Moving to Monterey CA. What should I know about the place before moving there?

Foggy, highways suck, you'll want to move soon.

California is a horrible place. Please stay away from here.

Balding Eagle wrote:

California is a horrible place. Please stay away from here.

Colorado is the new California. It's got everything California has, and then some more.

Freal wrote:

Balding Eagle wrote:

California is a horrible place. Please stay away from here.

Colorado is the new California. It's got everything California has, and then some more.

Yep! Exactly. I love it here in Colorado! The place to be.

Cold as fck wrote:

Foggy, highways suck, you'll want to move soon.

Really? I've never lived there, but I've been there maybe 50 or 60 times and have always thought it would be an awesome place to live. The handful of people I know who live there love it.

Upsides:

- great weather if you dont mind some fog, never blazing hot, never super cold

- solid "smalltown" feeling downtown with some decent restaurants, breweries, and bars if you skip past the tourist spots

- decent seafood off the boat seasonally

- great for outdoors activities whether you like mountain biking, road cycling, diving, fishing, sailing, it is all right there

- good traffic, except for right at the tourist places during peak tourist season

Downsides:

- inconvenient to get to larger cities or a major airport (at least by california standards)

- expensive cost of living

- some areas of blight

- some surrounding cities have pretty significant poverty and crime

It's an odd place. There's extraordinary wealth from the Bay Area and a lot of poverty from the agriculture sector. But overall it's just gorgeous and a great place to live if you make enough.

I'd try to live in Pacific Grove if you can. Cheaper than Carmel and more upscale than Monterey.

As far as running, sky is the limit. It won't take long to figure out your bayside trails, inland valley trails and mountain trails. Park outside 17 mile drive and run the coast.

People who hate California are simply too poor to live here.

Thank you to all those for your feedback? What’s the go to run for a newbie there. One poster park 17 mile drive but I’m guessing that road is 17 miles long? Where do you park and go run? And forest trails?

Freal wrote:

Balding Eagle wrote:

California is a horrible place. Please stay away from here.

Colorado is the new California. It's got everything California has, and then some more.

Goodluck finding an ocean in Colorado.

See above

Balding Eagle wrote:

Freal wrote:

Colorado is the new California. It's got everything California has, and then some more.

Yep! Exactly. I love it here in Colorado! The place to be.

Both of you can fu@k off out of Colorado. People like you have ruined it for the rest of us.

West coast best coast? wrote:

Thank you to all those for your feedback? What’s the go to run for a newbie there. One poster park 17 mile drive but I’m guessing that road is 17 miles long? Where do you park and go run? And forest trails?

Y r u so hostile 2 us? We r only trying 2 pursue the Colorado dream

17 mile drive is more of a scenic route along the beach that features great views. It has several vista points along the way with their own parking lots, so you don’t have to run for seventeen miles straight.

The parking spots are much narrower in Monterey.

There are several state parks offering great running trails that are less than 45 minutes away. 15 minutes down the road is point lobos and you can also run in the Redwoods up by Santa Cruz. Excellent local races such as the Monterey half and some others near Salinas. Link up with Wednesday night laundry runners.

Very expensive. You probably won't be living in Monterey. A bit like Boulder, in that it is a nice place, but nobody can afford to live there so live in a nearby suburb.

Thank you to all the replies. I’m having trouble finding a good run off that heat map but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

I’m about 1 month away from my move. Any advice on a decent suburb to look into? I am looking to rent for about 6 months before looking to buy. Pretty sure I will be here awhile as I’m take ng over a management position that was held by the same guy for 30+ years (he’s retiring).

Any epic runs not on a bike path?

I'm surprised the replies are so negative. I've lived here over 10 years and I can't say enough great things about the area. Let me address some of the other posts.

Airport-you will get through security in less than 5 minutes every time you fly and you can easily and affordably fly to other major hubs such as SF, LA, Phoenix or San Diego. I love flying back into Monterey Airport and being home in less than 20 minutes rather than an hour from San Jose.

Traffic-Really? It won't be anything like Bay Area or LA traffic. There is some slowing in and out of Monterey at certain times but plenty of ways to circumvent it. Given Highway 1 and Highway 101 are the main travel arteries you do sometimes have to consider back-ups over Highway 17 or along 101 usually by Gilroy/San Martin. You can get to San Jose in less than an hour and SF in less than 2 hours most days/times.

Weather-Mediterranean climate means never too hot or too cold. We get the rare 90-100 degree heat wave and maybe a cold spell in the 30's but count on very few a year. Average daily temperature in the high 60's with on-shore breeze almost daily. It is when the wind stays off shore that it can get hot but its not the norm.

Running-Healthy amount of local races highlighted by the Big Sur Marathon and Monterey Bay Half Marathon. Other local gems include the Salinas Valley Half Marathon, Together With Love 5k/10k along the ocean. There's a new Pebble Beach Half Marathon coming soon to the area as well. Small gem races include the San Juan Bautista Mission 10 Mile, Rio Resolution Run in Carmel. There's two great running stores The Treadmill and a Fleet Feet. Trails are in abundance with the Fort Ord National Monument containing over 80 miles of dirt roads and singletrack trails. Toro County Park has 20 miles of trails. The Monterey Bay Coastal Trail is perfect for long marathon training runs or tempos stretching 18 miles in one direction. You can get daily access to tracks at Hartnell College in Salinas, Monterey Peninsula College, CSU Monterey Bay (in bad shape), and some of the local high schools during designated hours. I used to do night workouts in the dark at Monterey HS as it wasn't locked at night. There are two main running clubs in the area. The Wednesday Night Laundry Runners and the Salinas Valley Elite Running Club. Both have websites.

Food-As with any new city go to where the locals go and avoid the tourist traps or at least get those off your bucketlist rightaway.

Nightlife-Getting better. New breweries are popping up in Monterey such as the Alvarado Street Brewing Company. You can visit the old standby's such as the Crown & Anchor and Brittannia Arms.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions about the area or need to get connected with other runners. Monterey is a great place to live and run!

say hey to Mac and the boys.