Your family can rent Surreys near the Monterey aquarium. They’re so cute
carmel highlands inn is about 30 min south of Monterey. If you want to do Monterey / pacific grove stuff, then you’re definitely better off at the Monterey Hyatt. There’s also the monarch butterfly sanctuary
monterey has great easy family dining.
I love highlands inn because I do a lot of nothing here, which is very hard to do at home (and I have a lot of leisure time). I rarely go to Monterey unless we want to eat at CPK(!) because the CPK in sf is a pain for us.