"Carmel, the Monterey Bay and the 17... " a Carmel-by-the-Sea Travel Page by shivan

On that same long day, after the endless route along the Highway 1, the most famous Pacific Coast Highway, Cambria, the Big Sur and God only remembers what else, we finally reached the Monterey Bay area.
The map gladly said that this fabled place called Carmel, Carmel-by-the-sea or whatever, was located immediately south of the Monterey Bay entrance, so we had time for a fast visit before going to sleep at another village called, simply, "Marina".
Eyes wide OPEN, then, we searched for a sign indicating where to turn for Cambria.

The Lonelyplanet, our dependance from it was clear already, simply stated that "Carmel is not a place but a state of mind". How curious.
The facts were that we found no signs and slowly we reached Monterey.
A doubt was forming into our minds.
"Are we all blind because of the Big Sur beauties, the place actually does not exist or these highly-efficient americans simply forgot to put a sign?"
The third answer was right.
Carmel-whatever is indicated on the Highway 1 as "Ocean Avenue, next right". Simple.
Heading back southbound we turned there and finally found this place.
It is a lovely village, mainly frequented by millionaires, evidently.
Light was fading at sunset, but we lost the chance to enjoy it thanks to BRITISH AIRWAYS MEGA-LOST-AND-NEVER-SEEN-AGAIN-BAGGAGE-SERVICE stole us half an hour to say that "everything is ok, the baggage is going to be delivered to San Francisco tomorrow". Great news and great lie, again.
By the time we reached the shore, the magnificent landscape offered to us is in the opening picture above. We saw not much more.

The morning after we decided to have a tour along a scenic road in the Monterey Bay called "17 miles drive" before heading north towards San Francisco.
In this page I'll tell about that road