Grande Colonial La Jolla

It’s been a local fixture since 1913, back when the hotelier who built the place still had to be a little starry-eyed to believe that a grand European-style hotel could survive in a humble seaside hamlet like La Jolla. Today, of course, La Jolla is no longer a humble seaside hamlet, the charms of its beaches well-known, its famous ocean-side golf course (Torrey Pines) a golfer’s fantasy, its art and theater scenes all out of scale, in the right way, with the size of the town. And as La Jolla grew up around it, the hotel matured, too. Over the years it has undergone more renovations than we can count, each one adding another layer of polish, yet never distracting from the elegant, old-fashioned luxury hotel that the Grande Colonial has always been.

French doors, chandeliers, a crackling fire in the gorgeous lobby: this is the stuff the Grande Colonial is made of. The rooms are furnished in similarly classic style, with rich fabrics and a palette of beiges, creams and golds that comes off especially well when bathed in coastal California sunlight. For every nod to tradition, however, there’s a reminder that the hoteliers have been intent on keeping the place up to date. Small details like complimentary wi-fi that works all throughout the property (so you can check email by the pool, if you must), goose-down pillows and comforters, and Keurig coffee machines all make it as comfortable a hotel for a 21st-century business traveler as it would have been for the Hollywood stars who hid out here in years past.

The hotel has also long served as something of a local hangout. In its early days, it housed the town drug store (whose pharmacist, incidentally, was Gregory Peck’s father), where La Jollans gathered to chat and watch the trickle of pedestrian traffic. The old drug store is long gone, but the hotel’s restaurant, NINE-TEN, is one of the town’s best, with a menu of contemporary California fare and a Wine Spectator–recognized cellar.