By Peter Fish
Sunset Editor-at-Large

March is about our favorite time to visit Monterey and Carmel. The winter rains have gone, but the summer fogs and the summer crowds haven’t arrived. The hills are green, the ceanothus is blooming blue, and you can usually visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium without waiting in (too long of a) line.

But. Everybody is budget conscious these days. You may think that even an off-season visit to the land of millionaires driving their Range Rovers carefully along 17-Mile-Drive is out of your reach.

You would be wrong. There are good budget lodgings on the Monterey Peninsula--hotels that offer some style without breaking your bank. Here are three we especially like.

Monterey Hotel, Monterey. This venerable (built 1904) and nicely restored hotel sits right in downtown Monterey. That means it can be a little noisy on a Saturday night, but it’s close to lots of the stuff you want to see—Fisherman’s Wharf, historic Monterey—and it gives you a great feeling of being part of an interesting city.  From $69.50.

Mission Ranch, Carmel. Yeah, Clint Eastwood’s rambling milk-white ranch does have rooms that run to $250. But the Farmhouse Rooms here can be had for as little as $120 night, and even if they’re smaller they share the pleasures of the rest of the ranch: an idyllic setting overlooking Carmel Bay, lots of tennis, and good food (we recommend the burgers and the Sunday Jazz Brunch) at the ranch restaurant.

Los Laureles Lodge, Carmel Valley.  This oak-shaded lodge has a plutocrat pedigree—it was a Vanderbilt stables at one point—but pleasantly democratic rates, with rooms starting at $95. The rooms along Surrey Lane are the nicest.