Carmel-by-the-Sea was incorporated in 1916 and became an outpost for artists , writers, and teachers. Many of them made their home here. Carmel maintains a residential character with cottages, trees and winding streets next to white sand beaches. The cold water coast is lined with twisted cypresses. Carmel is the last village on the north edge of the Big Sur Coast and is a little over a hundred miles south of San Francisco.