josephstern

That spot in the trees on the trail to the restaurant would also be a great location.

ralphs

I just stayed here as a Globalist. I also had another room for a friend booked as a GoH. We were both upgraded to King Bed with Fireplace, which is a modest upgrade.

That's awesome, I'm glad to be wrong in this instance.

ralphs

By the way, if you're driving up from the south, I highly recommend checking Big Sur Kate's blog https://bigsurkate.blog/ for road closures and the Caltrans District 5 twitter page. https://twitter.com/CaltransD5

We ended up burning an additional 4 hours today driving down highway 1 past the Monterey/SLO county border only to be turned around. We ended up driving back north past Monterey and Salinas to the 101. I don't know how we could have avoided our fate given that we left the resort right before this rockslide hit twitter, but it was miserable.

HALL1C

Same, but looks like it was opened again at around 11 am yesterday.

ralphs

It reopened at 11a only to be closed again around 2p or 3p. We left Ventana right around the time the tweets came out (I checked Caltrans's twitter before leaving, but I didn't obsessively refresh it given the sunny skies at the time) and obviously with no cell service on Highway 1 went on our merry way. As of this moment Highway 1 is still closed as per https://bigsurkate.blog/2021/12/27/p...-slide-photos/

whitecastle

P2 and I just got back from a 3 night stay booked all on points at standard availability (30/k) for our anniversary. I originally was only able to snag two nights but later on was able to add another night. At time of check-in, I had Explorist status with 0 lifetime Hyatt stays from the status match offer earlier in the year and the Hyatt App showed that we were upgraded to the Pacific House Suite for our first night a few days before the trip. The upgraded disappeared the morning of check in and went back to standard king room before changing again to the Shower Suite. At check-in, there was some confusion as they thought we were only staying one night even though I had emailed beforehand and mentioned that we would be staying three nights on two separate reservations.Since the Forest Shower Suite was only available the first night we were there, they were able to put us in the Pacific House Suite for the last two nights.

The Shower Suite had great mountain/forest views and felt like a mountain cabin with the fireplace which we enjoyed. The Pacific House suite was a bit smaller and felt modern but had a private hot tub on the deck with views of the ocean which was nice. I think we ultimately enjoyed the Pacific House suite more due to the private hot tub as it was raining off and on during our trip so was easier then going to the public hot tubs. We did enjoy the Japanese Bath House the first night as it was next door to our first room. Funny enough, they gave us a bottle of complimentary champagne when we checked in the first night and also the second night after we moved to the new room which must be attributed to the split booking stays as both bottles came with the same message from the GM.

Food and drinks were all good. We enjoyed being able to have breakfast at the Sur House with amazing views then leaving the property for hiking and adventuring and coming back to in-room dining lunch at 4pm before having dinner at the Sur House at 8pm each day. Great balance of sightseeing and relaxation that has us planning our next trip already. Unfortunately didn't have a chance to try the Smokehouse as it was only open the day we were leaving and we didn't want to stick around for lunch after having a big breakfast.

flybie

I need some advice, please. So we originally are scheduled to stay 3 nights at the resort. Now the flight got changed, so we won't be able to arrive at the resort until 5 PM if there are no more delays. Do you think it's still worth arriving that late the first night or should we stay somewhere that night and then the next day drive to the resort and stay 2 nights instead? I am trying to think about the value of my 30k points per night for arriving late and just going to bed. Thanks. What do you think?

coleslaw

It's very possible you won't be able to cut it down to two nights.

Personally I would try to get there by lunch time so I can have lunch and go out for the afternoon, then come back and have dinner. 5pm isn't too terrible. I'd probably keep it as is and avoid the hassle of moving hotels after the first night. Now, if you were going to arrive at e.g. 9pm and miss dinner then I would say try to cut it down to two nights.

Soccerjoshj07

what day(s) were 25k / off peak, if you don't mind me asking?

hp12c

I'm about to cancel a two night standard points reservation June 15-June 17 if anyone wants to watch for the availability opening up again. Good luck!

Soccerjoshj07

I think getting there at 5pm is fine. We got to Big Sur around dinner time 7pm and 8pm both of the times we were there (one because of delay, one because of flight change), and to be honest, walking up the steps all by yourselves for the first time with all of the lights in the dark is an incredible feeling.

You could still get plenty benefit of being there around 5pm - potentially try the smokehouse for a pre-dinner snack (open until 730 IIRC), use the Japanese baths, or just use that first night to spend next to the fire in the room.

You could potentially save some points by only doing 2 nights, but you might feel like 2 nights was not enough. I think 3 is about perfect.


PS: We didn't even do lunch at the resort the 2nd time we were there, we just ate lunches at the smokehouse, so good - and better free / non-alcoholic drink options since we aren't really soda drinkers (we had the san peligrino fruit drinks). And the bread pudding dessert was amazing. I thought my brisket was a little fatty, but still really good. And try the Carolina mustard.

wilywombat

If you try to make a points booking via desktop browser, you should see a link to the points calendar, which will show you which dates are off-peak/standard-peak (though it doesn't actually show availability).

I'd link it to you if I could, but I can't post links until I've posted 5 times in FT.

grlnextdoor

I'm looking out for it!

Rumples

question on the redemption - its 35k for 1 room/1 person, but given the all inclusive nature now, its 70k if i put 2 adults / 1 room.

Best practice would be to put two, correct? and all redemptions are inclusive? i see one that says Premium Suite Award, and the one under that says inclusives

Lomic

Not seeing that on my end. I checked August 2022 (suite) and January 2023 (standard room) and in both cases I don't see adding a second adult increase the award redemption amount. There was some rumor that Ventana would switch to being a Miraval or Miraval-like property and so switch to the redemption scheme of points cost per guest, but I'm not seeing that here at the moment.