As with most decisions, your personal definition of what is “best” is key to understanding which airport will be most convenient for your PCS travel plans and while exploring California and surrounding states.
Monterey Airport (MRY) is by far the closest and most accessible to the peninsular cities. It’s a small regional airport that is served by five airlines: Alaska Airlines, American, Allegiant, United Airlines and US Airways. We used it several times and the convenience cannot be beat. There are easy drop offs and pick-ups, little traffic, simple long term parking, and minimal security line wait time. Surprisingly, there is a charming and delicious restaurant, The Fly Away Café, past the security point. Give yourself plenty of time and enjoy a piece of chocolate cake or a celebratory cocktail while awaiting your flight. As you probably can guess, there is a price to pay for this ease of travel. You can expect to pay at least $200.00 more than the next closest airports. We found one exception though, if booked far enough in advance, a trip to Phoenix as a final destination or transfer point was very reasonable and not worth the drive San José or San Francisco. Do your best to convince your family and friends to fly into this airport otherwise plan at least a 1.5 hour trek, one way, and pray for no traffic.
Mineta San José International Airport (SJC) is the next closest airport to Monterey. We also used this airport quite a bit and I really have only positive things to say about our experiences there. A majority of the time your flights from SJC are far less expensive than from MRY, and is worth the drive. It is impressively clean, very updated or new, and easy to navigate to include all parking options. Many military families use their time in Monterey to make the trip to Hawaii. SJC provided many flights with fair market prices to several of the islands. If making a long trip such as this, I recommend finding a hotel near SJC and spending the night to start the day fresh before boarding for your long Pacific Ocean voyage.
We used the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) minimally while living in Monterey. For us it seemed the prices in and out of SFO were not inexpensive enough to drive further north past SJC and endure even more traffic and worsening weather due to regular fog delays. However, many people we knew did use this airport, particularly to pick up East Coasters, as it tended to be the cheapest way to get into Monterey to visit, but you can’t forget that drive back, it can get as bad as 3 hours in traffic. I will suggest this airport if you are making San Francisco a several day vacation point. A logical house hunting itinerary would be to drive to Monterey early for the day and return to San Francisco that evening.
A useful way to get around the drive aggravation to SJC and SFO is to utilize a service out of Monterey called the Monterey Air Bus. The service provides regular routes to and from its station in Monterey to SJC and SFO. The rates range from $20.00 to $40.00 per person per one way. This service could prove very beneficial if you would incur hefty long term parking fees at either SJC or SFO.
To find fun things to do, read our on and off base reviews for Monterey NPS!
