Must-see attractions in Central Coast

Just south of Harmony, a 4.5-mile round-trip hiking trail winds out to coastal bluffs with inspiring sea views.

Fascinating and compact museum detailing the story of Bigfoot in the surrounding Californian wilderness.

Near Watsonville, the La Selva Beach exit off Hwy 1 leads here to this sparsely populated beach.

A modern and stylish room showcasing the winery's well-regarded Pinot Noir and rosé.

John Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row immortalized the sardine-canning business that was Monterey’s lifeblood for the first half of the 20th century. A…

Novelist Henry Miller was a Big Sur denizen from 1944 to 1962. More of a beatnik memorial, alt-cultural venue and bookshop, this community gathering spot…

Buildings around the old Spanish plaza opposite the mission anchor this small historical park. Cavernous stables hint at San Juan Bautista in its 1860s…

In 1822, a newly independent Mexico ended the Spanish trade monopoly and stipulated that any traders bringing goods to Alta (Upper) California must first…

Craggy Morro Rock holds court over this woodsy waterfront park laced with hillside hiking trails. A small natural history museum has interactive exhibits…

Numbers have been dwindling but, for now, thousands of black-and-orange monarch butterflies still make their winter home in this eucalyptus grove just…

Unusual Gilroy Gardens is a nonprofit family-oriented theme park focused on food and plants rather than Disney-esque cartoon characters. You’ve got to…

This stately early-19th-century adobe home was built by John Rogers Cooper, a New England sea captain, and three generations of his family resided here…

Equipped with a 30in telescope, Fremont Peak's astronomical observatory is usually open to the public on many Saturday nights between April and October,…

Steinbeck was born and spent much of his boyhood in this house, four blocks west of the museum. It’s now a twee lunch cafe, which we’re not sure he’d…

Southeast of downtown Monterey, MMA La Mirada is a silent-film star’s villa, a building whose humble adobe origins are exquisitely concealed. It is now…

The trio of tiny original one-room cabins where cannery workers shacked up provides a sobering reminder of the hard lives led by Filipino, Japanese,…

Just north the Santa Cruz seaside suburb of Aptos, this State park offers ipcnic spots and the opportunity to hike, jog, or bike on 30 miles of trails in…

Peek inside brick Colton Hall, where California’s first constitutional convention took place in 1849. Once the capitol of Alta (Upper) California, today…

Between November and February, over 25,000 migratory monarch butterflies cluster in this thicket of tall eucalyptus trees, secreted inland. During peak…

Containing the Fremont Peak Astronomical Observatory, this park offers excellent views of Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean from its four-mile network of…