In short… La Playa is a grand hotel (operating for over 100 years) perched proudly among the smaller cottages and hillside homes of Carmel. Having emerged from an exhaustive $20 million renovation in 2023—miraculously completed in phases as the hotel remained open—it is welcoming visitors again, along with fresh interiors from Post Company, the au courant NY-based hospitality design firm.
The surroundings… Carmel-by-the-Sea (pop. 3,124) is a small community that looms large for its sweeping vistas and the expansive swath of ocean that surges along the dramatic coastline.
Historically the area has attracted writers, artists, and creatives—at one point, Clint Eastwood was the mayor. He even opened his own hotel, Mission Ranch, on the edges of town. (Like Clint, it’s getting a little long in the tooth.)
The petite postcode—just one square mile—is surrounded by nature. A short drive reveals the dramatic cliffs of Highway 1 to the south, with a world of trailheads, meandering hikes, and cinematic cliffside strolls.
Our in-town adventures revealed a crowd that skewed older, giving Carmel an affluent retirement community vibe at first pass. But earlier this year, Carmel was the subject of a “36 Hours” feature from NY Times, and the relatively sleepy hillside haven is poised for an injection of new interest and energy. Longtime retail and restaurant tenants (some of which felt a bit dated) are changing over to a new generation, like Chez Noir and Stationæry, who are bringing a modern sensibility. La Playa seems positioned to lead the charge and be homebase to the curious travelers seeking a touch of luxury without pretense.
The backstory… The hotel has a unique history, and does a nice job communicating it through printed materials in the room and collected ephemera that adorns the walls in parts of the hotel. History is cool!
Originally built in 1905 for a scion of the Ghiradelli family, the stone mansion (still intact and in use) had the first swimming pool in Carmel. It was later purchased and converted into lodging, with the transition to a full hotel in the 1920’s following the addition of 20 rooms. A large addition followed in the 1940s, including 60 more rooms and a dining room perched on the hillside, overlooking the bay below.
Over the years, the hotel changed hands and hosted various players, including Steve Jobs and the team from Macintosh in 1983, when he revealed the first prototype for his Mac computer. I’m told he went on to be quite the success.
The current stewards, family-owned Marc & Rose Hospitality, are longtime owner-operators with hotel and restaurant properties across Arizona and California, including the cute Hotel Carmel a few blocks away.
The vibe… The expansive building and grounds are hemmed in by surrounding houses. Miraculously, the well-manicured backyard offers lots of breathing room for what is an urban hotel. It calls to mind grand hotels of the past, albeit with cozy, human-scale public spaces. Post Company imbued the space with texture, warmth, elegance, and the right amount of design-kid cool—the lobby wouldn’t look out of place in the middle of downtown New York.
The overall vibe of the lobby and ground floor public spaces is almost residential, owing to their scale. The ground floor unfolds slowly, through a series of corners and hallways—the effect is comforting, like visiting your uncle’s mansion who you never met until your mom revealed his existence and after striking up a pen-pal relationship he invited you to visit him at his “little place” in Carmel, but turns out he’s super rich, has great taste, and lives next to the beach.
I think a big part of a hotel vibe is informed by the guests. La Playa seemed to attract some large wedding parties, golfer types bound for Pebble Beach (just north of town), and Vuori-clad thirtysomethings chatting about what trails they were going to hit that day—representative of the crowd coming to Carmel as opposed to, say, Big Sur. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, only that it doesn’t seem to be the haven of artists, writers, and Steve Jobs-types as much these days.
The rooms… The rooms were well appointed and comfortable, with an incredible bed. Our room was a suite with a separate bedroom bordered by windows on three sides. Sleeping with the windows open and hearing the velvety roar of the ocean in the distance was quite nice, and the cool night air was a major bonus. Sleep was easy and deep.
We also had a large, custom-built bar with a smart selection of liquor, an assortment of bartools for mixing cocktails, and a custom-designed box with cocktail recipes inside. It was a nice detail and a big improvement over most mini-bars. In my younger days, without the wake-up time of a 5-year old to contend with, this would have been of more interest. As it stood, I wasn’t doing a lot of late night, in-room boozing, and the bar was about twice as large as it needed to be (more maxi-bar), so it felt like an albatross of furniture that threw off the feng shui.
One particularly cool touch were the bedside radios, which could be tuned to the in-house radio station, broadcasting live from the DJ’s set in Bud’s, the tavern and bar on the ground floor. Those sets are also recorded to reel-to-reel tapes, which get played back when the set wraps from the setup behind the bar. It means that early customers get to hear the DJ spin vinyl in person, late customers get to hear that same set on reel-to-reel, and anyone in their room can tune in whenever they like. It was a cool, thoughtful detail I had not seen at any other hotel. Turns out your uncle is a music lover.
The food and drink… The most important food and drink detail is, let’s face it, COFFEE. The rest is meaningless if they get the coffee wrong. La Playa did it right—coffee available bright and early, every morning, at the highly respectable time of 5:30am; it was hot and plentiful, with decaf already brewed, a boon for a half regular/half decaf drinker like me. I don’t mind having to sit and order coffee if the dining room is comfortable, but I much prefer hotels that make it available to you for grab and go as I like to start my morning with a stroll.
Bud’s is the in-house tavern and bar. It was a dimly lit, relatively petite wood-paneled room. Along one side was a long, beautiful bar with a centerpiece hi-fi system playing reel-to-reel mixes. The burger was a winner (the space gave strong “burger and a martini” vibes), and the room was buzzy and fun. The downside was it didn’t feel quite large enough to accommodate the number of hotel rooms above, so it was overrun. Since there was no host, it was a fend for yourself situation, which led to some awkward exchanges when jockeying for a seat to feed a hungry 5-year old. It was much better the next night (with a babysitter upstairs) when we settled into a banquette and met a 90-something ex-Hollywood stuntman who regaled us with some epic tales of his life in the movies. Our conversation was one of the best I’d had in a long time, and left my sides in pain from laughing so hard.
Breakfast, on the other hand, was of the buffet persuasion—calling to mind some of the great hotels in Italy. Even if I don’t eat a lot in the morning, I like the idea that I could if I wanted to. In addition to a table in the dining room set with pastries, various meats, cheeses, cereals, and one-off cold items, the patio was home to a cook making omelets and waffles to order. The omelet station, in particular, brought me back to ordering my first omelet at Larry Bird’s Boston Connection, the now-closed hotel and restaurant owned by the NBA star in Terre Haute, Indiana. I have, since that day, appreciated an omelet station, even if I don’t partake.
The wellness… There’s no gym onsite, but it seems silly to burn your calories cooped up inside when the cool California air beckons. The hillside village is ideal for a quick burn: even a walk down to the beach and back up to the hotel was vigorous enough to leave me—an avid runner—a little dewy.
I started every morning with a long run along the appropriately named Scenic Road. The route from La Playa to Carmel River State Beach offers a four-mile out-and-back with plenty of eye candy for architecture lovers—the town has what I would describe as “lax” building codes, which means you’ll see everything from midcentury Usonian-esque homes to petite cottages with thatched roofs straight out of a Tolkien novel. The one thing they seem to have in common is a juicy budget for landscaping.
For those less inclined to sweat, the hotel offers a complimentary shuttle around town in Mercedes SUVs.
Further afield, I’d suggest gathering simple bites or healthy picnic supplies from Elroy’s Fine Foods in nearby Monterey, one of the best natural markets I visited in California. Take your haul to Mission Trail Park, Garrapata State Park, or any of the wonderful trailheads within a stone’s throw from downtown Carmel. There is little better than a brisk hike in the cool, fog-laden air of this area.
The kid-friendly factor… While the hotel is not immediately kid-friendly on the surface (and the only on-site restaurant doesn’t feel particularly suited to kids), the team is clearly welcoming to travelers of all ages; our room had a welcome gift for our son—a stuffed otter, a welcome note, and a bottle of sparkling apple juice.
They also helped arrange childcare through Art on Wheels, an area babysitting service. Our sitter arrived with a cart full of games, puzzles, and art activities. It made the goodbye seamless, and our son recounted all their fun the next morning with glee.
It also has a small pool, which is a huge win for anyone traveling with kids in tow, for the essential end of day “tire ‘em out” swim.
Be sure to… Take a long walk on the beach every morning. The area residents will be out in full force, and if there is one thing uniting the citizenry of Carmel, it’s a penchant for beautiful, well-behaved dogs accompanying them on their morning constitutional.
Parting words… The area around Carmel is stunning, and well worth a visit for any lover of nature. I would say the town of Big Sur is probably more my style, but most people I know—the everyday traveler—would probably prefer Carmel. La Playa is a great choice for a stylish stay and close proximity to all points of interest in the region.
Dates of stay… A two night visit mid-July in the middle of an epic California road trip.
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