Best Neighborhoods in Monterey, CA

Old Town keeps the look Monterey had in its earliest days, and living here means walking past adobes that were standing before statehood. Colton Hall on Pacific Street, where delegates wrote the state's first constitution in 1849, sits inside the neighborhood, with a bear statue and a redwood called the Moon Tree on its grounds. ... See Full Page

Aguajito Oaks sits in the southeast part of Monterey, and the name is accurate. Coast live oaks shade the lots, and in places a greenbelt runs behind the back fences, so the streets feel set back and quiet in a way the flatter parts of the city rarely do. Aguajito Road starts at Del Monte Avenue and climbs toward the Highway 68 junction, passing through this part of town on the way. ... See Full Page

Del Monte Beach is the part of Monterey that sits right against the sand, where the houses end at Tide Avenue and the public beach park begins. The streets lie on former dune land, and the old subdivision pattern shows. Lots are small, the houses are one and two stories set close together, and most of the available land has already been built on. ... See Full Page

Fishermans Flats is a small residential part of southeast Monterey, and its public life gathers around one place, Fisherman's Flats Park. ... See Full Page

New Monterey is built around Lighthouse Avenue, the working street between Old Town and Pacific Grove, in the northwest part of Monterey. The street has the feel of a place people actually shop and eat along, right beside the visitor crowds on Cannery Row. ... See Full Page

Skyline Forest climbs into the Monterey pines above the city, and the quiet is what sets it apart from the flat streets below. The roads bend around the hillside, houses sit back among trunks and needles, and the bay shows up in glimpses through the trees. ... See Full Page

Skyline Ridge Estates is a small cluster of homes in Monterey, perched high enough on the hillside that the bay is part of the daily view. It is a compact subdivision rather than a grid of through streets, and it reads as its own enclave. ... See Full Page

Most of Monterey grew street by street, but Alta Mesa was planned. Three Jacks sisters hired the Olmsted Brothers in the mid-1920s to lay it out, so the roads follow the contours of the mesa south of downtown instead of a grid. Del Monte Center and Monterey Peninsula College sit at its edges. ... See Full Page

Cannery Row is the waterfront strip in Monterey that John Steinbeck wrote into a 1945 novel, and it is a destination more than a residential street. The sardine canneries that gave the street its name are long gone, and the old buildings now hold restaurants, candy shops and hotels. Only a modest number of condos and apartments sit among them, so Cannery Row has few full-time residents. ... See Full Page

The Deer Flats Park neighborhood, in southeast Monterey, takes its look from the ridge behind it. Jacks Peak is the backdrop, and street names like Deer Forest Drive and Caribou Court match the setting. ... See Full Page

Del Monte Grove Laguna Grande sits on the northern edge of Monterey, where the city runs into Seaside and the shoreline flattens out toward the dunes. The blocks are compact, and the lake and beach are close to most front doors. ... See Full Page

Monterey Vista covers the long stretch of Monterey between downtown's southern edge and Del Monte Center, with Munras Avenue running through it. That placement is the draw, since it puts a restaurant row on one side and a full shopping center on the other. ... See Full Page

Oak Grove, in eastern Monterey, spreads from the Del Monte Avenue waterfront inland toward two campuses. The Naval Postgraduate School, built around the old Hotel Del Monte, and Monterey Peninsula College sit close by. Both have libraries inside the neighborhood, giving it a campus feel that most of Monterey lacks. ... See Full Page

Casanova Oak Knoll handles Monterey's everyday errands, built around the Fremont Street corridor on the city's northern side. Houses and low-rise buildings fill the side streets, and it feels like a place set up for daily routines rather than for visitors. ... See Full Page

LaSala's BiRite Market has been selling sandwiches in Villa Del Monte since the late 1970s, and the calamari sandwich with homemade tartar sauce is the reason the shop is known well beyond these blocks. The neighborhood sits on the north side of Monterey, inland from Del Monte Beach. ... See Full Page

North Fremont is where Monterey's arrivals and departures happen. The Monterey Regional Airport sits just beside it, along Olmstead Road north of Highway 68, and the Fremont Street corridor is lined mostly with restaurants, produce suppliers and service businesses. Only a handful of homes fall inside the boundary, so this page reads more like a commercial district than a residential neighborhood. ... See Full Page