MONTEREY: The Most BEAUTIFUL Place in California??

There's something about a road trip that defines the American experience. That romanticized dream of freedom. The open road. A feeling immortalized in countless novels and films. And nowhere does it quite like California. The state that dreams are made of. Within it, Monterey County might be the most beautiful stretch of all. The central coast. Just two hours south of San Francisco. Where wild, rugged coastline meets charming seaside towns. From the working-class fishing routes of Monterey and the storybook elegance of Carmel-by-the-Sea to the winding roads of Big Sur and Highway 1, long a symbol of the West Coast fantasy. We'll be exploring what makes this part of California so special. In the early 20th century, California leaders envisioned a dramatic coastal road that would connect the state and open up the region. Construction began in 1919 and the work was brutal, with local laborers and prison crews blasting roads into sheer cliffs. 18 years later, Highway 1 was finished and would go on to become a symbol of American road trip culture and freedom. We're driving Highway 1 on the way to Big Sur now, and we're making very slow progress because it's so beautiful along the coast and we keep finding spots like this. So of course we have to stop the car, take photos and videos, and just take it all in. California is really spectacular. The California Dream was written in places like Big Sur. For years, this place was a magnet for writers and creatives. If you were looking for a remote location at the edge of the world, Big Sur was for you. Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson. Many have come this way, staying a while or just passing through. They created a romantic vision of Big Sur that persists even today. Around a century ago, this was truly the edge of the world and it was inaccessible to most people. It was sparsely populated by a few farmers. That all changed in 1937 when Highway 1 was completed and all of a sudden the most beautiful piece of coastline in the country was open to the public. And today it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of America and it's not hard to see why. Every time I see the spectacular blue ocean and the rock formations and the rolling meadows, I'm just absolutely wowed. It truly is just stunningly beautiful. Like I'm in a painting right now. If Jack Kerouac's On the Road ignited America's obsession with movement and wanderlust, his novel Big Sur was the hangover. Famous, exhausted, and unraveling, Kerouac retreated here, hoping nature might save him. Big Sur was that kind of place in the mid-century, where Americans went to lose and then find themselves again. But things are different now. People come not to get lost, but to capture proof that they were here. This is the Bixby Bridge. It's probably the most famous photo spot in Big Sur. If you google it, this is going to be the first thing that pops up. And you know, things are popular for a reason. I mean, look at the setting of this bridge, how it curves with the road and the beautiful beach beneath it and the rolling green hillsides. It is nice. We're at McWay Falls. This is one of the more popular viewpoints in Big Sur. There used to be a trail that you could take directly and hike down there, but it's been closed for a few years now apparently. So this is the coveted hot spot to see it. And it's quite beautiful. Turquoise waters, a little beach, a beautiful waterfall. It's just lovely. Big Sur is a magical place. There's a ton to do around this area, like so many hikes, nice campgrounds, restaurants, and activities. But if you're tight on time, I recommend just coming and driving the coastal highway. There's so many scenic stops just like this one, and just being able to see it and experience it, like it's pretty cool already. We're currently sitting down for dinner at Nupente, which is this gorgeous patio restaurant here in Big Sur. I mean, just look at this view behind me. It is absolutely unreal. And Lenza and I have both been thinking a lot about our health this year and how we want to improve upon it. Because we're traveling 90% of the time, which makes it really hard to eat well and exercise regularly. And we both just want to be more consistent and make better choices. That's why we partnered with Nourish on this video. With Nourish, you meet one-on-one with a registered dietitian over Zoom to talk about your personal goals when it comes to health and nutrition. For us personally, it's easy to make good choices when we're at home. We can eat healthy, exercise regularly, and keep a routine. But when we start traveling, all that becomes much harder to maintain, and we become really inconsistent. With our Nourish dietitian, she takes our lifestyle into account and comes up with a plan that we can realistically follow that suits how we're living day to day. So it's a little different for everyone. So for example, when we're traveling, we're eating out literally all the time. So she helped us figure out a way to make healthier choices when we're ordering. That's why I'm eating a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a fried chicken sandwich, and a salad instead of a side of fries. So now when I'm at a restaurant, I know to prioritize lean protein and big portions of veggies. She also helped us design grocery lists to shop for simple, nutritious foods anywhere in the world. So things like eggs, raw veggies, nuts. This was really useful for us because every country has slightly different food offerings, and her tips were universal. Another big change we're making is we're now trying to cook as often as possible. So we're booking Airbnbs specifically with kitchens, and we're going to try to start each day by cooking breakfast at home. Even if we eat out the rest of the day, you know, we'll start our day with a healthy meal, and it feels like a realistic habit that we can actually stick to. Setting up our Nourish account and scheduling an initial session took under five minutes. It was so easy, and 94% of patients pay zero dollars out of pocket. So if you're interested in learning more and scheduling a session for yourself, check out the link in my description box and learn more about Nourish. Carmel is a really vibey little beach town. It's very upscale and popular with celebrities. So Taylor Swift comes vacation here, Brad Pitt is rumored to have a house here, and Clint Eastwood actually used to be the mayor. I think it was in the 80s. Right now we're on Ocean Avenue, which is kind of like the main commerce area. It's a really good place to walk around. Lots of cute boutiques, and designer shops, and lots of really good restaurants, and it's nice. It's really vibey. Carmel was founded as an artist colony in the early 1900s, and you can still feel that legacy to this day. There's galleries absolutely everywhere. I believe there's something like 50 art galleries within one square mile, and this is a very special one. We are in Durling Alley, which is the oldest public alley in Carmel, and this was a studio of the artist Thomas Kinkade, and the first gallery that he ever opened to the public. So you can see a lot of his artwork displayed here, and this very cool kind of hidden garden vibe. It's really charming. There really are so many art galleries around here. It seems like every single building is an art gallery. You'll pass by like three in a row, and they're quite impressive as well. Carmel has long drawn creative types. Mary Austin lived here. Jack London and Upton Sinclair were part of its early artistic circle. In the early 1900s, the town was remote and inexpensive, a place to make art at the edge of the world. After World War II, California's economy boomed, tourism increased, cultural prestige followed. Now Carmel is polished and unmistakably upscale, home to some of the most expensive coastal real estate in the world. Carmel is really famous for cottages like these, and they're really whimsical, and it feels a bit like you're in a storybook. You can see they have kind of these uneven roofs and these organic shapes, and they look like fairy tale cottages from Germany and England, and they're intentionally built this way. This is called the cottage revival style, and it's a really charming thing about Carmel that you can find these pretty much all over the place. Asymmetry, stone chimneys, hand-carved details. Hugh Comstock was the mastermind behind many of these cottages in the 1920s and 30s. He had no formal architectural training, yet his craftsmanship embodies Carmel's timeless, handcrafted charm. We made a new friend in Carmel, this is Fiji, and this is his dad. Hi, I'm James. And James is a Carmel local, so we're gonna go for a little walk, and he's gonna show us around this very beautiful place. We're gonna check the surf. It's pretty crazy that when you live here, this is just your backyard. What's your lifestyle like here? What do you do for fun? Well, I feel like in this community, for the cost of living, a lot of us, you know, do have to work a lot to make ends meet. And after work, if there's nothing to do, we can always come here on a day like this. Otherwise, surf, mountain bike, workout, swim, or in the summer, since Big Sur is so close, it's like our backyard. No plan, no agenda, just go there for the day and just see where the day takes you. The west coast lifestyle is different because you go to the rest of America. You know, I grew up in Rhode Island. It definitely was not like this. Do you think, like, the lifestyle quality is worth the trade-off of the cost of living here? I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. There's something special about the geography here. The road trip culture, that's another one. Because, you know, there's been days that I'll never forget where I was able to be in the mountains, in the snow, on that snowboard, and then, you know, and then I surfed at sunset. Has it changed a lot in the last few decades? Because now it's pretty upscale and like a luxury destination. I've noticed a lot more of a younger community here. A lot more of the, you know, the tech CEOs, like the guys from Facebook and guys from Google have been moving here. So tech money is changing all of the central coast, basically. Sometimes when it's like this, with these difficult waves, there'll be 10 guys out and only three of them are getting waves. Oh, but everyone knows each other, so it's like a tight-knit community. And you can tell who they are right now, this far away? Not with this light, but when they catch a wave. When we were younger, there used to be bonfires allowed on the beach, and my friends and I would ride our skateboards or just run down from high school. And we would have a fire here, like in the springtime, and we would surf with the fire and make hot dogs. Yeah, this is beautiful. Does it ever get old? Like, do you still feel wild every time you see this view? There's something about just the ocean that I, if I'm having a super bad day, and I, you know, I'm all spun out, just driving by here with the window down, and then I feel better and connected. It's evenings like this, where you work all day, and you come here, and you watch the sunset, and you surf, and then you go home. That's all you need. Life's a beach. And if you ain't got a heartbeat, you ain't got to work about it. But if you got a heartbeat, hey, do what you got to do, walk with the plan of the tree. Fisherman's Wharf is a very old-timey, classic American vacation destination. You know, it smells like cotton candy and caramel popcorn, and it's very family-friendly. This is where you come to board tours for whale watching that take you into the bay. And it is a little touristy. It has all the trappings, but there are a few good restaurants here, and I think it's worth checking out. If you come to Monterey for a short time, you'll likely find yourself spending a couple of hours here. Carmel is a really upscale town, and the vibe there is definitely a bit bougie. And in comparison, Monterey is definitely a lot more down-to-earth. And that's because Monterey's background is, you know, essentially a working class fishing city. You know, there's a massive sardine fishing and canning industry here, and I feel like you can still feel the legacy of that to this day. Like, you come here, it feels humble, it feels chill. And it's very cool that Carmel and Monterey are right next to each other. It's literally a 10-minute drive, so you can experience these two very different vibes at very close proximity. This is one of the best places in the world for whale watching. So, we woke up bright and early, and we are on a tour. Let's go find some whales. It's a beautiful day. You said you moved here two years ago. What drew you to Monterey specifically? Honestly, it's just the beauty of the area altogether. Also, you have a community, I feel like, that is here. They're all working together, supporting each other. There's a lot to do outdoors. It comes to hiking, biking, running, just being outdoors, being immersed in this lifestyle is a great place to be. Oh, they're so cool! There's so many dolphins. We're surrounded by like hundreds, thousands of dolphins. It's like as far as the eye can see. And the coolest thing is, we can see them literally right here under the boat, and they like pop up. It's really, really amazing. So, this is one of the best spots for spotting whales and kind of marine life in general. Why is that? If you were to pick one, it's our geology underwater. The Monterey Submarine Canyon allows nutrients from the deep sea to flow up like a funnel or a ramp and basically fill this area with nutrients like nitrate, calcium, phosphate, iron, which fertilize massive phytoplankton blooms. And where you have lots of phytoplankton, you have things that eat phytoplankton like anchovies, krill, and other kinds of things. And then here come humpback whales and sea lions and birds and dolphins to eat those things. So, the one environmental variable that makes Monterey rad is the canyon. So, it's like a giant open-air supermarket for these guys? I always call it anchovy Costco. What are the species of whales that are out here? Every trip year-round has a six or seven percent chance of killer whales. Right now, there's plenty of gray whales migrating up the coast. And so, we could very well see gray whales. And then there have been humpback whales around. Blue whale, I say, tiny chance. We're coming to the end of our four-hour tour. And we didn't see too many whales, unfortunately. We did see one gray whale swimming by not too far away. And his back kind of came up, which was cool. But that's the nature of whale watching. You obviously can't dictate the wildlife. They come and go as they please. And the crew's amazing. It's a cool thing to have so much marine life so close to home. But prepare for seasickness because these waters are no joke. There are a few people on this boat that were like not doing good. This is literally one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been to. There's so much diversity in the decor. You walk in and it's kind of like a dark piano bar. It's dimly lit. There's a nice bar. It's giving saloon vibes. Then you walk into the next room and it feels like a classic Victorian. It has a homey feeling. And then this room that we're in is called the Conservatory. And it's modeled like an indoor garden. We have a really cool glass roof, the statue in the middle, greenery everywhere. It's apparently modeled after a tavern on the green in New York City. And it's just really unique. I've never been to a place like this before. So I think it's going to be a really good dinner. The menu is really seafood heavy as expected. We are by the coast so there's a lot of local seafood to be had. And then there's some classic American options and some strong surf and turf options as well. I tried to stay local with the ordering. We got some fried calamari and it's right here from Monterey Bay. You can see it's quite the decadent portion size. Those are so soft. They almost melt in your mouth. And it's very lightly breaded and delicate. It's not greasy at all. It is so good. We ordered sardines because we kind of have to. The restaurant is called the Sardine Factory. And the namesake for the restaurant is that Monterey used to be the sardine manufacturing capital of the world. So along the waterfront there were a lot of sardine factories where they were canning sardines and this was like the biggest products here. Cheers! Oh my god, those are so good. I know sardines are having a moment right now in popular culture and for good reason. These are really delicious and the way they season it, it's very garlicky. The sardine is salted and deeply savory but it melts in your mouth. And then you get like a little tanginess from some sort of acidity that's in there that's really good. Maybe the tomato. Yeah, that's absolutely delicious. I'm happy with our choices. Wow, this is fun. This is from management. Thank you so much. A little palate cleanser, some sorbet. And the most fun part about it is that it's obviously served in this very cool swan ice sculpture. Yeah, that's ice all right. It's nice, like a little berry sorbet. Don't break it. I don't know why my instinct is to destruct it. Meet the seafood indulgence. A cold seafood tower. We have a lobster tail, dungeness crab, which is local, smoked salmon over here. This is an ahi tuna tartare. And down here, we have a selection of oysters and jumbo prawns. She is beautiful. She is the moment. She is it. She is. Amazing. So fresh. They season it with a little oil and herbs. You know, no regrets on this choice. I think we made a solid life decision tonight ordering this thing. Beneath the restaurant lie the wine cellars and a private dining room. The decor feels frozen in time. Antiques from the era of the French monarchy. Dark wood and old world opulence. A place where the boys once lingered after dinner. Cigars in hand. Wine is stored inside arched brick catacombs locked behind iron gates. More than 20,000 bottles in total. One dates back to 1870. Another is worth $45,000. Celebrities are known to source their wine from here, with private lockers assigned to names like Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Back upstairs, in the room that used to be a cafeteria for sardine cannery workers, a party is starting. When I had you to myself and walked you around My face is always strange You stand out in a crowd Someone pick you from the bunch When the dance was all it took There's not as much to leave for me To take what's taken Now baby now Oh baby boy This world will change Won't you please believe We're currently in front of the Carmel Mission Basilica, which was the headquarters of the California mission system. Now, if you're unfamiliar with California colonial history, missions were a chain of religious and colonial settlements along the California coast. They were founded by the Spanish to spread Catholicism to indigenous peoples and also to engage in standard colonizer activities, like preventing other countries from laying claim to the land and establishing agriculture and whatnot. This church was built in the late 1700s by Junipero Serra, who was one of the leaders of the California mission system. He was a Catholic priest and missionary. He's actually buried here as well. Missions were supposed to be self-sustaining systems. So the people who lived here would farm and make textiles and leather goods and that agriculture would go and feed the surrounding settlements. And it's easy to see when you're in here how it was this very complex system. You know, there's different structures and different quarters here. You have the church, which is, you know, the main statement, a cemetery, probably offices and admin and then living quarters as well. This is the grave of Junipero Serra. He's a very controversial figure in history. Supporters say he helped establish education and agriculture and built communities in California. Others say that he exploited the indigenous population and ripped away their culture and traditions. But I guess no matter which way you look at it, he does play a pretty significant role in California and Catholic history in general. And he was canonized in 2015 as a saint. So he is now known as Saint Junipero Serra. This church is known for its beautiful architecture. At the time it was built in the late 1700s, a lot of the structures were built with adobe. This church is built with stone and there's a lot of classic Spanish and Moorish architectural elements like this big courtyard and the classic rooftop. It really is stunningly beautiful and it's easy to see how this was the center of governance of the mission system. It feels very grand and stately. At its peak, hundreds of indigenous people lived and labored here. So it's a really good place to come and get a better understanding of modern California history. Just down the road from the basilica is Mission Ranch, a hotel and restaurant known for local seafood and fresh Californian cuisine set against an idyllic coastal backdrop. This is such a beautiful restaurant. I mean, just look at this patio. You can see the meadows and the sheep are grazing, the rolling green hills. And you can actually see the beach in the background too and the people hanging out in the sand. It is just so picturesque. I mean, this is why people love coming to this part of California. You get great towns and also just great nature and scenery. There's really just so much here. We're really lucky. This place actually has a really fun history. So it was the first dairy farm in California in the 1800s. And then when Clint Eastwood was mayor of Carmel, he saved this place from being demolished for the development of new condos. So thank goodness for Clint Eastwood, I guess. It wouldn't be an American road trip if we didn't come to an all-American diner. So this morning we are at Black Bear Diner, which is a beloved American chain restaurant that actually started in Northern California. They specialize in heaping portions of American comfort foods. So what are the characteristics of a proper American diner? Before the food even gets here, you have your giant mug of coffee. And these are bottomless, which means you order one cup, pay one price, but you get endless refills as American as apple pie. And then you have the free water. This is not free all over the world. So this is actually one thing I miss whenever we travel. This one is proper. It's like the size of my head. You've got plenty of ice, of course, and you drink it with a straw. I love places like this. I love all things Americano, all things a little kitschy. The booth, you know, kind of the comforting feeling, the massive portion sizes. It's one thing I didn't really appreciate growing up, but now that I'm older, it's something that I actively miss and seek out. I don't know if there are proper words to describe this meal. This is one order, by the way. This is not two separate things. This is a single meal. We ordered the chicken fried steak. So you got over easy eggs, a mountain of hash browns, and despite its name, chicken fried steak is not chicken. It is steak. It's called chicken fried steak because it's prepared like fried chicken, even though it's beef. I don't know. I didn't I didn't make it up. It's just what it is. And then here we have four massive biscuits and gravy. American portion sizes, seriously, are no joke. Despite being a born and raised American, I am still sometimes surprised at how far we go. Now, the proper thing to do, get a good bite here. And then you've got to mess up a yolk. Dip that in there real good. Cheers. Oh, yeah, that is really good. I mean, how can it not be good? It's just fried goodness, cream, meat. America. Biscuits and gravy over here. I didn't realize that they give us four biscuits. Creamy and moist, a little flaky. Tastes like a heart attack, but a very good one. Arguably worth it. I can feel my cholesterol jutting up already. I ordered a salad to try to get a little nutrition since, you know, the chicken fried steak is delicious, but it's very heavy. And this is the largest salad I've ever seen in my life. For comparison, it's probably like six of my hands. So I had good intentions, but now we have like two days worth of food in front of us. So we better get to work. And this is a blue cheese dressing. This is like a full cup of blue cheese dressing. I see why people like Black Bear Diner. Just classics, done really well. Everything tastes great. 10 out of 10, Shane. The 17-mile drive is a scenic road that loops through Pebble Beach between Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea, where you can witness California's coastal beauty in her full glory. At golden hour, it's even more special. This is what people mean when they talk about the California dream. Beautiful, endless coastline like this. The waves crashing on the shore. It's golden hour right now, and it's so beautiful. There's so many people out running and walking. There's dogs running on the beach, surfers in the water. It really is a special lifestyle here on the West Coast, and I feel incredibly lucky to have this so close to home. It's really special living in California and something I won't take for granted.