halfmonkey

Is anybody planning on going to Werks Reunion in August? Tickets go on sale tomorrow? If so, it would be cool to get a caravan going from Socal on August 12th.

Where does everybody usually stay while in Monterey for this event?

Merlotsj

I’m planning on being at Werks Reunion this year halfmonkey. I am in the SF Bay Area though, I don’t think I’ll drive down to SoCal just to make the trip back up. I had a buddy down in LA until he retired and moved to Mariposa, but he usually stayed in a spare bedroom in either my house or with another mutual friend that lived in Hollister. I think hotels in the area will be booked pretty solid by now, this is during Monterey car week, there are huge crowds and a lot of cool cars in town.

halfmonkey

I was surprised looking through the hotels in the area because they all seem to be motel, inns, b&b and they're charging something like $400-$500 a night for motel 6 and such. Move up to Travelodge and Springhill Suites and you're looking at about $800 a night. Talk about ripping you off.

josephr25

I have a weightlifting meet that weekend haha.

josephr25

I've had to stay in the middle of nowhere for weekends like Le Mans and Monaco GP just to save money... if there was availability at all

Archimedes

Tickets? I don't recall ever needing tickets for Werks. Is that just to park in the display area?

Archimedes

Car week is the biggest week of the year for the hospitality industry here. You should see how much people get for renting out their house for the week.

halfmonkey

If I go, it would be my first time so it seems that I may have mistakenly implied that tickets are required to attend. Per the website, it states "Porsche owners interested in participating must register in one of two categories:" so I guess if you're just attending as an attendee, you may be able to just walk in but if you plan to "participate" by parking in a corral or being judged, you need to buy a ticket.
I'm seeing those prices now. Ouch! I see you're in the Monterey area. Any particular area you recommend over another for a nice place to stay that's not completely ripping us off? It seems that the whole area of Monterey will be filled with nice cars for the entire week so maybe all places will have inflated prices.

jwalton

I am going this year. I have gone three times over the last ten years. I always stay in Pacific Grove. VRBO or ARBB are you best options. Super convenient to all the different venues but generally a quiet town in the evening. I committed to a place in January. It wasn't cheap even back then but at least it is nice. Good luck.

Archimedes

There won't be anything affordable in Monterey during car week. If you find something cheap, you won't want to stay there. If I absolutely had to do car week, I'd probably stay up in Santa Cruz and drive back and forth, though you will want to do that drive very early in the morning and/or very late in the evening, as the traffic can be brutal on that stretch during the summer. Another option is to stay over in Salinas, but I'm not sure what the rates are there during car week and you have to be super careful where you stay in Salinas, as it is a high crime area.

I don't know if people fully appreciate how big car week actually is. A few years back I was trying to have a Porsche I bought shipped from NY to Monterey around that time with either Reliable or Plycar, can't remember which. They had to delay it because they were booked for car week and had 100 semitrucks already headed from the Northeast to Monterey carrying cars for car week. 100 trucks.

halfmonkey

With the whole week being a car show of sorts, I imagine many people bringing their very prized possessions to the Monterey area. How is parking around the area? Will most or all of the hotels, motels, inns, airbnb, etc have full parking lots of these prized cars?

Do the locals usually stick around for this event or most go out of town because of the crowds?

I found Springhill Suites located 215 10th St, Marina, CA 93933 and Seascape Resorts located fairly close to the Werks Reunion venue. Do you have any opinions on either of these properties?

Archimedes

Lots tend to be pretty full. The last car week two years ago was a bit of a ****show with that group of car club tards that came up from LA and turned downtown Carmel into a sideshow and ran around at all hours with full race exhausts. I imagine the cops will be prepared this time.

Springhill Suites are in a relatively new retail development area. Seems nice, but Marina itself can be a bit sketchy in places. Probably okay to stay there. There's food nearby and a movie theater across the street if you need a break from the car stuff one night.

Seascape is up in Aptos, just south of Santa Cruz, a fair bit north of Monterey. I haven't been there in a long time, but it was a reasonably nice, kinda mid level condo/resort place with a golf course.

Most locals stay for car week, though some leave and rent out their houses. You can make a lot of money for just one week.

Just remember, the farther you stay, the earlier you will need to get up to beat the traffic, as it is brutal on Highway 1 during car week.

halfmonkey

Does anybody know if the Laguna Seca track will open to the public to drive on either Friday or Saturday and if so, how does one get track time/slot? I'm new to Werks Reunion so if there is somewhere that has this answer, please direct me. Thanks.

Nickshu

I went in Feb 2020 and found a VRBO right across the street from the Omni for a great rate. It was a perfect spot location wise.

EDIT: I was at the east coast one on Amelia Island.

Merlotsj

No, track days are definitely not available during car week. There are sanctioned races going on every day of car week. There are usually at least 3 “Werks Reunion” type events going on at various golf courses the same day as Werks, you need to make sure you have the right golf course. If you don’t have a ticket for Werks you can’t park on the golf course, anywhere, there are cars lining both sides of the road for what seems like miles. You will want a picture of your car parked with a few hundred other boxsters/caymans, in a sea of other Porsches all parked in neat rows and grouped by model. I attended my first Werks Reunion when I bought my first Porsche, the original owner of that car told me she attended Werks every year. I bought the car in Portland. I figured I should attend every year since I live in the Bay Area.

About traffic, I live about 1 1/2 hour drive from Laguna Seca, during car week that is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. My daughter lives 5 miles from the track, I imagine that would be about 45 minutes to an hour drive during car week.