The best surf & design hotels · Big Sur & Carmel
Alila Ventana Big Sur
Lawrence Spector took his profits from Easy Rider and bought a parcel of Post family land in 1975. He had no experience designing resorts — neither did furniture designer and occasional architect Kipp Stewart, who he recruited to build it. The brief, as Spector later described it, was "to do nothing and love it." The original plans included five tennis courts. Early guests begged him not to build them. Ventana Inn opened on 160 forested acres above the Pacific with cedar-planked buildings arranged around a mountain meadow, clothing-optional Japanese baths, and a pool. It was the first luxury hotel in Big Sur and, in 1978, the first hotel ever featured in Architectural Digest. Fifty years and several ownership changes later — Alila, now part of Hyatt, took it over in 2017 and completed a property-wide renovation — the crowd remains what it has always been: people who came to Big Sur to stop. "Ventana" means window. The best thing to do here is still look.
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The hotel
The Design
Built by a Hollywood producer and a furniture designer who had never designed a resort. Early guests vetoed the tennis courts. The DNA held.
BraytonHughes's 2017 renovation preserved the cedar-planked interiors, end grain wood floors, and stone fireplaces of Stewart's original buildings, then layered in a relaxed California-in-the-1960s aesthetic — rustic furniture, leather, macrame, handcrafted accessories. Fifty-four rooms and suites, most with working fireplaces. The Japanese hot baths remain. The clothing-optional policy remains.
The Design
Built by a Hollywood producer and a furniture designer who had never designed a resort. Early guests vetoed the tennis courts. The DNA held.
BraytonHughes's 2017 renovation preserved the cedar-planked interiors, end grain wood floors, and stone fireplaces of Stewart's original buildings, then layered in a relaxed California-in-the-1960s aesthetic — rustic furniture, leather, macrame, handcrafted accessories. Fifty-four rooms and suites, most with working fireplaces. The Japanese hot baths remain. The clothing-optional policy remains.
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