If, like me, you find facing long anonymous corridors depressing, no matter how deluxe the carpeting and fixtures are, you may want to start thinking "out of the big-box" and give some smaller inns a try.
In Southern California, Unique Inns has gathered together a trio of retreats separated by an easy drive or, in the case of Catalina, an quick ferry ride. While the term "bed and breakfast" usually conjures up the image of a charming renovated classic dwelling, many bed-and-breakfast inns are just that - small, fully equipped hotels offering upscale amenities and passionate innkeepers who are eager to please and who usually take pride in every last detail.
I talked with Paul Blank, one of the owners and the primary innkeeper at Casa Laguna in Laguna Beach, California, who told me just how far he was willing to go to make sure the sightlines froman inn-room jacuzzi allowed a view of the ocean. "I had my elderly mother sit in the tub. She's not very tall, and we knew if she still could see the ocean, we were good."
The result of Mom's dry run? "We ended up putting the jacuzzi tub up on a slightly higher platform ... just to make sure."
The rooms at Casa Laguna range from basic but very pleasant courtyard rooms up to a private cottage. The "Innkeeper's Pride" is The Cottage, a separate 600-square-foot building with views of the ocean, the pool area, including the tower once proclaimed "The Best Place to Kiss" in Southern Californai, and the palmy courtyard below. I stayed in one of the ocean view rooms in the remade artist studios.
Prices start at about$160 per night for a double roomat Casa Laguna. Thinking that's just a so-so deal in these economic times? Let's skip the fresh-baked cookies waiting in the room, along with the fresh fruit and chilled water. (For one thing, Emory,the local Inn dog, no fool he, may follow you on your first visit to the room and talk you out of one or more of those cookies.)
Casa Laguna has recently remodeled one areato provide spa services, including dual massage for couples. I enjoyed the single version of that at the hands of Pavla, a massage therapist from Czechoslovakia. An hour later I slithered back to my room, feeling so de-stressed that I felt as if I no longer had any bones in my body. I nearly skipped the wine and cheese social hour in favor of a nap, but duty called and I managed to reanimate myself enough to go back downstairs.
I was glad I did. For cheese and wine they offered a choice of several excellent California vintages, poured freely and accompanied by a classic pate, imported cheeses, spiced olives, and chilled vegetables. But the best part of the wine and cheese hour was not on the table - the Craftsman-style living room was filled with a dozen other guests, and the atmosphere began to feel like a fin de siecle salon filled with fascinating people enjoying a evening with long-met friends. One couple was celebrating twenty-one years of annual visitsto Casa Laguna; anothercouplewasannouncing their engagement, which had just occurred a few feet away in the courtyard when the young man suddenly dropped to his knees on the terracotta tiles.
The following morning brought its own pleasures. Whatever you do, you won't want to miss breakfast here. Chef Cale Falk's tiny kitchen is a two-time winner of the "Inn-credible Breakfast Cook-off", a competition for bed-and-breakfast inns, and it's easy to understand why. The included breakfast included an array of choices - I fell for the full-size filet mignon and eggs, accompanied by an amazing potato confit topped with microgreens and wild mushrooms. A companion at the same table worked his way through several major menu choices which elsewhere might have been charged separately, but here it was just part of making sure guests were well fed for the day to come. And in Laguna Beach, those days can be demanding - walking on the beach, swimming, sunbathing, shopping in the boutiques and art galleries or, in the summer, attending the summertime art festivals and Pageant of the Masters.
Coming Next:
The Avalon Hotel
The B&B Inn at La Jolla
I was hosted by Unique Inns as part of a press trip in February, 2009.
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