italdesign

That place was always full of parked cars every time I passed by last month. Back then indoor dining was permitted in the county. Seems like a busy place (good sign). Will have to try it one day.

boolean64

I've not stayed at the HR and am staying later this month at Ventana. Have stayed at the highlands inn and carmel valley ranch. The clear benefits of highlands inn are a) the views and b) the space if youre upgraded to a townhouse. I didn't think the rest of the hotel was great...the hard product felt dated , including both the rooms and the pool situation (athough it has probably been five years since i stayed there...maybe they've done a reno but i doubt it). Breakfast on the outdoor patio was lovely but food was nothing special. And as others have mentioned, it is not close to anything. Bottom line is I think it lives almost entirely off the views to justify the price point in terms of dollars and points. If you highly value the view then absolutely worth it. If you value other things, my guess is you'd be disappointed.

Carmel Valley Ranch has its own plusses and minuses. I think slightly nicer rooms and the property has more going on (better pool, perhaps better restaurant...well at least for now the restaurant is open which makes it by definition better, and close to downtown carmel valley with a couple good restaurants (Roux in town and the restaurant at the Bernardus Lodge...make sure to make reservations for dinner). But no views, large property, lots of kids at times, and personally not a fan of the room style...although better than highlands inn.

saint

Bummer the restaurant is closed. I figured with the outdoor space they should at least allow you to eat outside. 500 points for lack of breakfast is a disgrace. I'm going for 2 nights at the end of this month using points. I'm a Globalist and was planning on using a Suite upgrade but they said none are available. I'm using 30,000 points per night (22,500 after the 25% promotion going on right now). Hopefully the normal King rooms have great views. I'm going here 2 nights and then the Hyatt Regency in Monterey so will post trip reports on both after I get back.

Thanks all for the great reviews.

myperks

Does anyone know what this hotel credit as a Hyatt brand or a Hyatt Residence Club brand for the brand explorer purposes since the name of the hotel has both Hyatt and Residence Club in it.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands, Overlooking Big Sur Coast & Highlands Inn, A Hyatt Residence Club

Does it matter if it’s a room booking versus residence suite booking?

joecool1885

Delete

Colin

it counts as “Hyatt” for brand explorer these days. regardless of room type booked. this is good, bc it being Hyatt means free globalist brekkie and waived resort fees.

JIMCHI

No free Globalist breakfast or housekeeping during the pandemic.

madderlake

Will be checking into this property in a few days (yep, headed out on a CA road trip!).

Booked on C+P as a Globalist into a standard King room and hoping for an upgrade to Ocean View King at least. No suites showing available - it's busy season

Any suggestions on particular rooms or locations I should request through my concierge?

Will do some live reporting from the property if that helps anyone who is planning on heading here in the near future. Let me know any questions you have or want answered while I'm there!

JIMCHI

The new management at this property is less than responsive to requests from Globalists, at least in my recent experience.
You want to avoid rooms 532-546 (I believe these are ocean view kings) as they are right adjacent to the road going into the property and to highway 1. Ocean view kings in rooms 201-219 would be good. We always stay in a Townhouse Spa Suite so those are the ones I'm most familiar with. Of those, 501-508 are the best. Last time, despite e-mails to both the GM and front desk manager, they put us in 225 which had a partial ocean view through the space between two buildings. No effort at all was made to accommodate my request to be in 501-508. Be aware the restaurant is closed, no room service, no housekeeping service. If you are going to have dinner in Carmel or Monterey be sure to make reservations in advance as only outdoor seating is available (and bring a jacket). I highly recommend Anton & Michel in Carmel for dinner in their sheltered and beautiful garden.

madderlake

@JIMCHI comes through again! Thanks so much for those tips. Yeah, I have written in and no response so they definitely aren't responsive even to Globalists (I think they could care less lol).

I'm going to email my concierge now and see if we can request the 201-219 block like you suggested (and if we're lucky enough to find a Townhouse Suite come avail 501-508). Have you ever stayed in the one bedroom suite that is offered with the TSU I'm assuming? Do they have those in the 201-219 block too?

Oh and thanks for that restaurant recommendation - we will check that out for sure and are already planning on bringing our own food and coffee.

Thanks again!

bj23r

We have stayed at the Carmel Valley Ranch, Ventana and Carmel Highlands over the past month. While the views at the Highlands were fantastic and the deal was even better (we booked a regular room on points and used a TSU to upgrade to a Townhouse Suite (501)), I was pretty unimpressed with the overall experience as compared to the other two options (no surprise with respect to Ventana, of course). As others have mentioned, there are absolutely no amenities at all at the Highlands at this time. Even though the townhouse was spacious and the views were great, it really felt like we were staying in a somewhat dated Airbnb rather than a Category 7 Hyatt. Carmel Valley Ranch was fully up and running, had all kinds of activities, and had a great restaurant and in-room dining options (Globalists can enjoy breakfast from the room or restaurant). It also had multiple on-property hiking options while you need to get in your car if you want to do anything outside of your room at the Highlands (although Point Lobos is very close and is amazing). Using points is great (particularly with the current 25% rebate), but if you are spending cash during Covid time, I think you can probably find way better Airbnb or VRBO options for your money.

madderlake

@bj23r - you know, you just gave me an idea to split our time between Highlands and Carmel Valley Ranch. WE stayed there last month and really enjoyed it (also Ventana). And maybe 4 nights in an un-upgraded situation at Highlands isn't worth the points+cash. I'd like to try it out for a couple nights (and go to Point Lobos which we didn't do last time) and then maybe move down the road. Am going to look into that now!

saint

I just finished a 3 night stay at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands. My wife and I were on the fence about cancelling our trip due to the wildfires. We were monitoring it closely and they had it contained 2 days before we arrived and air quality was good so we decided to go and glad we did. This was my first time at this property. Reading posts on Flyertalk and TripAdvisor it seems like people either love it or hate it. Some people complained about road noise from the highway below but we didn’t have ANY issues with noise at all. Part of Highway 1 was closed further down the road so maybe that prevented a lot of traffic.

I booked this several weeks ago and at the time there were no suite upgrades available and they said they were sold out. I booked an ocean view king room. But with the wildfire, there were a ton of cancellations and then I was able to use one of my Suite upgrade certificates. I got the Oceanview Townhouse Spa Suite (#507) which was terrific. It was very spacious on two levels. It had a full kitchen, fireplace in the living room, and jetted tub in the bathroom. The view was incredible.
Everything worked well in the suite. I didn’t use the kitchen other than the fridge. There are so many great restaurants in the area we ate out each meal.
The downside of the hotel is with COVID the restaurants are all closed. The outside jacuzzi wasn’t available. The outdoor heated pool was available but we never used it. We were on the go quite a bit. Also, they didn’t have room service available. You could call for more towels if you wanted and they would leave them outside. That was fine with us. The hotel offered a pathetic 500 points for no breakfast which I consider a joke as breakfast for two in nicer hotels like this probably go for close to $100.

They have a big woodpile around the corner from the room and we certainly used the fireplace every night. It was really romantic with the view at dusk. People complained about a smoke smell in the room and indeed you could smell some smoke smell in the room from people using the fireplace so much. It wasn’t too bad but people sensitive to smoke smell should keep this in mind.

Also, you can’t keep your balcony screen door open because everyone around you is using their fireplace so the smoke smell also goes into your room that way. The other downside is the shower is super small for such a large property. There was a shower both upstairs in the top level and downstairs in the bedroom level.
It looks like they renovated these units a few years ago. I prefer modern style vs. rustic and I’d say these suites are rustic but it was very comfortable and the location was great only about 10 minutes from downtown Carmel. We had a rental car and I’d definitely recommend a rental car. We used it quite a bit to go back and forth to Carmel, Pebble Beach, Monterey.

It was a bummer that the wineries were closed near Carmel Valley due to the fires but we enjoyed some of the tasting rooms in Carmel. Our favorite was the Albatross Ridge Tasting room. Definitely do yourself a favor and great lunch/dinner places are Anton & Michel, La Bicyclette and the Flying Fish in Carmel. The Bench over at Pebble Beach was also great. (Get the roasted strawberries crisp! It was amazing). AVOID Portabella. We went there one night for dinner as we always saw it packed for lunch and dinner but the food was super mediocre/poor. I got the pasta and I assumed it would be fresh pasta for an expensive Italian place. But they brought out overcooked boxed pasta. Was really horrible. Great coffee at Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Company in downtown Carmel.

It was also a huge disappointment that Point Lobos Park was closed. Makes no sense to me to close outdoor hiking trails and allow cramped clothing stores to stay open. We made due at nearby Carmel Mountains Trailhead which is just north of Point Lobos. You can park on Highway 1 and access it. Also, definitely go to Garrapata State Park. They had beautiful hiking trails which was really gorgeous. Bixby Bridge which makes Highway 1 is also a must visit. Beautiful. 17 Mile Drive is also a must visit. I read somewhere that they charge a fee to enter with a car but we had reservations for lunch at Pebble Beach and they just let us in but there was no checking or anything.

Also, one of the highlights of our trip was renting electric bikes at Mad Dogs & Englishman bike store in Carmel. Before noon it’s $75 for all day per bike. After 12 PM it’s 2 hours for $50. DEFINITELY do this. Was breathtaking going on that bike ride and even with the hills, the electric bike makes it really easy. It was supposed to be sunnier and unfortunately it was mostly cloudy but that sounds like normal for this time of year.
Next time in the area, I’ll try Ventana Big Sur which I also read great things about. I redeemed 30,000 points per night which was great with the hyatt 25% rebate promotion going on. Also, really happy to be able to use my Suite Upgrade. Rates for a suite for 3 nights was almost $2,500 if I paid cash.

Aventine

For a suite, that shower sure is a travesty.

JIMCHI

Glad you had a great stay. We have never stayed in room 507, always staying in 501-505 (except this last stay when they put us in a different section with an partially obstructed view) . We never had a problem with smoke, but I can see that 507 is almost directly over the chimneys of an adjacent building. Indeed that shower is SO small that a person of size might not fit in it. Thanks for the review and the terrific photos which will be very helpful to anyone contemplating a stay there.