How far is Monterey from Big Sur? Here's the quick answer if you make this quick drive without any stops. Of course, traffic is going to make a big difference so make sure you check that before leaving.
Nonstop drive: 29 miles or 47 km
Driving time: 47 minutes
Even on a short drive, it might be more interesting to stop along the way and explore the local area. You can scroll down to see the calculation if you drive with stops.
Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Big Sur, California and Monterey, California. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.
Flight distance: 23 miles or 37 km
Flight time: 33 minutes
The straight line flight distance is 6 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.2x of the flight distance.
Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/1th of the time it would take to drive.
This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination.
Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Monterey, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.
Road trip: 1 day of driving
With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.
Travel time: 1 hour on the road
Itinerary
Start in Big Sur.
Drive for about 13 minutes, then stop at Point Sur Naval Facility and stay for about 1 hour.
Next, drive for another 10 minutes then stop at Bixby Creek Bridge and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 15 minutes then stop at Garrapata State Beach and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 9 minutes then stop at Point Lobos State Reserve and stay for 1 hour.
Finally, drive for about 14 minutes and arrive in Monterey.
To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:
Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Monterey, California. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Monterey. If you're looking for a place to stay, you might want to check out Mission Ranch Hotel. A great place to eat might be Passionfish. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Monterey like Monterey Bay Aquarium. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Monterey like Restaurant recommendations for a large group dinner?. Click the button below to explore Monterey in detail.
The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Monterey to Big Sur, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.
If you happen to know Big Sur, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Big Sur!