Inn’s visited in California this summer

Temecula

Good and bad with our stays at Inn’s in the 5 different wine areas should be an easy task, but before I start on this one I have to state that this is a personal evaluation and view to our experience and other could have a complete different view and other experiences.

An important start for our tour was the book California WINE Country by Peter Fish and Sara Schneider. It covers more areas than we visited and maybe at another time we will visit them as well, but based on the limited time we had we chose 5 areas and 3 days at each area.

We laid out our trip from south to north. I had noted before that there is an up and coming wine area south of LA and it would be a good first stop.

I will be back with what we remember of wine tasting and visit to the wineries, so for now it will be the Inn’s and only the Inn’s that will be commented.

Our first stop in Temecula was guided by our wish to stay at smaller cozy B&B’s that hopefully had a special atmosphere. Not always easy to say based recommendations in books or based on web sites, but the first choice was done on what we did find in the book.

Loma Vista a 10 room or less place run by a couple and to us war far more tempting than the 120 rooms + indicated on the South Coast Winery and all the pampering that place could give.

From we booked to we arrived the place had changed owners. I was a bit concerned when I noticed it, but at the arrival and after our stay the concern was all gone and just look forward to our next stay.

Looking back and compare what we was looking for to the places we wanted to stay on this tour, this was the place that gave us the home atmosphere. In addition the way that Nicole and Dean treated us was more than what you could expect.

The treat Chef Dean had in the morning either it was berries or fruit from their own garden or it was to 5 star hotel presentation of the breakfast, yes we felt these first day of our vacation that we was at a 5 star hotel.

After handing over a B&B to new owners there are always issues and rooms for improvement on the facility, but at this place it was more in the outdoor area that needed a touch up and had been left in limbo by the previous owners. Smaller issues that Nicole and Dean as well the owner Europe Village knew about and are in process of doing something with prior the autumn is over.

Location is great with walking distance to at least 4 wineries. I guess max what is recommended for one day tasting.

It is also a short drive from Old Temecula; worth visit as it have a great picturesque layout and houses with antique shops and other shops that gives you a great stay for the time being there.

Location between LA and San Diego is also to consider for those who would like to visit a larger area of southern California.

I think there were so many positive things with Loma Vista that it was difficult for us to see any negative once. Only can say we loved it there and again, I am sure we will be back for a longer stay.

Santa Barbara

We chose to stay in Solvang when we headed to Santa Barbara wine area. Most of all due to it have this Danish look and for us to feel home and in addition it was a great place to visit some of the local wineries in the area. Wine tasting was the reason for our trip so we needed to find good location.

I had first found Meadowlark Inn, but wanted to stay in the “city” of Solvang and as Meadowlark Inn also had a sister Inn in Solvang we booked there. Noted was also a recommended restaurant at this Inn so we were excited prior to visiting.

Personality is important to us at these Inn’s / B&B’s, and Mirabelle Inn did have the personality we was looking for. Mirabelle have few rooms to handle for the owners, a great breakfast and dining room that express the personality of the place in addition to close location to the central parts of Solvang.

Mirabelle had a typical American B&B breakfast, dinner we had was very tasty, and in addition the Inn gave us as we requested was a wine tour to four wineries so I could avoid the driving.

With Brigitte as guide and who had lived in the area for many years she gave us an excellent trip along for unexpected places to visits I am sure we would not have visited.

We had a great stay and must say based on that we had listen to the outdoor theater for two nights we got to see Hairspray so there are alternatives to do in the evening too in Solvang.

Visiting for the wine, we are finished with Santa Barbara, but if we need to stop in the area, we would choose Mirabelle Inn again.

San Luis Obispo/Pablo Robles

To stop at San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles was recommended to us and I must say we did no mistake on that.

San Luis Obispo was the best choice to stay and we were again lucky to find a cozy Inn with personality.

Not only the Garden Street Inn, but also the whole city had its personality with a lot of young people due to education possibilities. It is a place in between the wine areas with Edna Valley and the beach. Bikes are possible to be rented and you will reach both areas with a bike.

Again the breakfast was served as an all American breakfast. Nice easy served, nothing fancy, but what you expect. The room as they have been both at Loma Vista and Mirabelle had its personality; we had Edelweiss, and enjoyed it as we would have with any other of the rooms.

Reasonable prices with $159 USD in the week and $189 in the weekend and with is location very central it was a place to be back to. I feel we will be back as this area had the best wineries we had on this trip and would love to visit some of the wineries again and another bike ride hopefully with no flat tires.

Please note that parking is located at the closest parking house. We had no problems with it, but others may have.

Sonoma

Time was up for the great wine area of Sonoma and Napa. We regretted that we had not booked all nights at one place thinking about how close the two valleys are, in another way we was not, we managed to get the best and the worst of both.

Once again we had been lucky with our pick using Google Earth. Looking up on Google Earth you are heading, looking for the bed on the map and evaluate their web pages and locations it is up to you to pick and chose.

This was the way I did it with Cinnamon Bear Creakside Inn. I have seen on this trip that many of the Inn’s has personality, but I am sure it is depending on the Innkeeper. Cinnamon have two lovely ladies running the place and give so much of them self for this place. Only place we visited however that gave us a set time for breakfast. 9am not earlier, not later. This is understandable wanting to give the guests the best breakfast and waste no unnecessarily time in the kitchen, but spend time treat the gusts.

I am sure the girls have the challenge with the owner and the owner should have a look at the possibility to upgrade some of the area around the Inn. Room for improvement in the garden, not cozy at all, but have great potential.

Cinnamon is close to the road and it is Hwy 12 passing indicating a bit traffic, but other than that it is not a long walk into the nice city of Sonoma. We enjoyed the city and would love to be back to it with another surprise it have some good restaurants, something to look for when you stay at a local Inn.

The bathroom was just fantastic at Cinnamon, yes large and had a big (could cover 4 people I am sure) bath tub with Jacuzzi. Just a shame we did not have time to use that properly.

The layout for the breakfast room also was great, it gives you the possibility to join with other guests and get to meet new people. At this place we met Jean and Tom Kesey, living just a couple of hours away and had their own smaller wine yard. We were lucky, they had a bottle to spare in the car, and we look forward to a special event to enjoy that. If we are even luckier we can make them a visit and learn more about wine making by smaller co-operations.

So result is that if we are to stay in Sonoma on our next visit we hope that it is the same innkeeper and we would join them for breakfast at 9am.

Napa

Our big disappointment was Napa and Old World Inn. Most of it because of it lack of personality. The Inn lost the personality based on two major issues; it had a main house with breakfast in a dark cellar that was ok for wine tasting , but not for a cozy breakfast, and it had 2-4 smaller houses around with 2-4 rooms in each house. Covering a total of 21 rooms was too much for being the “small” cozy Inn we hoped it to be. Maybe I should have been reading better on the web page and looked more around and learned more about Napa and what it had to offer.

Napa Valley have so much more to offer so make sure to look around and look more into the other places in the Valley and not necessarily in Napa itself. The “town” did not have anything to offer as we could see at least compared to the smaller places along the Valley.

The room was ok or it was more than ok, it was good no complaint to them. We stayed in one of the additional houses and they have potential. No good outdoor area to sit down in the afternoon or evening, even they have sitting areas they should be better looked after so it would be possible to sit there.

What they had was good space for parking and with 21 rooms they need it. It was the most expensive stay on our trip; $229 USD during the week and $269 USD in the weekend. Napa or not value for money was not there and I am sure we was paying for future upgrades, at least I hope they do and will spend the money wise on the upgrades “if they comes”.

So no it will not be a choice for us next time we visit the area to learn more about the enormous amount of wine made in the valley.