City Guide: Carmel

Carmel is laid-back and brimming with culture.

It is the only city in the world where street addresses, modern architecture and franchise businesses are banned to allow extra space for cultural opportunities in the city. Famous for its quaint shops, homes that are claustrophobic for the European traveler and innocent coastline, this is the way life in Carmel.

You can experience this laid-back feel on your trip to Carmel. Be it a room in cheap hotel in Carmel to luxury offers all listed with maps, photos and secure forms at Booked.net.

Carmel doesn't exhaust itself with beaches only, as you can find there three small, but very interesting museums about the city's history with various antiques on display. Along with museums goes fascinating architecture with unique off-the-beaten-track buildings and the graves of more than three thousand local Indians at the local cemetery.

Other attractions include;

• Carmel Mission, established by Father Junipero Sera along the coast of California

• 17 Mile Drive, a scenic drive through the most prestigious neighborhood in Northern California

• Point Lobos, a State Park located just south of Carmel

• Gravity Garden, a sculpture garden by artist Jim Needham

• The Barnyard offers a collection of art galleries and clothing

But the majority of tourists flock to Carmel for its powder-white coastline and crystal-clear waters. Its Carmel River State Beach is among the favorite to sunbathe on for visitors for its impressive setting under the rocky cliffs and near the tranquil blue waters. In addition, Carmel boasts a very beautiful environment with more than 250 bird and animal species along the sea and the richest underwater environment in California.

Carmel had featured very diverse inhabitants from Esselen, then Ohlone Native American tribes before the Europeans forced them off the land. Settled since the early 18th century, Carmel began to take shape with the Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo by Father Junípero Serra in 1771. After 1848 Carmel changed hands from Mexican to American as Mexico ceded California after the Mexican-American War.

Since then Carmel has started to work to draw new residents to the area. It founded the Carmel Development Company for the new jobs in the city and this paid off with success. The majority of people to relocate to Carmel were from San Francisco escaping the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake there. Many newcomers to the area were artists inspired by Carmels' beauty like Jack London, Robinson Jeffers, Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair. Along with writers Carmel appeared in the focus of photographers' cameras by Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.

From the remote Canadian coast to magazine covers and today Carmel is available to tour for you with Booked.net.