My husband and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary with our 115 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback, Macallan, by driving up the California Coast for almost 2 weeks. As part of that, we had a 2 night stay at Ventana Big Sur, now operated by Alila Hotels and Resorts.

(We previously had a 5 night award stay at the RC Bacara Santa Barbara and continued after Ventana with 2 nights at RC Half Moon Bay and 3 nights at Calistoga Ranch in the Napa Valley. I stayed up north with 2 more nights at the St Regis San Francisco, as well.)

Ventana is literally across the street from the more famous Post Ranch Inn. We were quite amused. Ventana is on the inside of Pacific Coast Highway, while PRI is on the coastal side. 

We chose Ventana over Post Ranch Inn first and foremost because Ventana is dog-friendly, while PRI isn't. We really wanted to travel with Macallan up the coast. Ventana's recent change in management to Alila (a year or two ago) also came with its new dog-friendly policy, which is what made us contemplate this trip in the first place. Secondly, we'd always heard too many concerns and issues about PRI's exorbitant prices and cost/benefit, which had made us reticent to stay for years. 

We absolutely loved Ventana and definitely look forward to returning. Any concerns about Ventana not measuring up to PRI were gone soon after we arrived and further erased after our dinner the next night at PRI's Sierra Mar restaurant. 

The property and its location are stunning.

The main lodge lobby and reception:

The spa and main pool were located adjacent to the main lodge building, though my husband never got a chance to try a treatment since we tried to book so last minute.

The rest of the property was just as stunning. The views were magnificent.

The gym was small but decent:

The upper adults-only (supposedly clothing-optional) pool:

The library at the top of the property:

There were daily free classes offered in the library:

Plenty of electric charging stations if you want to bring your Tesla:

You could walk the 0.3 mile trail or be driven over to the Sur House restaurant/Glass House/Loft. These had some decent views, too...

The Loft meeting space:

The Glass House museum:

The Sur House restaurant:

The path to Sur House:

The hiking trails around the property were glorious:

You could also hike down to see the Glamping/camping section of the property...which was spectacularly ensconced in the Redwood forest:

To sum up: it's freaking stunning.

Check In

Check in was quick and easy. I knew in advance that we already had been upgraded from our booked Big Sur Spa Suite ($1500) to the Coast House (regularly going for $2450+) in recognition of our anniversary, but I wasn't sure what to expect. 

Room

The Coast House was amazing.

It actually is located adjacent to the parking lot across from the valet pavilion when you arrive. I thought that might create noise issues, but it never did.

From the parking lot, you can just make out the Coast House:

The living room was very spacious and extremely comfortable. My husband (and Macallan) loved that fireplace.

A small kitchenette was handy to prepare Macallan's meals, at least:

The outdoor terrace was lovely:

I missed the photos somehow, but there is a small powder bath off the hallway between the living room and bedroom. There obviously is another bedroom off the other side of the living room if one needed a 2 bedroom suite.

The bedroom was spacious and just as comfortable:

The master bath was small but efficient:

The private outdoor terrace was even better with that jacuzzi:

Shower pressure was great. WiFi was great (50-55 Mbps down, 40-50 Mbps up). The air con also worked very well: the bedroom cooled down to 65 F in no time!

The only thing that the suite lacked was the East Coast feed for HBO--considering it was Game of Thrones night when we arrived. We'd hoped to watch the 6 pm showing since we had 8 pm dinner. That was not to be, but the WiFi worked so well that we could watch on my IPad before dinner. 

Dining

Dining was exceptional. It really blew us away.

Everything was delicious. Not a single item disappointed us. In fact, some of the things we had I still salivate over today. I could drink the bartender's Old Fashioned for the rest of my life, sustained otherwise only by the the chef's deviled eggs and friend chicken sandwich. 

The incredible deviled eggs:

The incredible fried chicken sandwich:

Those were so good that we had to eat lunch before departing so I could have them a second time. 

The only time we dined offsite (actually, the only time we left the property!) was to have dinner our second night at Sierra Mar at the Post Ranch Inn. It's a definitely more snazzy and chic looking restaurant with a much more dramatic view onto the coast/ocean, and the food presentation was even more refined than at Sur House. But the food wasn't any better...and in some ways was a bit less impressive to us. We were more than happy with Sur House and would gladly return whenever back in Big Sur!

Service

The service was truly outstanding. We had a few missteps, but the service recovery and genuine attempts to always fix things and make us happy were obvious. 

Our first snafus came when we couldn't get the 6 pm East Coast HBO feed  of Game of Thrones via their DirecTV. We had 8 pm dinner booked at the Sur House on property and would miss the 9 pm showing. I did throw a bit of a hissy about it, especially since it took several calls to get the engineer to our room and since their engineer didn't seem to have a clue. The living room HBO showed the 6 pm option available but still didn't get it, and the bedroom HBO showed it unavailable entirely. The front office manager eventually came over and graciously offered for us to take room service on the house so we could watch GoT at 9 pm. We thought that was generous, but we didn't want to risk room service dinner being subpar as so often can happen. We declined but thanked him--and watched the 6 pm on my IPad through the DirecTV app. 

We also had issues with the phone ringing endlessly without being picked up--a major no-no for me at any luxury hotel. That happed too many times in our first 24 hours that I had to speak with the guest relations manager. 

I also was disappointed that I was unable to book a massage for my husband at all during our stay. I'd have thought some attempt could have been made, but I never did push it. 

In the end, though, the manager comp'd all of our food/beverage for our stay by way of apology for the HBO miscue, the lack of expedient follow through on those calls, and for the repeated number of calls that went unanswered during our stay. He also seemed to be aware that I had tried and failed to book a spa treatment. 

I thought that was very generous service recovery--especially since we hadn't asked and overall thought the service was great otherwise!

And otherwise, the service was stellar.

The restaurant service was amazing. Casual yet always prompt and friendly, and always wanting to make sure we were happy. Once I ordered a second Old Fashioned (perhaps theirs is the best I've ever tried), and it came half the size of the first. The server noticed me seeing that, and they comp'd the next one. (I am sorry to confess I had four (3.5?); they were too good.) They did miss my raisin allergy by bringing bread with raisins once, but they never made that mistake again--and they offered to make new bread just for me if I wanted. (I did not.)

The valets were amazing--and once reached, they were always prompt to pick us up to drive us to the restaurant or to the Sierra Mar restaurant across to the Post Ranch Inn. They also were available to drive you anywhere in town where there was cell service/wifi to allow you to call them for a pick up--since cell service was so poor in the area. 

Everyone was friendly and helpful. Almost everyone would stop to talk to us and pet Macallan. 

It wasn't perfect, but the service in the end really impressed us. It was probably the best service overall that we enjoyed for the whole trip. 

Location

Big Sur. Enough said. 

Overall

We loved it. We loved it so much that we left the property only once: to dine at Sierra Mar at the Post Ranch Inn! As it turned out, we enjoyed Sierra Mar but not any more than we already had enjoyed Sur House. 

We were stunned to discover how relaxing it was to just hang around the property, hiking around with Macallan and exploring the trails and glamping Redwoods nearby. I had assumed we would head out to explore other more majestic hikes not far away, but it was so peaceful and majestic at Ventana that we never bothered. 

These might say it all: