‘quaint’ and ‘quirky’ spring to mind in Carmel. You won’t find any chain restaurants here, neon signs are off the menu and,


until Clint Eastwood took over as mayor in 1986, eating ice cream on the street was also against the law. All this combines to make Carmel a fascinating and popular destination. Five new boutique hotels have opened in the past two years within that one square mile alone. While exploring the meandering


alleyways, we stop at Dawn’s Dream Winery, one of Carmel’s 18 wine-tasting rooms. California is the wine capital of the US and home to a quarter of the wineries in the country, with a combination of year-round sunshine, varied landscapes, warm inland air and cool ocean breezes creating a fertile environment for many grape varieties.


SNOW HEIGHTS After sun and sea, it was time to check out California’s snow- covered slopes, so we headed northwest towards South Lake Tahoe. After a five-and-a-half- hour drive, we entered Eldorado


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