If you live in Pacific Grove, Car Week is the annual test of whether you treat your own downtown as home turf or cede it to visitors for ten days. Most residents I know have made peace with the middle path: skip the ticketed events on the far side of the Peninsula, walk to the free ones that happen at the end of your block, and eat dinner somewhere the Concours crowd hasn't figured out yet.
The 2026 dates run Friday, August 7 through Sunday, August 16, and the shape of the week matters more than the marquee names. Two of the best free events on the entire Peninsula happen inside PG city limits, both organized by local nonprofits, both structured around Lighthouse Avenue closing to cars so it can fill with them. If you plan the week around what's within walking distance of home, you end up with a better Car Week than most of the people who flew in for it.
The week, in order
Here is what actually happens in Pacific Grove, and when.
Date | Event | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
Mon Aug 10, 12–4pm | Electric Coast EV showcase | Asilomar Conference Grounds | Free |
Tue Aug 11, 10am–2pm | Continued programming at Asilomar | Asilomar Conference Grounds | Free |
Wed Aug 12, 12–5pm | The Little Car Show, 16th annual | Lighthouse Ave, Fountain to Congress | Free to spectate |
Fri Aug 14, 10am–5pm | PG Rotary Concours Auto Rally, 32nd year | Lighthouse & Forest, staging to rally departure | Free to spectate |
Two closures, two days apart, both on Lighthouse. If you live north of Central or east of David, you can walk to everything in the table above except the Reunion.
Wednesday belongs to the small cars
The Little Car Show is the event most first-time Car Week visitors either miss or dismiss because it sounds like a novelty. It is a novelty, and that's the point. All marques from all countries are eligible, provided the vehicle is 25 years old or older, model year 1997 or earlier, with internal combustion engines no larger than 1,601cc, plus an "Et Cetera" category for limited-production, custom, or modified vehicles that meet the general rules. Translation: micro, mini, arcane, steam, and electric, capped at 125 vehicles on Lighthouse from noon to 5 p.m.
Streets will be closed on Lighthouse Avenue between Fountain Avenue and Congress Avenue, which is the practical detail residents actually need. Park south of Central or west of Asilomar Avenue and walk in. The show wraps with something Concours crowds never get: a tour and parade around the city's waterfront and beaches beginning at Lover's Point and following Ocean View Boulevard to Asilomar. If you time a walk along the recreation trail for roughly 5 p.m., the parade comes to you.
Proceeds go to the P.G. Public Library, P.G. Youth Center, and the Veterans' Transition Center. Every dollar you spend at the show stays inside a two-mile radius of your house.
Friday is the one people drive in for
The Pacific Grove Rotary Concours Auto Rally is the show with the crowd. The 2026 Concours Auto Rally will be held in historic downtown Pacific Grove on Friday, August 14th, with registration and staging of participating cars beginning at 10 a.m. at the intersection of Forest Ave and Lighthouse Avenue in the heart of Pacific Grove. Expect over 200 vehicles and several thousand visitors and local residents lining Lighthouse.
The rhythm of the day matters if you want to see the cars without swimming through the peak of the crowd. Staging runs until 12:30 p.m., spectators can view the staged vehicles free of charge throughout the day, and the rally drive departs at 5:00 p.m. along the scenic Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach shoreline before returning to Pacific Grove. The window from roughly 12:45 to 3:00 is the busiest. Residents who go early, at staging, or who wait for the 5 p.m. departure get the best of it. The departure in particular is worth watching from Ocean View Boulevard rather than from downtown; the cars come to you and there's no crowd.
The event was founded in 1995 to raise money for the Pacific Grove Youth Center, with proceeds continuing to support local youth programs and other community projects. This is a Rotary Club fundraiser that happens to draw international collectors. Treat it that way.
Where to eat when Lighthouse is closed
Downtown restaurants near the closure will book out. The two moves that work: eat outside the closure zone, or eat at a place that opened after most published Car Week guides went to print. Both apply this year.
- La Côte Bleue, 209 Forest Ave. Opened in March 2026 by chef-owner Miguel Ponce with his father Juan and brother Carlos. La Côte takes over the space formerly occupied by community darling Max's Grill for 22 years. Ponce spent the better part of a decade at high-volume Fisherman's Grotto on Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf before opening here. Reservations will matter this week.
- Crema, 631 Ocean View Blvd. Tamie Aceves has reopened Crema in Pacific Grove at a new location; visit the spot at 631 Ocean View Blvd. for their limited menu. The Ocean View address means it sits directly on the parade route from the Little Car Show. Morning coffee here on Wednesday is the best seat in town.
- Everyone's Harvest Farmers' Market, Central between Forest and Fountain, Mondays 3 to 7 p.m. If you plan to entertain guests through the week, Monday is the day to stock up before Wednesday's closure narrows your route options.
Everything on Lighthouse between Fountain and Congress is either inside the closure or immediately adjacent to it on Wednesday. Book Friday dinner outside that corridor if you want a normal night.
The bookends most people skip
The Monday and Tuesday of Car Week are the quiet ones inside PG, and they contain the single most interesting free event of the entire week for residents who don't care about vintage racing.
Electric Coast is Monday, August 10, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Asilomar Conference Center, free admission, an immersive electric vehicle showcase set along the Asilomar coastline. This is the anti-Concours: current-model EVs from the manufacturers themselves, set among the dunes, no roped-off displays, no auction previews, no shuttles. If you have been thinking about an EV for the household and want to see them side by side without a dealer floor, this is your afternoon.
The Pre-Reunion up at Laguna Seca runs August 8-9, at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with hundreds of historic race cars from iconic prototypes to classics. Tickets are cheaper than the main Reunion the following week, and the crowd is a fraction of the size. For PG residents, it's a short drive up 68 before downtown fills.
Why residents have the advantage
Car Week is designed for people who don't live here. That is its structural feature and its opportunity. The visitor pays for shuttles, hotel surcharges, and dinner reservations booked in April. The resident walks to two free events on Lighthouse, watches the Little Car Show parade from Ocean View on the way home from the recreation trail, catches the Rotary departure at 5 on Friday, eats at a restaurant that didn't exist last summer, and treats the rest of the week as normal August.
The town rewards that approach. Both of the events that close Lighthouse are run by local nonprofits and put their proceeds back into the Library, the Youth Center, the Veterans' Transition Center, and Rotary's community projects. Spending your Wednesday afternoon at the Little Car Show is a civic act with better food than most civic acts get.
Plan the week backward from where you already are, not forward from what the ticketed events tell you to prioritize. That is what living here buys you.
If you're considering a move to Pacific Grove, or already own here and are thinking about what your home would command in the current market, the team at Monterey Coast Realty knows this town block by block, restaurant by restaurant, and closure by closure. Contact us for a conversation grounded in how the Peninsula actually lives, not how it's marketed.
