A Self-Guided Walking Tour of Cannery Row
Cannery Row is one of those rare streets that's really a time machine — you can walk the same stretch of waterfront that once housed the largest sardine-canning operation on the West Coast, and that later became the setting for one of America's most beloved novels. It's also one of the easiest outings you'll take during your stay: Cannery Row is just five blocks from our door, flat the whole way, and comfortably walkable in an afternoon. Here's a self-guided route to make the most of it.
A Little Background Before You Go
Monterey's sardine industry took off in 1902 and exploded during both World Wars, and by the early 1940s more than thirty canneries lined what was then called Ocean View Avenue. At its peak in 1946, those canneries processed over 142,000 tons of sardines a year and employed nearly half of Monterey's population. Then, almost overnight, the sardines vanished — overfishing and shifting ocean conditions are the leading theories — and the industry collapsed within a single season. The street didn't officially take the name "Cannery Row" until 1958, borrowed from the title of John Steinbeck's 1945 novel, which had already made the place famous for its "poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream," as Steinbeck himself put it.
Stop One: Steinbeck Plaza and the Cannery Row Monument
Start at Steinbeck Plaza, home to The Cannery Row Monument, a bronze sculpture dedicated in 2014. Steinbeck himself sits atop a rocky outcropping at the center, with eight other bronze figures gathered around the base — including marine biologist Ed Ricketts, a Chinese fisherman representing the mid-1800s fishing village that first worked this shore, and the entrepreneurs who later turned the abandoned canneries into the tourist destination you're standing in today. It's a good five minutes of reading plaques and picking out faces before you move on.
Stop Two: Pacific Biological Laboratories (Doc Ricketts' Lab)
A short walk down the row is Pacific Biological Laboratories, the real-life lab Steinbeck fictionalized as the "Western Biological Laboratory" in Cannery Row. Ed Ricketts founded it in 1923 to supply preserved marine specimens to schools and researchers, and it doubled as an informal salon for writers and artists — Steinbeck among them, along with Henry Miller and Joseph Campbell at various points. When a fire gutted the lab in 1936, it was Steinbeck who helped save the business by buying half the company. The building is now a National Historic Landmark, owned by the City of Monterey, and opens for public tours on a monthly basis if your visit happens to line up.
Stop Three: The Cannery Row Antique Mall
For a change of pace, duck into the Cannery Row Antique Mall, housed in one of the row's converted cannery buildings. With more than 150 dealers under one roof, it's an easy way to spend twenty minutes or two hours, depending on how deep you want to go into vintage postcards, nautical antiques, and Monterey memorabilia.
Stop Four: The Shops and Galleries of the Row
The rest of Cannery Row is built for browsing — art galleries, souvenir shops, wine-tasting rooms, and candy shops occupy the old cannery buildings end to end. There's no wrong way to wander this stretch; let whatever catches your eye set the pace.
Stop Five: The Monterey Bay Aquarium
End at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which sits on the site of the old Hovden Cannery — once the largest sardine cannery on the row, operating from 1916 until it finally closed in 1973. After Stanford University acquired the building, a group backed by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation transformed it into the aquarium that opened its doors on October 20, 1984, drawing over 10,000 visitors on its very first day alone. It's a fitting bookend to the tour: the building itself is a direct link back to the industry that gave this street its name, now home to the sea life that industry once harvested.
A Few Practical Notes
The full route is flat, stroller- and wheelchair-friendly, and comfortably covered in two to three hours if you're stopping to read plaques and browse shops — longer if the Aquarium is on your list, since that alone is worth a couple of hours. Mornings tend to be quieter than afternoons, especially in summer. And since you're already five blocks from the start of the Row, there's no need to worry about parking — just walk down and back.