The best surf & design hotels · San Diego
Alila Marea Beach Resort
The site at 2100 North Coast Highway in Encinitas had been sitting on blufftop above South Ponto Beach for decades — a clifftop property that developers had been trying to build on since the 1970s, blocked each time by the coastal commission and the community that knew what the land was worth. When JMI Realty finally broke ground in 2019, the city mayor attended the ribbon-cutting. The architect was JWDA. The interior designer was Mark Zeff — a Cape Town-born surfer and diver who won the commission by presenting a visual essay on his personal relationship with the ocean. The result is 130 rooms integrated into the coastal bluff: exposed concrete, warm woods, custom patterned concrete floors in the lobby inspired by organic ocean shapes, a monumental stair, a surfboard wall by local shaper Brian Szymanski. Swami's — the most famous point break in California, watched over by the Self-Realization Fellowship since 1937 — is fifteen minutes south on the highway.
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The hotel
Sustainability
The design
Mark Zeff won the commission with a visual essay about his lifelong connection to the ocean. The lobby floor proves it.
Custom concrete floor in the lobby inspired by organic ocean shapes. Hand-carved reception desk, natural rope details, kelp forest-inspired carpet. The bluff integration means the building follows the contours of the site. That was the only way it was going to get built.
The design
Mark Zeff won the commission with a visual essay about his lifelong connection to the ocean. The lobby floor proves it.
Custom concrete floor in the lobby inspired by organic ocean shapes. Hand-carved reception desk, natural rope details, kelp forest-inspired carpet. The bluff integration means the building follows the contours of the site. That was the only way it was going to get built.
The surf
Swami's is fifteen minutes south. The Self-Realization Fellowship has been watching it since 1937.
Encinitas is where California surf culture matured — Swami's, Seaside Reef, D Street, Moonlight Beach. The hotel works with Surfin Fire for lessons and has an electric bike fleet for reaching the breaks.
The surf
Swami's is fifteen minutes south. The Self-Realization Fellowship has been watching it since 1937.
Encinitas is where California surf culture matured — Swami's, Seaside Reef, D Street, Moonlight Beach. The hotel works with Surfin Fire for lessons and has an electric bike fleet for reaching the breaks.
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