KathyM

Planning a trip down the coast of California. We would like to plan to "land" in Monterey the second weekend in August, but hotel rates are through the roof. What's going on? Or are all weekends just as bad? Should we rethink our itinerary?

MonicaRichards

Looking at my favorite hotel's website, they list June 1-Sept 1 as high season and their prices are $50.00 higher a night. My guess is that's standard. If you could switch your dates to Sept. you'll probably find better prices and availability everywhere, and the weather will still be nice.

here_today_gone2Maui

Big auto race weekend, Concours Auto rally, parade, events, cra shows, festivals, vintage car races, more, more, more. The place is booked a year in advance for this. My husband used to go every year, when he was single and not subject to community property financial audits by the boss (me).

janis

The veteran car races at Laguna Seca and the Concours d'elegance at Pebble Beach draw people from all over the world. I used to go every year and only got rooms because I booked the same place every year - and booked it for the next year just as I was checking out.

The area will be very crowded and especially Carmel will have restricted parking etc.

If you can rearrange your route to miss this weekend you will have a MUCH easier time finding accomodations.

enjoylife

You could try to get something through Priceline or stay in neighboring Salinas or Gilroy.

Abi

Rather than staying in Gilroy or Salinas, you might consider staying in San Jose. You can often get good hotel rates on the weekends.

orangetravelcat

Doubtful you will get anything thru priceline since it's the big auto event weekend and hotels book up a year in advance. Some even limit reserving their rooms that weekend to regulars.

KathyM

I've already tried on Priceline. Went a hotel website to check prices and the increase for that weekend is amazing. One hotel went from $69 to $369 per room! I'm going to do a little rethinking of our itinerary. We are starting in San Francisco (4 nights), then going to Palo Alto for a wedding (2 nights), booked on Priceline for 2 nights in Napa,then planned to go from Napa to Monterey. Maybe a side trip to Yosemite before Monterey? We'd considered it, but seemed so far out of the way.

kikahead

You could always consider going to the coast north instead (Mendocino) to give you the great Pacific views without having to take out a second mortgage for rooms.