Lodi to San Juan Bautista – 13 November 2022

We really enjoyed staying at Betabel in San Juan Bautista. It was very well situated between Monterey and Santa Cruz (about 40 mins in either direction) and there was never a lack of places to visit or things to do. There was easy access to the highway as you come out of the resort. Betabel was kept nice and clean by the owners and maintenance team and had a nice grassed area for Jax to run in as well as a fenced dog park. The weather was fairly sunny during the day but you still needed a sweater to go out. We thought that we would meet lots of people during our extended stay, but we found that during the day the park was pretty much deserted. It seemed that many of the residents of the park worked.

Gilroy which is the garlic capital of the world was about 15 minutes away and we spent a fair amount of time there when we needed to shop or if we wanted to go on a hike closer to where we were. They had several amazing farm stall with loads of fresh veggies and fruit and garlic in both fresh and preserved state as well as several large shopping centres.

There were several County and State parks nearby for hiking and the only disappointment was that many did not allow dogs. We typically targeted the dog friendly place and made sure Jax was leashed up at all times, as there were several notices of mountain lions and coyotes. The De Anza trail was one of our favorites.

We visited Monterey several times and enjoyed the Aquarium, Cannery Row, 17 Mile Scenic Drive and Fisherman’s wharf. We also loved the upmarket shops and beautiful beaches at Carmel-by-the-Sea. In Santa Cruz we visited the Art museum, Santa Cruz wharf and the fairground on the boardwalk. 

San Juan Bautista was a small town with a large historic section. The Mission was lovely but unfortunately closed when we were there. We did enjoy a lovely smoked turkey and ham, followed by chocolate mousse on Thanksgiving at the local Smoke Point BBQ restaurant which we returned to at a later stage to enjoy some smoked brisket and pork.