Unmapped Gems
TownBest April – June, September – October

Big Sur

A stretch of Highway One between Carmel and San Simeon, cliffs on one side and redwood canyons on the other.

Big Sur isn't a town in the usual sense — no downtown, no grid — just a run of cliffside highway with a scatter of inns, campgrounds, and turnouts strung along it. Fog rolls in off the Pacific most mornings and burns off by afternoon, which is worth planning a day around rather than fighting.

Big Sur