![]() ![]() We shared wild mushroom-stuffed ravioli and a chunk of grilled wild salmon, the flesh juicy, the skin as crisp as a cracker. ![]() The showcase restaurant, the four-star Pacific's Edge, was included on USA Today's list of the nation's top 10 restaurants with a view. One evening, the space was packed with exuberant couples showing off the finer points of West Coast swing. Inside the high-ceiling main lodge are the intimate Sunset Lounge (small plates and drinks) and the sprawling wood-and-stone Fireside Lounge, where local bands show up to play on Friday and Saturday nights. We strolled past walls of native stone supporting balconies that look over the ocean on one side and up at the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains on the other. The good news for visitors to the Monterey Peninsula is you needn't be a hotel guest to sample some of the amenities, including the restaurants, and explore the lush grounds, where trails and stone stairways meander through cypress and color-splashed bougainvillea. Part of what that buys are unsurpassed vistas from dining rooms and decks of sunsets and ocean views, stands of coastal cypress and rocky coastline. Hotel rooms go for $350 to $900 a night, and condos range from $500 to $1,500. 1, and its reputation for exclusivity as a "boutique hideaway." An underlying but pervasive sense of privacy and discretion are included in the room rates, which are adjusted seasonally. Weddings aside, the inn's biggest attractions are its prime location, hidden on a hillside above twisting Hwy. During our visit, a jubilant wedding reception for 120 guests briefly brought to mind some of the more amusing scenes from Vince Vaughn's "Wedding Crashers." These days, the hotel hosts about 60 formal ceremonies a year, and their attendant rehearsals, dinners and receptions. " couples young and old came to the romantic retreat to exchange and renew their wedding vows," reads the plaque. A wedding chapel was part of the grounds from the 1950s through the 1980s (when brunch was $5), and the brass bell that hung in its spire is now an attraction in the lobby. One of the hotel's primary draws has long been as a wedding and honeymoon destination. The Highlands Inn has been a special destination for generations of Californians, and for the celebrities-of-the-day who have stayed and played here over the decades - Ansel Adams, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Julia Child, Robert Redford, Steven Tyler and Christina Aguilera among them. ![]() The project is scheduled for completion in early 2016. "We're planning renovations of the hotel rooms, the restaurants and the lobby area, but absolutely we're looking to preserve our rustic coastal feel," Bettcher said. To keep up, the condos were "gently remodeled" two years ago, with grander updates in the works for the hotel, said managing director Mel Bettcher. Still, some of the structures have looked dated for a while. The properties form a nicely landscaped 11-acre oasis that has long resisted the trend among many older hotels to "sanitize" much of their character in the name of modernization. A year ago, it and the adjoining timeshare - 94 condominiums that are rented as available - were purchased together and are run under the Hyatt brand. Frank Devendorf told the Monterey Herald that his inn "combined the rustic qualities of its setting, yet offered travelers all the luxury that the progress of the new century could offer."Īfter various ownerships and expansions, the 48-room hotel became a Hyatt property in 1995. The charmingly retro inn opened in 1917 and rented "cabins in the Monterey pine forest." At the time, owner J. Non-guests are invited to stop by for a look-see, a bite and a bike rental. 1 and up a steep driveway to the Carmel Highlands Inn, which is really two adjoining properties under one umbrella - a Hyatt hotel and a timeshare "residence club." The inn is 4 miles from Carmel-by-the-Sea and a short hike from Point Lobos State National Reserve. ![]() For hours the sky boomed and flashed as a waterfall of rain drenched the rocky shoreline and heavily forested hills of this coastal stretch known as the Gateway to Big Sur.Įarlier that day, a blazing white sun made things unseasonably warm as we turned off California Hwy. A cooling fog rolled in that afternoon, followed by a late-night storm that steamed in off the Pacific. ![]()
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