SUNDAY MAIL, BRISBANE
19 OCTOBER 2003

Taste the cream of Carmel – batty bylaws, quaint houses and art galleries galore – writes Lee Mylne

Leave your stilettos at home if you're planning a visit to lovely Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. “No high heels” is one of the town's more unusual by-laws, which also include a ban on live music, neon signs, parking meters and fast food joints.

No complaints from me, although the ban on numbers for houses must be confusing for the postman.

No one seems to recall the by-law requiring a permit for high heels being enforced since it was introduced in 1963, but the others most certainly are effective.

When Clint Eastwood was the mayor of this pretty Monterey County town – about 190km south of San Francisco - from 1986 to 1988, tourists queued down the street to attend council meetings.

These days, they seem happy enough to just hang out at one of the many restaurants in leafy Ocean Avenue hoping to glimpse a celebrity.

It's not always a vain hope. Kevin Costner is seen regularly; Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have just bought a place here and Doris Day and her son own the "dog-friendly" historic Pine Inn near the beach.

Ocean Avenue, running down to the white sands of Carmel Beach, is lined either side with around 40 art galleries, a host of gift shops, restaurants and designer boutiques.

The result is Noosa-meets-Montville with an American twist, and tour buses are banned from this focal point for the town.

Wander away from the main street, and you'll find yourself in charming avenues lined with shingle-roofed storybook houses with cutesy names like "Knotvery Lodge", and worse. I suppose it gets around the problem of no house numbers.

Carmel-by-the-Sea started life as a bohemian retreat following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It's still small, with only 4400 residents, but the numbers rise in summer with the tourist influx.

Another bylaw stipulates that you cannot rent a house in Carmel for less than 30 days, but there are plenty of lodgings to choose from, many within an easy stroll of the Ocean Avenue action and the beach.

Two blocks from Carmel Beach and four blocks from Ocean Avenue is the imposing Mediterranean villa of La Playa, built in 1904. It is now a comfortable and atmospheric hotel surrounded by spectacular terraced flower gardens and cypress trees.

It is a member of Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Within easy walk from the main hotel are five guest cottages, of one to three bedrooms, great for families or groups of friends.

Don't leave town without visiting the Carmel Mission, which dates back to 1771 and was the second of California's 21 missions.

The sandstone church was built in 1793 and restored from the 1930s. Stroll through its colourful gardens or escape the heat of the day inside the dim, cool basilica and museum.

Carmel Mission was founded by Padre Junipero Serra, a Franciscan friar who founded nine missions in California, often making long journeys on foot to baptize Native Americans who converted to Catholicism.

The spartan cell where Padre Serra lived has been recreated at the mission, and he is buried in front of the altar in the basilica.

The Carmel Mission Basilica has some of the most significant religious artefacts in California. It's museum houses California's first library, as well as a collection of tools and equipment used by the Spaniards and Native Americans in their daily life at the mission.

Entry to one of the Monterey Peninsula's other most famous drawcards, the scenic 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, is also just a few blocks from the heart of Carmel. The toll road - it costs US$8.25 per vehicle to enter this exclusive domain - leads to the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links where an 18-hole round will set you back US$350 per person and you'll have to book 18 months ahead.

In 1880, the Hotel Del Monte opened, offering guests horse-drawn carriage rides on a scenic, 17-mile (27km) gravel road around the Monterey Peninsula and through the Del Monte Forest. Today, 17-Mile Drive is still one of the most famous stretches of road in the USA thanks to its dramatic scenery.

But some things do change. The Lone Cypress Tree, believed to be between 200 and 300 years old, is a landmark on a rocky outcrop off 17-Mile Drive overlooking the sea. It is a favoured stopping point for tour buses. But don't think about publishing a picture of it, we're told. The tree is copyrighted to the owners of Pebble Beach.

IF YOU GO

* United Airlines flies daily to San Francisco from Sydney. Fares from Brisbane, including domestic flights to Sydney on Qantas or Virgin Blue, are around $2,000 including taxes. Check www.unitedairlines.com.au or call 131 777 toll-free.

* For more information on Monterey County, visit www.montereyinfo.org.

* Carmel Mission is open Monday to Saturday, 9.30am to 4.15pm and until 5.15pm on Sundays.

* La Playa Hotel, www.laplayahotel.com, has rooms from US$165 (A$240).