Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
To avoid long lines in summer and on weekends and holidays, buy tickets in advance. A
visit can easily become a full-day affair, so get your hand stamped and break for lunch.
Metered on-street parking is limited. Parking lots offering daily rates are plentiful just up-
hill from Cannery Row.
Cannery Row
HISTORIC SITE
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 bronze
bust
of the Pulitzer Pr-
ize-winning writer sits at the bottom of Prescott Ave, just steps from the unabashedly
touristy experience that the famous row has devolved into. The historical
Cannery Work-
sobering reminder of the hard lives led by Filipino, Japanese, Spanish and other immigrant
laborers.
Back in Steinbeck's day, Cannery Row was a stinky, hardscrabble, working-class melt-
ing pot, which the novelist described as 'a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light,
a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.' Sadly, there's precious little evidence of that era now,
as overfishing and climatic changes caused the sardine industry's collapse in the 1950s.
Monterey State Historic Park
HISTORIC SITE
Old Monterey is home to an extraordinary assemblage of 19th-century brick and adobe
buildings, administered as Monterey State Historic Park, all found along a 2-mile self-
guided walking tour portentously called the 'Path of History.' You can inspect dozens of
buildings, many with charming gardens; expect some to be open while others aren't, ac-
cording to a capricious schedule dictated by unfortunate state-park budget cutbacks.
Pacific House
MUSEUM
Custom House $3, incl walking tour $5; 10am-4pm Fri-Sun)
Find out what's currently open at Monterey State Historic Park, grab a free map and buy
tickets for guided walking tours inside this 1847 adobe building, where fascinatingly in-
