6 Unforgettable Experiences You Can Find in Salinas, California
When most people are planning their trips to the Monterey Bay, there’s a pivotal city that oftentimes gets overlooked — Salinas! Birthplace of author John Steinbeck, agricultural center of California, Salinas is a town full of culture, history, and the thing we love most — food! There’s no shortage of fun things to do, so read on for our recommendations on some of the best and most memorable!
Gold Leaf Tea and Spices
Everybody knows we love coffee, but we don’t always talk about how much we love tea, too. Fortunately, for us, Gold Leaf Tea and Spices fills all of our tea needs and more with their extensive list of flavors. You can find the standard Earl Gray and English Breakfast teas, of course, but we’re also fans of the Roasted Almond Apple Pie, Hibiscus Mint, Valerian Root, Feeling Good Flower Blend… okay, fine, we admit we like them all! You can find them located in the heart of Old Town Salinas, and when the holidays are over, be sure to check out their weight-loss teas if you need to shed some holiday pounds.
Steinbeck Center
Calling all fans of John Steinbeck — you must visit The National Steinbeck Center! Everyone on the bay is familiar with his Cannery Row novel, but there’s so much more to this author that gets overlooked. He changed the face of literature with his depictions of the Great Depression, and without him, who knows when Monterey would have been put on the map. Be sure to check out their list of events — like the Holiday Storytime on December 21 — and pop over to the Steinbeck House Restaurant to enjoy a meal in his childhood home. Even better, join us on our next Haunted Monterey Food Tour (and subscribe to our mailing list for date announcements) to visit the house he had exorcised before he moved in.
Gino’s Family Restaurant Group
We’ll tell you the first thing we love about Gino’s Family Restaurant Group — Italian is one of our favorite foods! Gino’s certainly knows how to deliver authentic Italian favorites, and their focus on family and keeping tradition keeps us coming back time and again. They have five different restaurants spread out through Salinas and Gonzales, and they all have a different focus. Our favorite, of course, is Gino’s Fine Italian Food on South Main Street. We’ll let you try out their different locations and let us know which one you love most.
River Road Wine Trail
Anyone who knows anything about California knows one thing — there’s no shortage of wine. Anywhere! And, fortunately for us in the Monterey Bay, we have the Santa Lucia Mountains all around us, and the grapes grown there produce some of the finest wines around (as we learned from Comanche Cellars.) If you’re having a hard time deciding on what wine to drink, we recommend looking into the River Road Wine Trail to check out some vineyards and tasting rooms in the area. Along the trail you will find Puma Road’s vineyard, whose tasting room you can also enjoy on our Old Monterey Food Tour.
Old Town Salinas Farmer’s Market
There’s never a bad reason to go to a Farmer’s Market, and the Old Town Salinas Farmer’s Market is about as close as you can get to farm-to-table fresh. Every Saturday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., don’t sleep on your chance to get some of the freshest ingredients for the meals during your upcoming week. You can also apply to be a vendor if you have the correct licensing, so if you’re on the hunt for a good market to sell your goods, this is one we recommend! Rain or shine, the market runs year-round, so you can plan any and all Saturday food shopping around this.
Star Market
One of the biggest reasons we love Star Market is their focus on local products (and the fact you can order online). If you’re unable to make it to the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays, Star Market is the best option for any other day of the week. If you’ve ever been on our Old Monterey Food Tour, you can find products from the likes of Carmel Berry Company and Schoch Family Farmstead from our tour partners. This is a shop run by locals, for the locals. This is one of our favorite places to shop, so don’t be surprised if you bump into someone from our team there.
