GOING COASTAL: CALIFORNIA’S CELEBRATED COASTLINE

BY: JANET STEINBERG

From castles to cable cars, big surf to Big Sur, the California Coastline is one of the world’s most celebrated coastlines, and the liberating drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco is one of the most spectacular drives in the world.

Starting our trip in the Greater Los Angeles area we chose the beach community of Santa Monica for our first home base.

And what better home could one ask for than the Casa del Mar? The Hotel Casa Del Mar, prominently positioned on the sun-drenched beach of Santa Monica, is one of the few luxury hotels in Greater Los Angeles that is nestled right in the sand!

If the walls of this grand hotel could talk, it would tell tales of the goings on, when it was the most glamorous beach club in Southern California from 1926 to 1941. Subsequently, the US Navy claimed the building for enlisted men in WWII and, from the late 1970s until 1997, Nathan Pritikin (the weight-loss guru) turned it into his renowned Pritikin Center.
 

HOTEL CASA DEL MAR

  

Reopened as Hotel Casa Del Mar in 1999, this elegant and sophisticated European-style lodging experience is reminiscent of Southern California’s eclectic seaside resorts of the early 1900s.

Hotel Casa Del Mar is only a short walk from the historic Santa Monica Pier.   With its 1922 carousel, five-story roller coaster, and giant Pacific Wheel, the Pier is an instantly recognizable symbol of Southern California.  This fun playground and dining venue is also home to the UCLA Ocean Discovery Center and a premier spot for watching the sunset.
 

HISTORIC SANTA MONICA PIER

 

Montana Avenue, a favorite haunt of Hollywood glitterati with names like Spielberg, Hanks, and Beatty, has been compared to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.  It is said that while the movie stars dress up to browse on Rodeo Drive, they dress down to shop on Montana Avenue.

Two blocks off the beach, Main Street is a 12-block long shopper’s paradise that combines beach casualness with an eclectic collection of shops. Here, too, you will find the California Heritage Museum and renowned architect Frank Gehry’s Edgemar Mall, a shopping center comprised of a variety of shapes and materials.

Driving north for a couple of hours we arrived at our next stop…Santa Barbara.
With its lush, year-round Mediterranean climate, 100 miles of sweeping prime Pacific coastline, an annual average of 300+ days of sunshine and fresh ocean breezes, burgeoning wine country, and Santa Ynez Mountains, Santa Barbara is one of America’s best-kept secrets.

THE CAPILLA (CHAPEL) AT MISSION SANTA BARBARA

 Its unique east-west coastline (the longest such section of coastline on the West Coast of the United States) provides soothing year-round southern exposure and perfect temperatures ranging from 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year. 

 Since the 1930s and 40s, when the Duponts and Rockefellers arrived via private rail car, word spread that Santa Barbara was an untapped Shangri-La.  From the sparkling sea to the Santa Ynez Mountains, this city of about 95,000 quickly evolved into a haunt for the rich and famous.

Like the French and Italian Rivieras, seductive Santa Barbara exudes romance. Given its isolated location, 92 miles north of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara quickly became an ideal escape for celebrities seeking to slip out of the spotlight.

Celebrities who have tied at least one of their marital knots, or honeymooned, in the Greater Santa Barbara area include: JFK and Jackie O, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Julia Roberts, Debra Messing, Gwenyth Paltrow, Mira Sorvino, Jim Carrey, Will Farrell, Heather Locklear, Halle Berry, Courtney Cox and David Arquette.

Continuing our drive northward, before heading up to Big Sur. we stopped in San Simeon to visit the Mediterranean Revival-style Hearst Castle.   An invitation to “join Mr. Hearst at the ranch at San Simeon” was the most desirable invitation one could receive in the 1920s and 1930s.  Hollywood stars, politicians, and everyone who was anyone, would come to romp away the weekends with William Randolph Hearst and his live-in mistress movie star Marion Davies.  This opulent castle, with its 165 rooms, gold-inlayed indoor pool, and spectacular outdoor Neptune Pool, is one of the world’s greatest showplaces.

 HEARST CASTLE

Continuing on Northward along California's Big Sur coast, where mountains plunge dramatically into the Pacific, we discovered one of the most dramatic meetings of land and sea in the world.  (The coastal drive northward is less of a cliffhanger than the same trip southbound).  For our luxurious hideaway in this relatively undeveloped and pristine area we chose Ventana Inn & Spa.

LAND MEETS SEA IN BIG SUR

  Situated on 243 acres of meadows and gently sloping wooded hillsides, 1,200 feet above the Pacific Ocean on the Big Sur coast, secluded Ventana provides a peaceful and soothing atmosphere enhanced by its proximity to the area's natural wonders.

 
Ventana's weathered cedar accommodations, scattered in a mountain meadow among landscaped gardens, offer rustic sophistication and romantic allure along with decks or patios with forest, canyon, mountain or distant ocean views. Some decks have personal outdoor spas or hammocks. Most rooms have a wood-burning fireplace, separate living area, a spacious bath with open enclosure slate/tub/shower, dressing area and custom bath amenities.

After a week of resorting, it was time for this city gal to get a taste of urbanity.
And, what better way could there be to end a spectacular coastal journey, than in the dazzling city of San Francisco?   The legendary "City by the Bay is one of the most romantic cities in the world. 

TONY BENNETT LEFT HIS OWN HEART (SCULPTURE HE PAINTED) IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Little wonder that I left my heart there!
 

JANET STElNBERG is the winner of 38 national Travel Writer Awards and an lnternational Travel Consultant with The Travel Authority in Mariemont, Ohio.