If you want to save yourself a long read, here is the essence of our review: Do yourself a favour and stay at The Steinbeck Cottage and enjoy the best Monterey/Pacific Grove has to offer.

We spent four nights at The Steinbeck Cottage as part of our trip through California with our eight month old baby. While we did not meet Amy in person, she gave us the feeling of being welcome in the Cottage and Monterey nonetheless, providing very detailed information via e-mail in advance (a folder with additional information is in the Cottage itself). Check-in is very easy - all you need is the passcode to get the keys, so that if you are travelling through the state, there is no hurry to be there at a specific time.

The Steinbeck Cottage is the perfect symbiosis of modern and classic elements: a beautiful, quiet and spacious old house surrounded by a small garden, furniture and décor matched to the period in which John Steinbeck inhabited the house. At the same time, it is not lacking in the comfort you would expect from a home today. Take for example the kitchen, which has everything you might need to cook your own meals during your stay (which we did).

All in all, the Cottage makes you feel at home from the moment you first see it, and we highly recommend to anyone to actually spend some time there during your stay (and not just use it as a home base for excursions). For example, during our stay, we often stayed in for a late breakfast, only leaving to explore Pacific Grove and Monterey around lunchtime.

With the Cottage, you have your own designated sitting areas in the garden (out front and back), and your only contact with anyone living in the other two Steinbeck houses will be that the guests staying at the Writers' Studio share the same entrance into the garden (and gravel path past the house), which is to say that you barely notice anyone else living on the premises.

The Cottage is located just uphill from Cannery Row and the Monterey Aquarium, for which Amy graciously provided guest passes (a visit to both is highly recommended!). You can easily walk to Monterey and Fisherman's Wharf (we recommend the excellent Abalonetti Bar & Grill for lunch) along the beachfront, enjoying the view and watching the seals and sea otters at play. There are various restaurants, cafés (check out Happy Girl Kitchen) and stores within walking distance. In addition, there is a Trader Joe's a few minutes away by car, and a Whole Foods in the Del Monte shopping center if you are looking for organic food. They also stock a wide selection of baby foods.

All in all, if we come back to Monterey, we will definitely stay at the Cottage again.