winter
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spring
107
A
ny destination shorter than a six-hour drive from
Montecito qualifies as a true “weekend getaway.”
Any farther and you’re looking at possible (and
often, inevitable) delays and spending too much time on the
road and not enough time at your chosen playground. Six
hours because most resorts feature check-in times of 4 pm
(though if you arrive early and your room is ready, most good
places will check you in). So, using that 4 pm arrival time,
one need only leave at the comfortable hour of 10 am or so to
get to one’s destination by 4 pm. Or, better yet, leave at the
crack of dawn, play a round of golf nearby and then check in
to your hotel.
Getting There
:
The Monterey Peninsula is just under 250
miles from Montecito and can be negotiated in three-and-a-
half hours or so directly up U.S. Route 101. It’s a pleasant and
quick drive that passes through gloriously golden wine country
(depending upon the time of year, but during the drought the
hills have stayed parched and yellow) that turns into a virtually
unpopulated coastline; then, mysteriously, the trees go from
oaks and eucalyptus to pines and cypress, announcing your
arrival into “northern” California.
Stay on Route 101. If you travel north via Route 1,
certainly a more scenic option, the trip can take an extra hour
and a half and in the summer even longer. Along the way,
you’re likely to find yourself hemmed in by what tourist-board
folk like to call a “marine layer,” but what most of the rest
of us would call “heavy fog.” Traffic on Route 1, especially
in the summer, can add another hour to your travel time, as
the sometimes large and almost always ungainly recreational
vehicles wend their slow and bulky way along the nearly
impassable roadway, well... take my word for it. If you’ve only
got a weekend, visit Big Sur from the other end once you are
firmly ensconced in your hotel.
More advice:
When you are in Carmel, travel south on Route
1 to enjoy the marvels that are the 17-Mile-Drive, Pebble
Beach, and Big Sur. Pick a sunny afternoon and pray you don’t
run into any marine layers.
UP
THE COAST
AND ON
THE COAST
