Monterey has a nice romantic atmosphere, salinas ive only been there a few times a small farming town with your local badass's running around them streets, San jose has all the party elements one can come up with especially in the downtown area, bars clubs cruises Shark tank where they hold the bigger concerts plus you got the whole entire bay area to stem off of. Im sure others will respond with great info. Hit up Club Miami in san jo if you like salsa music and wanna have a great time =)