17-Mile Drive Tour 2026: E-Bike, Coach or Your Own Car

Booking choice: The 17-Mile Drive e-bike tour, from $75 per person. Check dates Compare the options below

The 17-Mile Drive is a private toll road through Pebble Beach, on the Monterey Peninsula between Pacific Grove and Carmel. Pebble Beach Company charges a gate fee per vehicle, publishes a map of its viewpoints, and keeps the gates open from sunrise to sunset.

Here is what it costs, which stops matter, and how the three ways to do it compare: an e-bike tour from Carmel, a day tour from San Francisco, or your own car.

The quick answer

The 17-Mile Drive costs $12.50 per vehicle in 2026, refunded with $35 spent at a Pebble Beach Resorts restaurant. Motorcycles are not allowed. If you are in Carmel, the guided e-bike tour ($75, rated 4.9 from 475 reviews) covers Spanish Bay, Bird Rock, Fanshell, the Lone Cypress and Pebble Beach in 2.5 hours, gate fee included. From San Francisco, every day tour on this site includes the drive; the small-group day ($118) gives it about two hours with its stops.

Three cyclists in helmets riding along a paved coastal path on a sunny day, the sea glittering behind them and rocks along the shore — Riding the coast on the Monterey Peninsula. On an e-bike the hills take little effort.

How much is the 17-Mile Drive?

$12.50 per vehicle in 2026, paid at the gate. Pebble Beach refunds it when you spend $35 or more at one of its resort restaurants.

The rules come from Pebble Beach Company: the refund works at Pebble Beach Resorts restaurants, not at the Pebble Beach Market. The gates open from sunrise to sunset. Motorcycles are prohibited. From 13 to 16 August 2026 the drive closed to all but Concours d'Elegance traffic, and Pebble Beach restricts it around the Concours each August.

Want the gate fee, the bike and a guide who knows every turnout? The e-bike tour starts on Ocean Avenue in Carmel, from $75.

Check dates for the 17-Mile Drive e-bike tour

Is the 17-Mile Drive worth it?

Yes, for cypress, granite coast and wildlife in an easy two hours. Skip it if you will drive Big Sur the same day and are short of time.

The scenery is gentler than Big Sur: low granite points, white beaches, harbour seals and sea lions, and the famous lone tree. It is also the best-organised scenic drive on the coast, with numbered turnouts and parking at each one.

Guests on the coach days tell a different story about Pebble Beach itself: a guest in August 2026 warned golf fans that the stop at the links is "very short". If golf is the point, drive in yourself.

Sea lions resting on pale granite rocks with surf breaking around them, cypress trees on the point behind under a clear sky — Sea lions on the granite near Bird Rock. Bring a zoom lens, or just your ears.

What are the best stops on the 17-Mile Drive?

Spanish Bay, Point Joe, Bird Rock, Fanshell Overlook, Cypress Point Lookout, the Lone Cypress and the Pebble Beach links.

Spanish Bay: the first beach after the Pacific Grove gate, with dunes behind the sand.
Point Joe and China Rock: rough water and dark rocks, worth five minutes each.
Bird Rock: sea lions, harbour seals, cormorants and pelicans on an offshore rock.
Fanshell Overlook: a white beach where harbour seals haul out.
The Lone Cypress: the most photographed tree on the coast, seen from a viewing platform.
Pebble Beach Golf Links: the lodge, the shops and the links on the bay.

The Lone Cypress on a granite outcrop with a low stone wall at its base, dark cypress branches in the foreground and the grey bay behind — The Lone Cypress on an overcast day. You view it from a platform; the rock itself is off limits.

What is the 17-Mile Drive e-bike tour like?

A 2.5-hour guided ride from Carmel with ten riders at most, ages 10 and up, stopping at about ten turnouts. $75 with the bike, helmet and fees.

The tour meets at the Mad Dogs & Englishmen bike shop on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Mission Street in Carmel. Guests rate it 4.9 from 475 reviews. A first-time rider in September 2026 found the bikes "very easy to use". Another noted a couple of steep hills and no throttle, so you pedal with assistance rather than cruise. A guest in March 2026 advised warm clothes; gloves help on a foggy morning.

An aerial view of a single e-bike rider on a coastal road beside green scrub, a rocky shore with breaking waves and sandy coves beyond — An e-bike on the coast road. The ride stops at the turnouts, so you are never in a hurry.

17-Mile Drive Guided E-Bike Tour from Carmel

Want the Lone Cypress, Bird Rock and Fanshell at bike pace, with the gate fee covered? The e-bike tour takes ten riders at most.

★ 4.9 475 reviews · 2.5 hours · from $75

Explore the 17-Mile Drive e-bike tour

E-bike, coach or your own car: which is best?

The e-bike for the views and the air, your own car for golf and your own timing, a coach day if you start in San Francisco without a car.

All three see the same viewpoints. What changes is the pace, the cost and how you get there.

Way	Cost	Time on the drive	Best for
Guided e-bike tour	$75	2.5 hours	Active travellers in Carmel, age 10+
Your own car	$12.50 per vehicle	As long as you like	Golf fans, photographers, families
Small-group day from SF	$118	About 2 hours of stops	One day, no car, twelve guests max
Gray Line coach from SF	$119	A drive-through with short stops	Lowest price from San Francisco

How long does the 17-Mile Drive take?

About 1.5 to 2 hours by car with the main stops, 2.5 hours on the e-bike tour, half a day if you add lunch and a walk.

Without stopping you could drive it in well under an hour, but nobody does. The small-group day from San Francisco gives the drive an hour plus 15 minutes each at Bird Rock and the Lone Cypress and 30 minutes at Pebble Beach. Go early for the quietest turnouts: the gates open at sunrise.

A sandy beach with wooden fence posts and a boardwalk path, yellow wildflowers in the foreground and surf rolling onto rocks under a grey sky — The dunes and beach near Asilomar, just outside the Pacific Grove gate.

Starting in San Francisco with no car? The small-group day spends about two hours on the 17-Mile Drive, with the fee and snacks included, from $118.

Check dates for the small-group Monterey and Carmel day

Where do you enter the 17-Mile Drive?

At one of five gates: Pacific Grove, Country Club, Highway 1, S.F.B. Morse and Carmel. From Carmel, use the Carmel gate off San Antonio Avenue.

Pay at whichever gate you use and keep the map you get there; the numbered stops follow it. The Highway 1 gate is the quickest from the north, the Pacific Grove gate gives you the coast in order from Spanish Bay. Tours use the gate that suits their route.

Can you combine the 17-Mile Drive with Big Sur in one day?

Yes, with your own car from Monterey or on the Big Sur day from San Francisco. Start early.

Do the 17-Mile Drive at sunrise, then head south on Highway 1 from Carmel: Bixby Bridge is about 13 miles away. The Big Sur day ($193) spends 1.5 hours at Pebble Beach before an hour in Big Sur. For the full Big Sur stops, read Bixby Bridge and McWay Falls.