The 10 Most Beautiful Hotels in California

Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa

The idyllic Rancho Santa Fe, a community about 25 minutes north of San Diego and one of the wealthiest in Southern California, is known for its rolling hills, citrus groves and quiet, palm-lined streets. It’s also home to Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa. An all-suite retreat with bungalows in a Spanish-colonial style and finished with hand-painted tiles, the resort spans 45 acres of hills dotted with olive and citrus trees, with sweeping views of the distant canyon framing the horizon.

Guests enjoy private patios and adobe fireplaces, swim beneath swaying palms at the pool and relax in private spaces while hot-air balloons drift overhead. And despite the resort’s dreamy grounds, it’s the Pony Room that draws the biggest crowd — locals and visitors gather on candlelit terraces for tequila or mezcal cocktails at sunset.

The Madrona

Built in 1881 as a private residence, the eight acres of former farmland — now interspersed with citrus groves and verdant gardens — that host the Madrona are a sight themselves. But it’s the inspired interior design of the romantic Victorian mansion that gives this small 24-room hotel in Sonoma County its reputation as one of California’s most beautiful.

Now one of Sonoma’s most coveted social hubs, the 1800s-era mansion and its surrounding bungalows have been outfitted with antique furnishings and contemporary interpretations of the Aesthetic Movement — a 19th-century movement that held that art should exist for art’s sake – by star designer Jay Jeffers. Patterned fabrics and animal-motif paintings stand alongside whimsical bunny-ear chairs and elephant lamps, complementing high-beamed ceilings and bay windows overlook the charming grounds.

Terranea Resort

Rancho Palos Verdes — a seaside community just south of Los Angeles — is known as one of the most gorgeous stretches of coastline in all California, where nature reserves cover cliffside bluffs and visitors arrive for some of the best land-based whale-watching in the world.

Nestled just back from rugged cliffs on a peninsula surrounded by open ocean on three sides, Terranea Resort unfolds like a Mediterranean village. Its 582 accommodations — including villas, casitas and bungalows — feature terracotta roofs, Riviera-style stucco walls, ornate archways and such architectural elements as wrought iron balconies and staircases.

The resort’s peninsula setting means sunset and sunrise views from different vantages, whether from your private balcony or from Nelson’s, the laid-back hotel restaurant where locals and guests gather for laidback drinks and the occasional dolphin sighting.

Rosewood Miramar Beach

There's a reason the stretch of coastline home to Santa Barbara and its neighboring towns is often called the “American Riviera.” A temperate climate, Spanish-style courtyards lined by walkable streets and a luxurious yet laid-back energy all combine to make this picturesque area — about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles — a year-round draw for those lucky enough to carve out a long weekend or more.

In a tiny, unincorporated community called Montecito, the Rosewood Miramar is among the most special places to do just that. Set on 16 acres of pristine gardens and sprawling lawns, the resort feels like your very own private California estate, with an elegant main house surrounded by rows of white roses, a cabana-lined pool, and 160 guestrooms and suites splashed in colors of soft periwinkle and crisp white.

Post Ranch Inn

The hotel itself has gone to great lengths to incorporate eco-conscious policies in this beloved and protected part of California, and the results show in the fantastically designed accommodations. Some are stilted treehouses, others are built directly into the land with roofs covered in native grasses. At the Sierra Mar restaurant, floor-to-ceiling glass windows provide unobstructed views of the Pacific coastline.

Big Sur may be the most enigmatic of California’s many famous places, and Post Ranch Inn commands perhaps its most spectacular panoramas. Just off California's legendary Highway 1, it is one of only two hotels in The Guide within the widely accepted but unofficial boundaries of Big Sur, which has always been more of a mythologized natural area in Central California than a legally defined place. The 100-acre property has all the Big Sur trademarks: giant redwood trees, ocean views and sweeping natural landscapes, with grounds peppered with bright wildflowers.

The Maybourne Beverly Hills

Having done so much to define beauty worldwide, it's only fitting that a Los Angeles hotel should sneak its way onto this list — and that it should be a hotel from one of the county’s most desirable ZIP codes, tucked into a cul-de-sac in Beverly Hills. The Maybourne may not have the sea views of the other selections here, but as the high-end design hotel that draws the city’s It kids and movie execs, it deserves consideration. Here, the high and mighty convene at the rooftop Dante Beverly Hills in plush navy booths and a ceiling decked out in flora and fauna.

But the real jewel is the Terrace restaurant during golden hour, where well-heeled guests look out over the lush Beverly Canon Gardens, with olive trees set amidst formal gardens and cobblestone pathways. The city’s most prestigious local artists fill the rest of the hotel spaces, from Pop Art pieces by Ed Ruscha to colorful, cubist-inspired works by Jessalyn Brooks.

Ojai Valley Inn & Spa

Once coined "Shangri La," the tranquil Ojai Valley — a reasonable 90-minute drive north of Los Angeles — has long been the place of spiritual retreat for burned-out Angelenos and other seekers. Associated with every New Age pursuit from meditation to mysticism, the mountain-encircled valley is known for its natural beauty and the way the sun fills it just before sunset — a phenomenon known locally as the “Pink Moment.” It’s an obvious entry for this list, and the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa is the obvious choice.

Set on 220 acres of blooming lemon trees and centuries-old oaks, the resort offers more than 300 Mediterranean-inspired rooms with stucco fireplaces, hand-crafted Spanish tile and balconies or patios with panoramic mountain views. Regulars know the Wallace Neff Heritage Bar as perhaps the most famous room in Ojai, where visitors gather for a taste of Old World California over contemporary cocktails.

The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay

Of all the stops on a Highway 1 road trip, few match the staggering level of luxury and aesthetic satisfaction offered by the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay. Just under an hour from San Francisco, the hotel is tucked along a quiet stretch of coast between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, where waves crash against raised bluffs.

The 261-room resort sits above a quiet coastline, where shingle-style architecture evokes the elegant feel of an East Coast retreat, with nautical-themed interiors of subtle grays and blues. But it’s the property itself — rivaling the majestic beauty of the Scottish Highlands and offfering some of the Pacific vistas anywhere — that so stands out.

On the topic of Scotland and views, golf enthusiasts travel far and wide to indulge in a tee or two here, and one onsite course boasts coastline views from every hole.

Montage Laguna Beach

Set between Los Angeles and San Diego, Laguna Beach is a small coastal oasis known in the early 20th century for its arts scene, later for a thriving hippie culture in the ‘60s, and then — perhaps best forgotten — an early aughts reality show. But without a doubt, every era of the town has been inspired by its glistening coastline.

At Montage Laguna Beach, the area’s most upscale accommodation is a 250-room sanctuary where sweeping panoramas extend beyond the rocky bluff to the Pacific Ocean, best enjoyed from private patios. Every one of the chic, modern rooms offers a deep-soaking marble bathtub and museum-quality art. Guests venture on foot to nearby beach coves or to the resort’s ultimate showpiece: an oceanfront pool with mosaic tiles that shimmer under the California sun.

The Sea Ranch Lodge

About 100 miles north of San Francisco, the Sea Ranch Lodge is perhaps the most interesting hotel on this list — a striking seaside hotel with roots in a ‘60s community of architecturally minded idealists who sought to accentuate and feature the natural through the use of organic forms and extremely minimal disruption of the dramatic shoreline setting.

The recently refurbished Sea Ranch Lodge building — originally used as a post office and land sales office for the surrounding community — is among the oldest structures on the property. Today, guests sit in Adirondack chairs and listen to the sound of crashing waves, staying in either the original main lodge or in standalone cottages that let the captivating panoramas speak for themselves.

Hero Image: Rosewood Miramar Beach & Spa