Travel Feature Story

Inn Style: From Avalon to La Jolla, SoCal Inns Offer Comfy and Cool

By: Edward Rivera
Published: Friday, June 26, 2009 | 5:50 PM

Go ahead. Call it a “staycation,” a “daycation,” or whatever media buzzword the current recession has generated, but within a hundred miles of your porch are beautiful, romantic and affordable-ish getaways.

These are slightly different “staycations;” they’re plan-ahead, special occasion trips to nearby locations that will transport you far from San Rafael or Orange Grove. Affordable? Well, that’s relative. If you opt for a vacation closer to home with just you and your significant, as opposed to something more elaborate, then you’re on the right track.

I visited three Southern California inns recently, all within half a tank of gas from home, and reveled in style and comfort with a trio of decidedly different approaches to the bed and breakfast idea.

While the initial agenda was to visit three inns in a row as part of a tour of local B&Bs—the Avalon Hotel on Catalina Island, the Casa Laguna Inn in Laguna Beach, and the B&B inn in La Jolla—rain and deadlines pushed plans to visit Avalon two weeks in a row.

So I headed down the 5 South for Laguna Beach, with a plan for Avalon in our back pocket. Expecting a waterfront hotel plopped down on the sands with waves lapping at our room door, I found the subtle and stylish Casa Laguna located on the street side of PCH, nestled into the hillside on several levels, so that its beach side rooms and walkways are bathed in afternoon light.

Innkeeper Paul Blank and partner Francois Le Blanc bought the fading 1920s-era residence turned worn-out motor hotel in 2000, and have created a nearly perfect example of a California bed and breakfast.

The facility was originally built as a private residence and used by local artists throughout the 20th Century as unique studios.

Most of the 22 rooms have double-jetted tubs along with fireplaces. Spa and massage services are also available indoors in the hotel’s library or under canopies in the Ocean View Garden. It’s clear why the hotel has been selected for membership in the Select Registry and Unique Inns groups, which feature top quality, small luxury hotels.

The current restoration leaves no detail to chance. Historic photos along with California plein air paintings line the walls of the main house and an assortment of coffee table books dot the tables and shelves. Pristine landscaping illuminates the terraces and the hacienda-style design seems to allow in only the nearby sound of waves breaking at Victoria Beach, just across the highway. Blank’s yellow labrador retriever, Emory, strolls the property like she owns it. Hmm, I guess she does.

Just up the street and down a flight of stairs is a beach straight out of a Beach Boys album cover. Should you care to spend your day on the sand under an iPod and the California sun, management is only too happy to provide a beach bag with everything you’ll need.

For the evening, there is a heated pool and secluded jacuzzi, along with a smart collection of DVDs. The Inn also provides shuttle service to local restaurants. (They’ll also come get you if you enjoy yourself a little too much.) We dined at Mocambo just a few blocks north on PCH, where both the steaks and the service were sublime. (I skipped the open mic night. Perhaps on my next visit.)

With so much to like about Casa Laguna, breakfast was almost startling in its quiet perfection.

Chef Cale Falk serves a full, exquisite gourmet breakfast on the shaded terrace each morning. A sharper correspondent than I would have brought his notebook with him to breakfast, but it’s unlikely that I would have glanced in its direction with the small feast put before me. If I’m not mistaken, it all involved a dish too delectable to be labeled simply a “waffle,” along with a potato comfit, fresh fruit and orange juice, and sinfully good coffee.

You may only ever visit the Casa Laguna once (It’s not cheap, dearest readers), but it will linger in your head and heart for far more springs and summers.

Moving south on the 5, here’s a tip, fellow travelers: every road, street, boulevard and/or destination in La Jolla is called either La Jolla Village, Village La Jolla, Jolla La Village; well, you get the idea.

I circled UCSD for a while until we found The Bed & Breakfast Inn at La Jolla, on a side street slightly perpendicular to the town’s main drag. This B&B is a traditional bed and breakfast, so traditional, in fact, that not every room has a television set. Just so you know.

The rooms are decorated in a traditional colonial style with that theme echoed throughout the property. Breakfast is served in a quaint dining room by the talented innkeeper who also provides fresh cookies and coffee all day long. The Inn’s proximity to the beach at La Jolla, with its teeming seal life and postcard Pacific view adds to the inn’s appeal. If a homey, comfy and traditional B&B is your style, there is a lot to enjoy at this one.

After two weather and work delays, I finally boarded the Catalina Express ferry for the dash from Long Beach to Avalon, Catalina.

Catalina, which is actually located in LA county, is one of those places you visited a long time ago, or one of those places you keep telling yourself you’ll visit.

I spent two days and nights under the Catalina sky, stylishly escounsed in the luxurious Avalon Hotel, a memorable stop, worthy of its 2008 Trip Advisors “Best for Romance” award.

Climb the stairs to the rooftop deck and you’ll be rewarded with a view that will take your breath away.

Avalon offers a groaning buffet table of pleasures for the day visitor from diving to dining (Steve’s Steakhouse. Say no more.), as well as miles and miles of hiking and biking trails. The ocean views from the hilltops seem to stretch out long past the Orange County mainland. We grabbed a golf cart (the preferred mode of transport here), and traversed the hills and canyons that surround the beachfront. We also enjoyed a rejuvenating massage from Grace Miller at the sleek, swank Aurora Hotel’s spa. Speaking of great inns, each of the hotels we visited are members of Unique Inns, a nation-wide collection of top-level B&Bs, boutique hotels and country inns. Visit just one and you’ll yearn to return again.

The 411:
• The Bed & Breakfast Inn at La Jolla 7753 Draper Ave, La Jolla, CA
858.456.2066
• Casa Laguna Inn & Spa, 2510 S Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach, CA 92651
949.494.2996
• The Avalon Hotel, 124 Whittley Ave. Avalon CA 90704
310. 510.7070
• Steve’s Steakhouse, 417 Crescent # 2. Avalon, CA 90704
310.510.0333
• Catalina Express, 320 Golden Shore, Long Beach, CA
800.481.3470

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