Back from Carmel and Newport Beach
 

My husband and I just returned from 4 days in Carmel, one day at Hearst Castle and 4 days in Newport Beach. Here are some highlights. This is sort of long. Hope it will help some people. <BR><BR>Carmel: Loved it and can't wait to go back. Stayed 2 nights at the Cobblestone Inn. Pretty nice place but kind of impersonal and cold feeling on check in. Good breakfast though. Transferred to Vagabond House Inn for next 2 nights. Very cute flowery courtyard with a waterfall. Very friendly people and cute rooms with some antiques and old clocks. Breakfast is brought to your room. Would recommend both but the latter is more quaint and friendly. <BR><BR>Food in Carmel-<BR><BR>Casanova's was excellent. Very quiet romantic - good food and service. Ask for a quiet table up toward the front of the restaurant. There are 2 large rooms in the rear that can get loud. One of the best meals on our vacation. <BR><BR>Roy's at Spanish Inn was excellent also. Food was fantastic as well as the service and the view. Ask for a table next to the window. It got a little loud but we expected it and it didn't bother us. Go early for a cocktail in the lobby/bar with musicians or outside with the firepits. <BR><BR>Portabello - new bistro on Ocean. Very cute. Food was good but not great. <BR><BR>Rio Grill - more casual southwestern in a shopping center north of town. had a very good lunch there. More of a fun atmosphere. <BR><BR>Hearst Castle area - stayed in Cambria, a small town a couple of miles away. Very cute little town!! many b&b's and restaurants. STayed at the J Patick House. Excellent!! Wonderful hosts and great food and cute place. Ate at the Black Cat bistro. Good but not great. It looked like Robins or the Brambles were good restaurants. Highly recommend jpatrick house. <BR><BR>Newport Beach - stayed at the Four Seasons for my husband's business conference. Very nice. Not on the beach though. Not a lot of hotels are on the beach down there. Ate at Ti Amo's in Laguna Beach which is about 30 miles south. Excellent !!! Definitely recommend Ti Amo's - very quaint and romantic Italian. Their banana bread pudding with whiskey sauce is to die for! <BR><BR>We will NEVER return to the Newport/Laguna area. Too many people - too much traffic. We had reservations for dinner on Sat. nite in Laguna Beach on our own and we could not find a parking spot so after about 45 minutes of driving around, we gave up and drove back to Newport and ate a kind of boring place.

Ginny, next time you go back to the Carmel area, check out the Casa Palmero Hotel--just beautiful! And don't give up on Laguna, either! Next time, go to the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point for dinner and have the valet park your car!

Steve, <BR><BR>You are right about the Ritz-Carlton at Laguna Niguel. We went there for a drink on the terrace bar. View was phenomenal. Had the best margarita ever there. It's a beautiful setting overlooking a large cliff and the beach. Also looks like one of the better Ritz's. Unfortunately, my husband didn't bring a dinner jacket so we couldn't eat at their dining room, but it didn't overlook the water anyway which is a shame.

Great trip report, Ginny....Nothing beats recent, first-hand impressions!

You would have enjoyed your stay far more if you had stayed in Laguna Beach as opposed to Newport Beach.

thanks for the reports.<BR>laguna beach is great for about 2 days if you can stay right in town so you don't have to drive anywhere. the parking there is horrendous.