Experienced Castle visitors: Do you recommend doing all 4 tours in one day? If not, which are the best tours? We're two active, movin' seniors with unquenchable curiosity.

Thanks in advance!

I would think one day tour (your choice) and the night tour would be plenty for one day. I think the personality and experiences of the tour guides are important in making the tour interesting. this way you are sure to get two different perspectives.

Bill, my personal favorite tour is the one held during the evening. Unfortunately it is only typically held on Saturday evenings and often sells out far in advance. The evening tour groups are smaller in size and the tour is longer and more in depth. Plus the castle is beautiful at night with the gardens lit up with twinkling lights. And often they have local residents dressed up in the main hall dancing and playing cards, representing what the evenings were like in Hearst's time.

If you're staying in nearby Cambria, I would suggest contacting the castle and ordering tickets for the evening tour and getting their suggestion on which day tour you could take in the morning that wouldn't overlap. And then you could just head back to Cambria in between for late lunch/early dinner.

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, we won't be able to do the night tour ... but we're thinking that at least 3 out the 4 offered will be sufficient.

Maybe Tour 1 and Tour 3 ...?

I am not sure of the tour number, but I would suggest the tour with the Casa just outside the castle.It is a guest home that I believe is still used. Just got done looking at our pictures. It is quite beautiful.

I really enjoyed the tour that included the library and tower rooms. Don't remember the tour number, but it's not the one that they suggest for first time visitors.

Unquenchable you may but I doubt you could do all four tours in one day and still enjoy yourself.

If you're first-time visitors, I suggest you take Tour One, which is the general, and then pick another that seems to appeal to your interests when you read the literature. That will be plenty.

Also, if memory serves me, there is some overlap among the four tours, so if you tried to do them all, you'd end up seeing some things you already saw.

Agree with Billrandolph. Do tour 1 if it's your first time and combine with one other. Quite honestly, I don't enjoy Hearst Castle that much, but it's a place most of our houseguests want to see. You'll want to spend some time in the town of Cambria browsing and just on the beach on the way to Hearst Castle is a "wild life viewing area" where there are usually elephant seals. You can also drive part of the way up to Big Sur--at least to Ragged Point if you don't want to do the whole drive.

Search for "Hearst Castle" and go to the listing for Heast Castle: Experience the Dream. It describes each tour, gives prices, and gives you the number to reserve tickets in advance. I HIGHLY recommend doing this. Also if you go after December 1 the place will be decorated for the Holidays. I don't think you want to do all 4 tours in one day. Each tour takes about 2 hours. You have to take a bus from the visitors center to the castle and back down again for each tour. Plus there's a museum and a movie at the visitors center that you'll want to see. I would think Tour 1 plus one other would be plenty. Have fun!

Ohhhh --- THANKS, Jacque! We had looked at the Hearst website, but didn't realize we had to make the bus trip after each tour ... thought once we got there, we could hang out until the next tour started. Verrryyy interesting and will definitely affect The Plan. Looks like Tour 1 and then the garden tour. Many thanks to all for your valued advice!

Bill-
Double check that, but I am almost 100% positive that you have to go back down in between. I don't want to be the one to mess you up though, so just double check when you call for tickets.