Ventana Big Sur

Highway 1 follows the cliffs south from Carmel for about 45 minutes before it reaches the stretch of Big Sur where Ventana stands, on a ridge of meadow and oak above the road, with the Pacific laid out below. The Post Ranch Inn faces it across the highway; Nepenthe is a little further south. Ventana Big Sur has occupied its hillside since 1975, and its name, Spanish for window, describes what the place was built around.

History

Ventana Inn opened in 1975, founded by Larry Spector, and over the following decades it became one of the established places to stay on the coast, with a restaurant that drew people up the hill for lunch on the terrace. In 2016 the Soberanes Fire burned through the hills around Big Sur. In February 2017 winter storms damaged the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge on Highway 1 so badly that it had to be demolished and rebuilt, cutting the area off from the north for months. The inn spent that period closed for a long renovation and reopened later in 2017 as Ventana Big Sur, the first resort in the United States to carry the Alila name. The brand passed to Hyatt in 2018. The reopening also turned the old campground in the canyon below into a glamping site.

Architecture and design

The buildings are low and clad in weathered wood, scattered across the meadow so that none dominates the ridge, in the manner of the 1970s California coast. The renovation kept that scale and replaced the interiors with a quieter palette of wood, stone and natural fabrics. Many rooms have fireplaces and private decks, and some have outdoor tubs facing the ocean or the mountains. The glamping tents stand on raised platforms among the redwoods in the canyon, with a shared bathhouse and fire pits.

Rooms and suites

The inn takes adults only. Rooms divide between ocean views and mountain or canyon views, and the larger suites add sitting rooms and terraces. Rates that include meals and a programme of activities are offered, which makes practical sense in a place with few restaurants within reach.

Dining

The Sur House is the restaurant, with a terrace that looks down the coast and a menu built on Central Coast produce and seafood. The wine list leans towards California. Breakfast on the terrace, with morning fog often filling the valleys below and the ridges standing clear above it, is one of the pleasures of staying here rather than visiting for the day.

Wellness

Spa Alila offers treatments indoors and on outdoor decks. There are two pools and Japanese-style baths, which have been part of the inn for decades, and the trails of the surrounding hills begin close to the property. The hotel runs guided hikes and outdoor classes such as yoga, and the Ventana Wilderness, which shares the inn's name, rises inland behind it.

Weddings and events

Weddings are held on the meadows and terraces above the ocean, and the inn takes small corporate retreats as well. Because the property is for adults and has a limited number of rooms, gatherings here are small rather than large, and many couples combine the ceremony with a few days on the coast for their guests.

Location

Big Sur has no town in the usual sense, only a scatter of inns, a post office and a few shops strung along the highway. Pfeiffer Beach, with its arched rock and purple-tinged sand, lies close by down a narrow road off the highway. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, where McWay Falls drops onto a beach, is about ten miles south, and the Henry Miller Memorial Library is near Nepenthe. Monterey Regional Airport is about an hour's drive north; San Francisco and San Jose are around three hours away. Landslides close Highway 1 south of Big Sur from time to time, so the approach from the north is the reliable one. Coastal planning rules hold down the number of rooms on this coast, so a luxury hotel in Big Sur fills early in summer and at weekends, and Ventana is no exception.