It would be easy to assume that all Monterey Car Week events are eye-wateringly expensive. They’re not, though there are some for which tickets cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars.
One of the best events of all, though, is the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance presented by Rolex. Every year, the tour starts early on Thursday before Sunday’s main event Concours. It’s where you’ll see some of the world’s greatest car collectors and enthusiasts nervously preparing their machinery – often fresh out of an intensive concours restoration – for a 70 mile drive from Pebble Beach.
A car that successfully completes the Tour gets the nod if it later ties in class competition at the Concours.
For some, this will be the first time for years, or ever, that they’ve driven their cars for any distance, because Pebble Beach is so often the event at which fresh restorations or purchases are shown to the world. Crowds of visitors walk up and down the long lines of cars from 7am, clutching their free Hagerty doughnuts and coffee, awaiting the Mercedes-Benz Classic-led start at 9:30am.
The cars head along 17-Mile Drive and Highway 1 to Big Sur, returning to Pebble Beach around noon.
Sections of the Tour inevitably hit the heavy traffic that plagues Monterey Car Week. More often than not, a fine mist from the low clouds that characterise the coastal areas falls on the immaculate cars. But on the inland sections, temperatures soar and the Tour participants slowly bake.
For the 2025 Tour, rain started around 8am, wetting the many uncovered interiors, but soon cleared up. Some, in the covered models and more luxurious cars, were lucky but others – such as those perched in dickey seats or – for example – in the tiny Amilcar, just had to get wet for a while.
Competition cars often take part too – the sight of the Ferrari 250LM occupants this year climbing out at the finish, drenched in sweat, was a reminder of how punishing some of them can be. But at least they made it: this year, as always, there were a handful of non-finishers stranded along the route. For most entrants, though, the Tour is one of the highlights of the week, and for visitors it’s a chance to watch some of the world’s greatest cars in action, while relaxing in beautiful scenery.
