Monterey Area Questions (San Jose, San Francisco, Salinas: hair salon, houses, school)

[mandynoel728]

Hello,

We will be moving to monterey next month (while I am 8 months pregnant!) to live for a year while my husband goes to school at DLI with the Air Force. We will be livibing at the Presidio. Would love some basic info about the area. Are the beaches ever warm enough to swim? Any recommendations for an affordable good places to eat? Anything / places/ area we should advoid? Any must dos? Closest major airport? Any good hair salons? Perfect weekend activities? Etc... Any and all input will be appreciated!!

[MtnSurfer]

Hi Mandy,

I think you are going to love this area. My wife and I moved here last year with our three young children and are having a great time. It is truly one of the most beautiful parts of the state. You have the rugged coast Big Sur in your back yard. Redwood forests are with easy driving distance both north and south. And of course Yosemite is ~ 4 hours away.

Is this your first child? The reason I ask is there are a lot of cool things for kids to do. The Monterey Aquarium, 17 mile drive, Whale watching, Point Lobos, and many other beautiful coastal areas are great for things to do. Being 8 months pregnant means you will not be doing a lot of hiking. But after the baby is born and you have some time to recover you and your husband will definately want to do some local hikes/walks.








The beaches are too cold to swim in although our kids go in the water anyway. And I surf with a *wetsuit* on. While there are a lot of good places to eat prices are higher than where we moved from in CO. But that is just part of living in one of the top locations along the coast. Closest major airport is San Jose. Monterey has a smaller airport which I have used to fly from CO. But it is almost always more expensive than SJ.

Hope that helps you some,

Derek

[TimC2462]

Originally Posted by mandynoel728

Hello,

We will be moving to monterey next month (while I am 8 months pregnant!) to live for a year while my husband goes to school at DLI with the Air Force. We will be livibing at the Presidio. Would love some basic info about the area. Are the beaches ever warm enough to swim? Any recommendations for an affordable good places to eat? Anything / places/ area we should advoid? Any must dos? Closest major airport? Any good hair salons? Perfect weekend activities? Etc... Any and all input will be appreciated!!

Lots of great areas to check out.

There are several beaches that may be warm enough for you to swim during the summer. Since you will be living at the Presidio, the closest beach to swim in would be in Pacific Grove, near Lover's Point Park, but I'd be cautious. The beach I would prefer to swim in, is Carmel Beach. Lots of folks spend time there with their friends, families, and their dogs.

There are man affordable places to eat... they can be found in Seaside, Sand City, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel. Where you want to go depends on what your appetite is and how far you're willing to drive...

Perfect weekend activities... depends on the time of the year. Pacific Grove has a lot of activities, so does Monterey and Carmel. Check on their city websites for their events.

Shopping venues.. you got several: Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey has a lot of big stores like Macy's, Gap, Mervyn's, etc. Carmel by the Sea typically have higher upscale stores along the street, worth checking out... Salinas -- I'd avoid most part of Salinas -- probably has the biggest mall in the area and just about everything, but kind of ghetto in my opinion.

The closest major airports would be San Jose Airport or San Francisco International Airport, about a 1.5 to 2 hours drive away, depending on traffic. Locally, the Monterey Peninsula Airport is about a 20 minutes drive away.

Good luck, and I think you and your husband would really enjoy living in Monterey. No doubt that your husband will get great recommendations from his colleagues at the DLI.

Tim C.

[Native born escapee]

Yes, yes it's all very pretty. Just stay away from new Monterey and anything near seaside and north thereof. That is where it goes downhill in a hurry. Any thing on the south side of DLI is a postcard.

[vwbugmom]

We lived on the Presidio, on Fitch ave in one of the big old houses and loved it. We went to Lovers point alot but never went into the water, I look back at the pictures I took and everyone always has a coat on at the beach! We would fly out of San Jose whenever we went somewhere, alot cheaper than flying out of Monterey. I had a great hair stylist but I can't remember her name, we left Monterey in 2002. The place was downtown, I think it was on the street that the farmers market is on. My kids loved the childrens museum down by Cannery Row, I hope that is still there. We had a membership to the Aquarium. Always fun to bike ride on the path by the bay.

[mandynoel728]

Great info vwbugmom - so there is a farmers market? What kinda stuff? How far is downtown from the Presidio? Sounds like we may need bikes - although not sure that biking is something one does with an infant.