Hearst Castle: Whats so great?
 

I tried to post a message, but the title only said "Hearst", I wasn't finished with the title. Anyway, is Cambria worth staying in if we aren't doing Hearst Castle? We do not like museums or grand style homes like the Biltmore estate, boring.

Silkiegsl

Morro Bay's another choice in that area. Perhaps a bit more to see than Cambria, and still be on the coast.

Well, Hearst Castle is a legend. The history behind the place, who built it and how it was built, is fascinating. It is a huge, gorgeous old style villa on top of a hill that has amazing views of the CA coastline. If you get a good docent, the stories that they tell about the Hollywood guests and various parties and traditions are worth the price of admission. My favorite areas are the pools, both inside and outside. There are about four different tours, each showing you different areas of the estate. The art work, sculpture and the views are all stunning. Randolph was quite a character and went to great lengths to build and decorate this home and to attract the "beautiful" people. It is like no other place I have ever seen.

I don't see why you couldn't stay in San Luis Obispo and get up early and drive to your tour. You MUST make a reservation of you have limited time, and I would get there early.

It is old CA at its best...

If Biltmore bored you, probably Hearst would be lost on you too (your loss). But since your title asks:

It's an imposing place, but anyone who knows much about art, architecture, and furniture history knows that it's an illogical mish-mash of styles and a lot of stuff that rightfully belonged somewhere else but Hearst's people either paved palms with gold or swiped it. The tour leaders tend to talk about it reverently, as if it were a cathedral of Hollywood Sanctity, but it's such bad taste in places that it's kind of a chuckle. Do they still leave the mustard and catchup on the refectory table to demonstrate "Mr. Hearst's" great condescension?

Some parts are actually pretty -- esp. gardens and the grounds leading up to the place -- and the bathrooms are a hoot! It was also interesting to see those parts that were used as movie sets (the pool in Spartacus, for example).

Your actual post asked about Cambria and I can't say anything about that. But your title asked what's so great about Hearst Castle -- Answer: a monument to a monumental ego with borderline taste and too much money -- and maybe mainly the bathrooms!

The "Hearst Castle" has a fabulous setting and it is interesting as a curiosity of the golden age of the movies and yellow journalism. If you have seen Biltmore and castles in Europe, this is not one of them, but it is a very interesting relic of a bygone way of life enjoyed by the rarified few.

soccr - your post is right on the money. I had to chuckle myself because your description of Hearst, his ego, and his awful taste also made me think of Donald Trump. I guess the two attributes come as part of a combined trio with exhorbitant wealth.

This may be sorta off-topic by I also wondered the same question as the original poster,my other question is can you take a self guided tour or do you have to go with a group?

You have to go with the tour group and the size of the groups are limited. I would definately suggest a reservation. It is impossible to see the entire Heart estate in one tour but if you only have time for one, take tour number 1. We stayed in Cambria, across from Moonstone beach. It was wonderful. I would go there again.

You've said that you don't like museums or grand-style homes, but you haven't said what you DO like. That makes it difficult to say whether Cambria is worth staying in.

soccr-

Your description of Hearst Castle made me chuckle and reminds me of our local monument to poor taste.

Take a lot of wealth, add ego and then stir in the circus and you've got Ca d' Zan--the famous (or infamous) Venetian Gothic mansion/winter home of John and Mabel Ringling in Sarasota.

My husband loves architecture and we were in Newport last week because he wanted to tour the mansions. After three I OD'd on them and then it struck me that they reminded me of the Ringling home minus the Baroque features. Legend has it that the Ringlings, because of their circus roots, felt socially insecure among the "cultered" winter residents of Sarasota. I mean, WHO builds their own museum in their front yard? But thank goodness he did because it's a gem.

This was the long route to my question. We're going to CA next month and of course DH wants to see Hearst. I there any way of knowing which tours might have the most knowledgeable docents? It's such fun to tour the Ringling home with a docent who knew the family and I imagine Hearst is the same.

If the Biltmore and Hearst Castle are boring you have too much time on your hands. May I suggest a really nice trailer park?

To me the greatness of Hearst Castle is the location/isolation. Can't really define it -- it's just so "out there." Aerial pics of the place will give you a good idea of how remote (and elevated) it is.

DawnCt:
Where did you stay across from Moonstone
Beach? How was the Inn/hotel?

silkiegal: I wanted to see the Castle because I thought it would be interesting to see what people do when they have too much money :-)
Gaudy, ostentatious, I think are the best adjectives - no accounting for taste (just my opinion).
But as a previous poster mentioned, the gardens and grounds are actually very pretty.
Even though I don't think it's a must-see or great, I'm glad I saw it. I do think that if it's not your thing, don't do it. You won't
enjoy it.
We didn't stay i Cambria so can't help you there.
jreed: You can't go wandering off on your own. They watch you like hawks in case you're tempted to touch or swipe something. :-)

Thought I'd put my 2 cents in on the Hearst Castle. Been on tour one and had a great docent explain the history etc. But you have to want to do it and if you feel this is something that wouldn't interest you then you should skip it. We did stay in Cambria at the Fogcatcher Inn which was nice. It's on Moonstone Beach. We got up early and walked the trail near the beach which was nice. You have to drive over to the city of Cambria but it isn't too far. There are 2 sections in Cambria. A newer one which is convient for the locals and the older section which has the more tourist style stuff. There are good restaurants and shops which sell local art. We ate at Linn's restaurant which was good. We also stopped at Harmony which is a funky little town that use to be the dropping off place for Hearst and his visitors. The orginal building which I believe use to be a dairy has shops in it now. When we were there the population was about 13. I think there is a winery up on the hill too. I would say a day in Cambria would be fine. I don't know if you are interested in wineries but there are also more wineries on the way to Paso Robles which is in the central valley of the Coast not too far from Cambria. I'm sorry I can't remember what the number of the route is but I am sure you can find that on a map.