An Off-Season Trip Down Highway 1

At Carmel's Pebble Beach, veer west off of Highway 1 and take 17 Mile Drive, a private road (with an $8 fee) that winds through exclusive estates and hugs the coast, for prime views.

Rejoining the main road, you can motor to Monterey. This seaside town, with its historic links to native son John Steinbeck, long ago converted the old, played-out fish-canning factories on Cannery Row into shops. Just a few months ago, Cannery Row blossomed with a stylish new boutique hotel, the InterContinental Clement. Right in the middle of everything sits the justly celebrated Monterey Bay Aquarium, arguably the country's finest.

Downtown Monterey, as with most of neighboring Carmel, is a good place for walking. So, park the car for a while and meander about on foot. Cheap eats and fresh (well, usually) seafood are available at Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf from a cluster of small restaurants.

From here, Highway 1, running concurrently with Interstate 101, passes military bases and the massive sand dunes of the appropriately named Sand City as the road threads through the fertile Salinas Valley; artichokes and Brussels sprouts, among other things, are grown commercially here. Gilroy, a Salinas Valley town, just off 101, bills itself as the garlic capital of the world, and if you stop there, you'll know why. Gilroy even peddles garlic ice cream, though this may be a scoop too far.

Leaving 101 where it branches off from Highway 1, pushing west to the coast and on to Santa Cruz. A green, leafy refuge for alternative lifestyles, Santa Cruz is home to a University of California campus, where the occasional tie-dye shirt and crunchy-granola breakfast are on offer. Off-campus and right on the water you'll see the town's century-old amusement park, complete with vintage wooden roller coaster. This is a California version of the East Coast's Jersey shore, right down to the boardwalk and salt-water taffy and win-a-kewpie-doll games.