Asilomar Hotel and Conference Grounds

"Most people will fly into San Francisco or Oakland and rent a car (it’s about a three-hour and-45-minute drive from SFO, three hours from OAK). We drove up from L.A. and it’s a nine-hour drive, so we broke it up. We did a stopover in Monterey on the way up; we stayed at Asilomar Conference Grounds which has a retro summer-camp style and a private boardwalk that leads straight to Asilomar Beach. (One of my biggest tips for budget traveling is to look up state parks and conference centers for lodging.)"