Shannon!
Thank you too!
I can´t beleve that you went to all that trubble and went onsite to look up the place.
Let me know if I can help you with your next trip to Scandinavia.
A little advice already: Go visit the finnish archipelago. I live in it so I know it is a very nice place to be!

We ate lunch at the restaurant at Lucia's. Food was decent. Did not go into the motel and look at the rooms. My guess is it was built in the 50s or 60s. The location is somewhat isolated and has a great view of the ocean.

Mona , the Borgs Ocean Front is a good choice. It's very close to the ocean in Pacific Grove. I don't think it's super fancy but it looks cute and is in a great location. While In Pacific Grove go to Lover's Cove, it's very close to your motel. I've never stayed at he Lucia Lodge. I'd suggest staying in Big Sur. We just stayed at the Big Sur River Inn and loved it. The rooms are very basic ( no tv or phones) but the atmosphere of the resort more than made up for the lack of luxuries. The restaurant was very good,it has outdoor dining by the river and a nice cozy bar. They have live jazz on weekends,a pool and they have chairs placed in the river were you can sip a cocktail and listen to water falls.The room rate is $100 a night which is good for the area. I'm not sure if you need 3 nights in Monterey if you're staying one night in Carmel.It's very hard to find budget rooms in Carmel. I'd stay 2 nights in Big Sur and 2 nights in Pacific Grove. Or try an extra night in LA or Santa Barbara. Just a suggestion. Do go for a walk at Carmel Beach it's beautiful. Sometimes you can get good deals on rooms in Calistoga in the Napa Valley. Calistoga has a cute downtown area and great restaurants. A lot of the motels in Calistoga have hot mineral pools. I'll post again soon. Hope this was helpful.

With risk of repeating myself.........Thank you Sandy!
We got a very hot deal at a very fancy hotel in Carmel. They are doing some construction at the hotel and we can stay at the new wing for - 70%. Not so bad!
We will stay at a friends house in Sebastopol and she will probably let us use her car to go to Napa, Calistoga and other fine wine places. We visited Carmel last time we were in California, but only for a few hours. So that´s why we would like to stay there just a little longer this time. And I know that Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel are all almost "the same" but we only stopped for a lunch break in Monterey last visit so we thought that we should stay a little longer here too. You know try a little bit of everything......!!!
So, you think the Borg´s is OK?
Are there any other good places near the beach........and then of course at budget price??? Lots of questions to you my Fodor´s friend....but you are the only one I can turn to right now.
Until next reply....

Mona sorry it took me so long to get back to you....Yes I do think the Borg's will be fine. We've driven by it lots of times and I always have thought that it looked real cute. In my AAA tour book map the only other hotel right on the water in Pacific Grove is the Green Gables which is big $$$. There is one other budget priced motel called the Lover's Point Inn, but it's aross the street , not right on the cliif side. The Borg's might not be the poshest place but it's location is great.
I'm glad to hear that you will stay in Santa Barbara. It's one of my favorite places. The beach there is wonderful. You might want to tour the Santa Barbara mission. It's one of the best in California. Two good restaurants in Santa Barbara are Joe's on State Street and The Palace on Cota off of State St.. Joe's is very basic American food, burgers,steaks and sandwich's. The bar gets quite lively at times. The Palace serves Creol and New Orleans type food , they play great jazz while you're dining. State St. is great for just walking along and checking out the sights. It's a college town, so expect a lot of young people.
In Beverly Hills we like to go to Nate'N'Al's for breakfast. It's on Beverly Drive. It's an old Jewish Deli that doesn't look like it belongs in Beverly Hills but the food is great. Lots of celebrity's go there. It's always a little fun to see someone famous while in LA. Not that you would but I never ask for autographs or anything like that. Across the street is the Museum of Television and Radio which is interesting. Rodeo Drive is just a block or 2 over from Beverly Drive so you could walk over there and check out the sights.
Hope this is helpful.

Sorry to reply with a question, but Sandy, I would love your opinion on the following motels. It is so hard to plan sight un-seen.
Bestwestern Victorian Inn in Monterey
Bestwestern Monarch Resort in Pacific Grove
Bestwestern Carmel Mission Inn in Carmel

and I need one more place to stay in the Carmel by the Sea area. HELP

Priscilla, I've never stayed at any of the places you mentioned but I can tell about their locations. I think they are all nice places to stay. The Victorian Inn is 2 blocks away from Cannery Row, so you are close to all the sights in that area. It's most likely not real quite in that area.
The Monarch Resort is at the entrance to 17 mile drive. I'm sure it's nice in that area, but it's not real close to the ocean. Lover's Cove and the foot path along shore in P.G. are very nice.
The Carmel Mission Ranch isn't quite in Carmel Valley. It's located on highway 1 just south of the entrance to Carmel Valley. It's real close to Carmel River Beach and Point Lobos, which is one of the most beautiful places on the central coast.
My husband and I just stayed at the Candle Light Inn in Carmel-by-the Sea. I thought it was real nice. We had a king room with a fireplace and a 2 person jacuzzi tub. It is close to our favorite restaurant in Carmel: Casanova. It's French Italian and very romantic. Other places we've stayed at in Carmel that I liked are: The Pine Inn, Garden Court and the Normandy Inn.
Hope this was helpful.

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