Getting Around Salinas
Salinas is the county seat and largest municipality of Monterey County, California, sitting in the Salinas Valley. For a visitor, the practical picture is simple: the historic downtown core is easy to explore on foot, public buses cover the city and the wider county, Amtrak and intercity buses connect Salinas to the rest of California, and driving is straightforward with plentiful, often free parking.
Walking in Oldtown Salinas
Oldtown Salinas is very walkable, and it is where you will find many of the city's stores, restaurants and galleries. It is also the location of the Transit Plaza, which gives you access to the Amtrak train and the bus system, so you can base yourself downtown and reach the rest of the city and county without a car.
Rail: Amtrak and the Salinas Station
Salinas is served by Amtrak, which operates train service around the United States. The train depot serving the city is the Salinas Intermodal Transportation Center, with the station located at 11 Station Place.
The route stopping in Salinas is the Coast Starlight, which operates daily between Seattle and Los Angeles. Stops along the way include Tacoma, Lacey, Centralia, Kelso, Vancouver (WA), Portland, Salem, Albany, Eugene, Klamath Falls, Dunsmuir, Redding, Chico, Sacramento, Davis, Martinez, San Francisco (Emeryville), Oakland, San Jose, Salinas, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Simi Valley, Van Nuys and Burbank. For a visitor, this means Salinas sits on a single long-distance rail corridor rather than a local commuter rail or metro network.
Buses and Public Transport
Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) is the local public bus operator. Its customer service office, known as the "Bus Shop," is at 110 Salinas St, and the Salinas Transit Center (the central bus station) is at the southwest corner of the intersection of Salinas St and Central Ave. MST runs public transportation to and from other parts of Monterey County as well as local connections within Salinas.
Public buses from Monterey-Salinas Transit are plentiful, and they also provide access to the Monterey Peninsula. Useful connections for visitors include:
- Route 21 to Monterey via Marina on CA-1.
- Route 23 between Northridge Mall (north of town) and King City via the Salinas Transit Center, Chualar, Gonzales, Soledad and Greenfield on US Hwy 101; passengers transfer to the Route 84 bus in King City to continue to Paso Robles.
- Route 25 from CSUMB in Marina.
- Routes 28 and 29 from Salinas to Watsonville, where passengers can transfer to buses to Santa Cruz or around Watsonville on Santa Cruz Metro. Route 28 goes toward Watsonville via Castroville (CA-1 and 183), while Route 29 travels via Prunedale by another route.
Note that MST bus connections between Monterey County and San Jose via Gilroy have been suspended. To reach San Jose, passengers will have to use Greyhound or American Star Tours, or travel to Santa Cruz via Watsonville to pick up the "17-Amtrak Highway Express" bus.
For longer journeys, Greyhound Lines and American Star Tours stop at the Salinas Station at 3 Station Pl. They connect San Francisco to Los Angeles via Oakland, Hayward, San Jose, Gilroy, Salinas, King City, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara and Oxnard; American Star Tours runs the same route with additional stops in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Grover Beach, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA. Tickets with American Star Tours can be booked with Greyhound or Amtrak. MST routes 44 and 49 connect this station to the Salinas Transit Center for onward connections within the county and to Watsonville; the nearest stops for other MST buses are on Lincoln and W Market St, so check maps and schedules on the MST website.
International Bus Lines (formerly Intercalifornias) also serves Salinas, with a bus stop at Discoteca Exitos Latinos/Metro by T-Mobile, 1110 E Alisal St. Its buses run from Tijuana to San Jose via Watsonville, Salinas, Los Banos, Madera, the San Joaquin Valley, Bakersfield, Los Angeles and San Ysidro.
Taxis and Ride-Hailing
The source material describes driving in Salinas as easy, with plentiful and often free parking, but it does not detail local taxi or ride-hailing services. Plan on arranging ground transport through your accommodation or a ride-hailing app if you prefer not to drive.
Getting In by Car
Driving is a practical way to arrive and get around. Veterans Memorial Hwy passes through as a freeway from Gilroy to the north and continues south to King City. CA-Hwy 68 provides a direct connection from Monterey, entering town as Main St and ending at Josh St and US Hwy 101. From Watsonville, through Castroville, CA-Hwy 183 enters town as W Market St and ends at its intersection with Salinas St. Old Stage Rd and Crazy Horse Canyon Rd serve as a kind of beltway around town, running from Spence Rd south to San Juan Grade Rd north of town; Old Stage Rd becomes Herbert Rd at San Juan Grade Rd, and travelers continue on Crazy Horse Canyon Rd from San Juan Grade Rd to US Hwy 101 in Prunedale. These beltway roads are not designated as a US or state highway.
Getting From the Airport Into the City
Salinas does not have its own commercial airport in the source material. The practical option for air arrivals is Groome Transportation (formerly Monterey Airbus), which operates a regularly scheduled shuttle from the airports in SFO and SJC to Prunedale, Marina and Monterey in Monterey County. Northbound buses continue contiguously from SJC to SFO. The shuttle's Salinas-area stop is the Prunedale Park & Ride at CA-156 and US Hwy 101 (on Meridian Spur) in Prunedale, and MST route 29 serves the Prunedale Park & Ride from Salinas. You can call Groome Transportation for door-to-door pick-up and drop-off and to make reservations.