Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa

Citrus and olive trees line the paths between the casitas, and the morning sound is of tennis balls on the courts below. Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa opened in 1989 on a hillside in Rancho Santa Fe, the horse-country enclave of north San Diego County, and it has kept its scale small: 49 suites in Spanish-style casitas spread across the grounds.

History

The land around Rancho Santa Fe was once the Rancho San Dieguito, a Mexican land grant. In 1906 a land company linked to the Santa Fe railway bought it and planted millions of eucalyptus seedlings, intending to grow timber for railway ties. The wood proved unsuitable, and in the 1920s the company turned the estate into a planned community of large lots, with the architect Lilian Rice designing the village centre in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The eucalyptus groves stayed and still shade the roads. Bing Crosby lived here, and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks kept a ranch nearby.

Rancho Valencia was built in that tradition in 1989, as a small resort on a hillside east of the village. It passed through several owners, and a thorough renovation completed in 2012 rebuilt the spa and the dining rooms and refreshed the casitas, after which the resort joined Relais & Châteaux.

Architecture and design

The casitas, with whitewashed walls and red tile roofs, are grouped along garden paths on the slope, so that the resort reads as a hamlet rather than a hotel. Courtyards, fountains and bougainvillea fill the spaces between them, and the main building, with the restaurant and bar, sits at the centre.

Rooms and suites

Every room is a suite, set in a casita with its own entrance and private patio, and most have fireplaces. Some of the larger suites have private pools or hot tubs, and the furnishings are calm and residential, with pale fabrics and wood.

Dining

Veladora, the main restaurant, serves Californian cooking in a dining room with a terrace over the gardens and courts. The Pony Room, the bar, is the more casual choice, with its own terrace, and the resort serves breakfast and lunch outdoors through most of the year.

Wellness

The spa sits in its own building with treatment rooms, a fitness centre and a yoga programme. Tennis has been central to the resort since its opening, with 18 courts and a coaching staff, and the main pool is surrounded by cabanas.

Weddings and events

The lawns, terraces and garden courtyards host weddings, and the scale of the resort suits celebrations where the guests take over most of the casitas. Meeting rooms serve small company retreats.

Location

Rancho Valencia stands on the edge of Rancho Santa Fe, about 40 kilometres north of downtown San Diego. The village of Rancho Santa Fe, with Lilian Rice's buildings, the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe and a handful of shops and restaurants, is a few minutes away by car, and the covenant that governs the community still restricts building and keeps the lots large. The beaches of Del Mar and Solana Beach lie about 15 minutes west by car, and the Del Mar racetrack is close by. As a luxury resort in Rancho Santa Fe, it shares the community's horse farms, orchards and eucalyptus groves. San Diego International Airport is about 35 minutes away, and the nearest train station is Solana Beach.