Last summer, I stayed at the wonderful Alila Ventana Big Sur resort. You can read my own review of the Ventana Big Sur here.
More reviews are always better, though, right? And our MilesTalk Facebook group moderator Tim Ritsema just stayed there, so let’s see what’s changed! For one thing, the BBQ wasn’t opened when I stayed there. It is now. What did Tim think? Let’s see!
One again, the review below is written by Tim Ritsema.
In this article
Booking the Hotel
In late 2018, Hyatt announced they would acquire Two Roads Hospitality, an international lifestyle hotel management company with a collection of luxury hotels. Of these, the most exciting additions were Alila properties joining World of Hyatt. As a brand, I consider Alila to be on par with Park Hyatt in terms of luxury and service though it’s a bit more nature oriented, as in the case of Ventana Big Sur. In 2020, the property became all-inclusive, even on points stay without charging more points, so it jumped to the top of most points enthusiasts redemption bucket list properties.
When I booked, Ventana Big Sur was considered a Category 7 World of Hyatt property. With the implementation of Peak/Off-Peak calendar at the end of 2021, standard night awards are 30K world of Hyatt points per night flexing up to 35K for peak nights and down to 25K for off-peak nights. I had booked the property earlier in the fall before the implementation of the peak/off-peak nights at 30K. I happened to stumble across 3 night availability for March 2022 close to our anniversary date. When the peak/off-peak calendar was introduced later my the dates I happened to have chosen were off-peak dates. Instead of 90K total WOH points, my total points redeemed ended up being 75K. Score! Hyatt made an automatic adjustment to my booking for the lower rate a couple weeks after the implementation of the new rules.
(Editor’s Note: Ventana Big Sur is now a Category 8 property with award rates now flexing from 35,000 – 45,000 points per night for a standard room).
For comparison, cash rates at the time was just under $2,500/night for the same room type. I ended up getting close to a 10 cent per point redemption.
I had applied for the Hyatt Business credit card with a 75,000 point sign-up bonus when it first came out, which conveniently covered the cost of redemption for this stay.
Ventana Big Sur Location
Located on the California cost in Big Sur, the Ventana Big Sur is located along the iconic Pacific Coast Highway. It is about a 45 minute drive from the nearest regional airport in Monterrey and 1.5-2.5 hours from Bay area airports such as SJC, SFO and OAK. We took UA flights from SEA to SFO for our stay to take advantage of UA Excursionist perk for upcoming travel as well as UA travel bank credit from Amex credits. We took our time driving from SFO to the hotel to enjoy views of some of the most famous coastline in the world.
Ventana Big Sur Room
Ventana Big Sur has a total of about 60 rooms spread out across about a dozen buildings. We were assigned to room 32 in the Ridge House on the second floor. Although we were not upgraded to a suite, we did appreciate that our standard room included a fireplace (not all rooms have a fireplace). I loved the rustic feel of the room with wood accents. It can be difficult to make a property feel luxurious and rustic at the same time but Ventana nailed it perfectly in my opinion. The Ventana Fireplace Guest room featured a king bed, wood burning fireplace, window seat, a private deck overlooking the redwoods, mini-bar and Nespresso machine.
The bathroom featured a soaking tub, with a walk-in shower with the toilet separated by a door. The soaking tub opened up to the main room which could also be closed off. The closet had plush bathrobes that could be used around the resort. Wifi in the room and throughout the property was fast and free though phone signal was otherwise fairly limited.
Dining
As mentioned in the introduction, Ventana Big Sur became all-inclusive in 2020. With the all-inclusive rates, virtually all your food and non-alcoholic drinks are included with your stay:
- Breakfast at Sur House or via in-room dining (7AM-11AM)
- Lunch Poolside or in-room dining (11AM-5PM)
- Dinner at Sur House or in-room dining (5PM-9PM)
- Lunch or Dinner at the Big Sur smokehouse (Noon-7:30PM)
On top of that, there are all kinds of snacking options, complimentary in-room snacks, nightly s’mores experience and a late night snack menu. Note that when you book a stay, meals are included with dinner on the day you check-in until lunch on the date of departure. Previous reviews have stated that lunch was not included on the date of departure but it was certainly included our stay. Although check-out time was 11am, we were told we could linger and hang out at the property public spaces as long as we wished through the afternoon.
According to Alila Ventana’s website, a “daily gratuity” is included with the rate you pay. This comes in the form of a service charge that’s a percent of the room rate. While there’s no service charge when redeeming points, in theory the hotel is supposed to take care of this in the same way as for those redeeming points as others.
We ended up having all our breakfast and dinner meals at the Sur House. It is a 0.3 mile walk/hike through the property or you can call and request a golf cart to be transported. Both my wife and I like to get our steps in so we chose to walk back and forth each time. Dinner required reservations and included an appetizer, entrée and dessert. The tables at the front have particularly good views of the Pacific Ocean and sunset. At night during dinner, it definitely became cold a couple of nights with the marine fog and wind moving in even with the heated lamps turned on. We ended up deciding to eat dinner indoors one night due to the cold temperature. Although the menu was rather limited, it provided enough options over the course of 3 days to try about everything. We opted for cocktails with dinner each night. Do note that there is significant upcharge for drinks (cocktails ranged from $23+ each). I did leave a tip on drinks ordered as well. Given there were no charges otherwise on our stay, having drinks was a small splurge.
For lunch our first day we were relaxing in the main pool area and ordered food poolside. The food arrived relatively quickly by delivery from the Sur House (where the kitchen is and all food is prepared). The other two days, we opted to have lunch at the Smokehouse which is included for Ventana guests. The restaurant is located at the entrance off the highway so we opted for a ride the first day. The second day we were on the way out and drove there. The BBQ was good and the portions were very generous. Overall, the food was a definite highlight of the stay.
Ventana Hotel Grounds and Activities
Ventana Big Sur is spread out over 243 acres, so the property is huge. There are two pools, both open daily from 7AM until 10PM. The hotel’s main pool is the Meadow Pool, located next to the Social House. In the same area, there is an infinity hot tub which overlooks the redwood forest. The hotel’s second pool is called the Mountain Pool on the other side of the property. It doesn’t have quite as scenic views and was quieter most of the time. Unlike the Meadow Pool, there was no server to take lunch orders should one decide to relax at that location instead.
Next to the Meadow pool, they have a Japanese hot bath area. The Japanese baths are divided into three areas – a male side, female side and mixed area in the middle. We enjoyed relaxing one of the evenings here gazing at the stars above and found the bath quite therapeutic.
The property has an exercise room that includes all the basics including a couple Peloton bikes and was available 24 hours a day.
The hotel also has a spa, although we opted out of any treatments.
Included in the all-inclusive rates are various complementary activities hosted by the property. See the photo for daily March activities during our stay.
On our first full day at the resort, we joined the Redwood hike in the morning and the Coast Ridge hike in the afternoon. Our guide was the same for both morning and afternoon hikes. We enjoyed our interaction and conversation with him and there were a couple other couples that joined both hikes although we were the only ones that did both the same day. Both hikes also explained some of the flora and fauna in the region. On the second day, we joined the beekeeping activity.
We wanted to join the falconry experience but unfortunately it was not available the days we were there. In addition to the complementary activities, you could pay extra for some curated events such as axe throwing, renting a classic car to drive along the PCH, and a whale watching excursion.
Final Thoughts
Even though the property moved up to a higher category in spring of 2022, the value here can’t be beat. 3 days was the perfect amount of time to enjoy the various activities the property has to offer while taking a step back from day-to-day life and relaxing. Although the property was at full capacity during out stay, we never felt crowded and has a sense of privacy and serenity. Service at Ventana was generally excellent across the board.
At the end of my stay, I paid for excess charges with the WOH business card. The card comes with two $50 annual credits for Hyatt stays which was properly reflected on my card statement. In addition, WOH had a promo during the stay to earn 2,022 Hyatt points (this is even for award stays). It was a nice small benefit to recoup some of the points cost.
Even at Category 8, I wouldn’t hesitate to come back here for another visit.
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