So You Wanna Do Car Week?

After reading numerous social media post from folks who inquire about Car Week at the last minute, we thought we should provide a reminder and/or guide.

So you finally noticed the social media post and the references to this thing called “Monterey Car Week” and decided as you wipe the sleep from your eyes and stagger to your laptop that you want to see the action for yourself.  With the start of Car Week only days away, we’ll start with the bad news first.  You are too late, like six months to a year too late.  By now most accommodations in and around the Monterey Peninsula are booked solid and tickets to many major events are sold out.    

Like going against Mutumbo your options are limited.

We know our title image is misleading, as to imply that its impossible, but its important to lower your expectations so that we can move to the good news. Now that the bad news is out of the way, you still might have hope, but it’s based on your willingness parachute in for a day and soak in as much as you can.  As we have covered previously,  you can do Car Week on a budget and/or in a day.  If you are a real glutton for punishment, as we are, you can do more than one day but you must be willing to drive back and forth each day or at the least find a hotel/motel/inn that may be closer than your home, but will still be at least an hour or more away from the Monterey Peninsula.  

 What we wrote a few years back still stands:

“If you want to do things "right," Car Week requires several days to soak it all in, so hotel/motel costs are unavoidable.  The best advice we can give is to reserve your accommodations as early in the year possible.  And by early, we mean the day you leave.  If you can find a place that will let you reserve a room a year in advance, we suggest you do it.  If you can't swing a room because of the cost, or you're just not willing to drop some coin till you're sure it's for you, just go for a day.  Posting up at one of the locations we're going to be talking about in this post will absolutely deliver an experience that will probably rival most of what you've seen at your local meet-ups, or shows.  It's damn near impossible to avoid having your mind blown or your neck broken, just walking down most streets in Carmel or Monterey during the event week.   We've both done single day trips, and have even driven down and back from Sacramento twice in a weekend a few times.  We don't recommend it, we haven't done it in quite a long time, but we can absolutely guarantee that it's worth the effort and/or fatigue.”

Check our Car Week events guide here for a full list of activities and links to purchase tickets where necessary.   One might get lucky and still find tickets available for a given event.  One event that we know should always be at the top of your list is the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and tickets are still available.  If you only have one day to experience we recommend spending most of your day at the track enjoying everything the Reunion has to offer and then finishing your day with a stroll on Ocean Avenue in Carmel or downtown Monterey to do some Monaco-esq car spotting.

If you need more suggestions send us an email or comment on social media.