Enjoyed our experience here on a short Father's Day weekend getaway…read more Was greeted with wine and rubber duckies for the little ones. Also got free cookies and wine in our room. The room was spacious, we added a roller bed and BabyQuip crib. Signed up for the little rancher and was super cute. The kids got to feed the goats, per sheep, alpaca, donkeys and mini horses. Did breakfast buffet daily, as we had credit. We also went to the pool, and the kids loved it. Walked around the golf course and saw some deers. There was a wedding so it was kind of loud. Wished the in room dining had more food. All in all, good experience here.

My husband booked this place for the family with good intentions but missed a few details that I'd…read morelike to share in the hopes someone else may be reading reviews for this place. Location: beautiful breathtaking views tucked away in a mountain valley, it is a perfect spot to get away from the hustle and bustle from city noise pollution and high populations. Customer service: there are only 1-2 check in desks, where they spend about 10-20 minutes with each customer explaining the property amenities, location of room, events, etc. when you've been traveling all day, every minute feels like a lifetime. Restaurant: there is only one full service, sit in restaurant that gets booked very fast especially for dinner. Plan ahead and make a reservation in advance for every night you plan to stay on campus and eat there, otherwise, expect to wait until 8 pm or drive to the nearby restaurants which include a Subway, pizza joint, or a small Vietnamese restaurant. Earthbound Organic Farm is a great alternative option for a small breakfast or lunch bites. There is another Mexican restaurant nearby. Clientele in the mornings consist of rowdy children and their inconsiderate parents. I recommend asking to be seated outside if you have well mannered children and want to eat in peace. Rooms: mediocre clean. For being a Hyatt affiliated hotel, I had higher expectations, rooms are carpeted with wooden floors and heavy rugs. This resort is pet friendly so if you have someone in the family that suffers from allergies or has a very sensitive nose, this is not the best place to stay. As most Californian hotels that have carpeting, you can smell odors in the carpeting and linen. When things got hot and humid in our room, I got a nice whiff of dog. Basically any pet friendly hotel means that your linens will be washed with dog poo or other animal fluids. Rooms are only dusted at eye level but if you're someone that is concerned about dust mites, be prepared to get a showering of dust mites on bed, where the headboards reach 6' high and hold lots of lovely layers of dust. Coffee pot is sad and comparable to a motel 6 version with blah coffee, and lastly the beds are super firm with no ability to adjust (like other Hyatt holidays offer), and pillows are huge and uncomfortable. Foam alternative is slightly softer but still too high for a back sleeper or stomach sleeper. Bathroom: limited. They do provide tiny handwashing bars of soap made of lavender, and provide a tiny sample sac of lavender salt to use in tub but for those with allergies, best to request an alternative if any. Shower corners contain black mold. Refrigerators: our room had a tiny refrigerator that could hardly fit anything and doesn't cool sufficiently so for those moms packing extra healthy snacks for your kids, consider your fridge useless. All the strawberries, yogurts and hummus we purchased made it straight to the trash. Room patio: dirty and useless. There was a couple of upholstered seats and one table on our patio that could not be enjoyed as they were filled with dirt, dust and leaves. Would I stay here again? No - due to the pet issue for me. Most Californians love their pets and don't mind staying in places that wreak of dog butts that they've habituated to. Like I said, my husband had good intentions but there were too many issues that made it undesirable for me.

Food, service and ambience is excellent. Every year my friend and I celebrate our birthdays there…read more We often stay for a couple of hours sharing. The golf course is so lovely . I would recommend the golf course to anyone.

A well-kept course and good food to end a tournament. It seemed balanced as well with some wide…read morefairways if you have a fade or draw and plenty of hills. I would recommend. Their friendly cat was also a nice surprise.

I love Garland ranch. There are several different walking trails. They have a visitor center and…read morebathrooms. Make sure you have on good hiking shoes and bring sunblock and water on warm days. Bring your dog or come solo, the beauty of nature is always so peaceful here. Our kiddos definitely enjoyed getting out to enjoy the area, we will return!

Wonderful park to explore and hike if you are ever in the Carmel Valley area. Plenty of parking…read moreboth on the street as well as in a designated parking lot. Much of the area in the lower section is flat and easy to walk around, however, there are also some trails with steeper elevation climbs for those who want to get more of a scenic view of the area. Cool historic barn is easy to get to and on hotter days you will definitely want to take some water as some of the trails are exposed to the sun. There is a public bathroom area by the visitor center.

We were lucky enough to stay here the week beginning Easter, through that next Friday. We had a…read morePanoramic view deluxe room. We thought we'd booked the suite but nooooooo... The additional space would have been nice for two adults and their furry friend. It was still a great room with an awesome view of the dunes and water. Check in was terrific. The lobby is beautiful and stocked for a quick whatever you might want. There is a backyard behind the lobby that is sheltered from those pesky ocean breezes with firepit, tables, chairs and other stuff. Nice touch. Our room was spotless. The bathroom was very nice. Clean and let me say that the shower was fantastic. There is a heater/fan in the bathroom that made getting out of the shower, pleasantly warm. Toiletries are of nice quality. Our dog, Sian found the stick library very useful and she had a blast going after it on the beach and in the ocean. She even brought it back to the library the morning we left, for others to use during their stay. The pet welcome is a nice touch. This site is very pet friendly. Not so much for the timeshares that are on the same property. And that's fine. Parking is not allowed at the units. You are driven to your unit by one of the great golf cart drivers. Zach was our driver. Loaded all our luggage on to the the cart. As we journeyed to our cottage, Zach pointed out sites as well as amenities. Unloaded our luggage as wll as went and got us ice as we settled in. If you need help getting to your car, onsite restaurant or the lobby, just call the lobby about 10 minutes before you want to go and someone will be there. The restaurant is great. We ate there twice and had breakfast delivered to our unit twice. The bread platter... OMG... the bread platter. We loved it so much that we went to Otto's bakery in Salinas on our way out of town to bring it home with us. The restaurant is not open for breakfast but, at check in, you will get a room service menu that that's how you can have breakfast onsite. More on the restaurant in that review... Can't wait to go back. Have to say that overall, this is probably in our top 3 of vacation spots. Including Hawaii. It's just great.

I rarely leave negative reviews, but I left this stay feeling genuinely disappointed. I had this…read morehotel saved for a long time and booked it after seeing so many glowing reviews about the pet-friendly luxury experience. We paid around $1,000 for one night, so I arrived excited and expecting something special. Unfortunately, our experience was the opposite. Many of the pet-friendly touches that influenced me to book were missing at check-in. There was no personalized dog welcome setup, no dog package, and my dog's name was not on the welcome sign until I called later. I had also requested a simple welcome card for my mother-in-law's first trip to California, and although staff said they would gladly do it, it was never done. We also had multiple room issues throughout the stay. The TV was not working, the phone buttons to reach the front desk did not work, there was no extra pillow for the fold-out bed, and there was even a leftover dog chew from a previous guest found in the bed. To be fair, the maintenance employee was kind and helpful, and the complimentary bottle of wine was appreciated. However, for this price point, the lack of attention to detail and overall service was really disappointing. What upset me most was checkout. I politely explained that I was disappointed and thought at minimum the pet fee might be removed, but there was no effort to make things right beyond emailing the receipt. Beautiful location, but the experience did not match the cost or reputation. I truly wanted to love this stay and left sad and let down instead.

Do not miss the John Steinbeck House and Restaurant on your trip to the Central Valley. The food is…read moredelicious and the Volunteer Host staff will treat you like you're their best friend. We learned so much about John Steinbeck, his family and the house. Stop by the gift shop for 1st Editions of his novels. What a lovely experience!

We had such a lovely time at the Steinbeck House Mother's Day Tea. The service was exceptional, and…read moreknowing that the staff are all volunteers made the experience even more special. Everyone was so warm, attentive, and welcoming. The food and tea were absolutely excellent -- beautifully prepared and delicious. And of course, the house itself is charming, with gorgeous table settings that made the afternoon feel elegant and memorable. Everything was done with such care and attention to detail. A wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day!

If you are considering Holly Farm as the venue for your wedding, and you just want the tl;dr, then…read morehere are my three most important suggestions for you: 1) You should absolutely go with Holly Farm. 2) You should accept every piece of advice Erin, Ryan, and the rest of the incredible team have for you along the way. 3) You should start getting excited right now about La Creme because their food is out of this world. Picking Holly Farm as our venue was the first choice we made in our wedding planning process, and trust me when I say that it was by far the best one. The pictures speak for themselves, and yes, it's as amazing as it looks (though if you haven't visited, you should take the excuse - it's truly stunning in person), but the real game changer is the team. The Holly Farm fam has been at this for decades, and it SHOWS. They cater to your needs and your vision, whether you want to be super hands on and into the nitty gritty on everything, or whether you want somebody to completely take the reins for you. We were so so appreciative for Erin's help during the planning process; any time we were stuck on something, she had a recommendation ready that was never just "off the shelf". We didn't want to be totally consumed by wedding planning all the time, and even though Erin had a big list of vendors ready to go, we were more than happy to listen every time she said "here's the 2 who I think you guys would love". It's really really telling to me that every single vendor we spoke to - without exception, including the ones we didn't end up choosing - all said some version of the same thing: "oh man I LOVE doing weddings at Holly Farm". Here's what I'll say about the weekend itself - it truly feels like you are staying at a luxury resort where you and your friends are the only guests. The entire staff is so attentive, so friendly, and they take care of all the details and logistics so that your only job really is to just enjoy the weekend and stay relaxed. We cooked a huge friends and family dinner in the Adobe and they cleaned the entire kitchen for us! Anytime we were hanging out in the evenings they rolled the portable heaters up without us asking! They moved our rental equipment around to make cool outdoor spaces for us so that we could get more use out of it than just the wedding itself! And nothing felt so satisfying as passing by Ryan on a path and hearing "hey I just lit your fireplace for you!". Of everything we loved about our wedding, the thing we loved most was getting to have this full weekend experience with our closest friends and family in one place, made truly special by the care the entire Holly Farm team put into making us feel at ease and at home. And one final thing - lest I leave you with the impression that this is only about good vibes - the operations for the wedding itself were incredible. Every vendor knows the team and knows the venue, everything works like clockwork without you having to supervise anything, and Erin, Ryan, and their staff have things so tightly coordinated that we didn't have to stress about logistics at all once the weekend got started. I can't emphasize enough how big a difference that made to us compared to some horror stories we'd heard from other weddings. Here are some final quick hits on other things you might be wondering about - but seriously, pick Holly Farm: - I didn't write an entire review for Tamie and La Creme, because it would be just as long, but they do amazing work. This is straight up excellent food, not excellent "wedding" food. - The rooms and buildings are very cool and very comfortable. - Yes, the Paraiso suite is "open air". Yes, it really does stay warm. Having a roaring fire in there, plus a heated blanket on the bed....A+. - The optional River House for extra space is definitely walkable (~3 mins), but it's nice to have flashlights at night. - Having the flexibility to use the space however you want for the entire weekend is a highly highly underrated perk. We had people hanging out on Thursday and Friday and it was a ton of fun. Highly recommend making plans that utilize the space every day. - We were nervous about the higher cost at first, but asking friends and family who stayed on site to pay for rooms turned out to not be a very big deal, and what we charged them was still way less than area hotels. - The music has to switch from DJ's speakers to house speakers at 9:30pm, but the house speakers can stay on all night if you want. We had just as much fun after the switchover. - No curfew is also a huge perk not to overlook. Erin and Ryan if you're reading this THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN YOU GUYS ARE ROCK STARS!!

As my husband and I drive up the central coast to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary, we…read morethought this was the perfect time to share a little bit about our insanely incredible experience getting married at Holly Farm. Our wedding was an absolute dream come true. The love we had for each other and for our family and friends that traveled from across the country to celebrate with us was reflected in the beauty and spirit of Holly Farm and all of the wonderful folks that work there. From the moment we arrived, we were blown away by the warmth and charm of the space. It was as if every inch of the venue was designed to make us and our guests feel at home, while still capturing an elevated, magical atmosphere that was simply unforgettable. Everyone at Holly Farm went above and beyond to ensure each detail of our wedding weekend was flawless. Their attention to detail was extraordinary, and it was clear they genuinely cared about making our day perfect. Ryan and Erin were so caring and attentive, and they made us feel like family. They were there for every little detail and made us feel completely at ease. The food, catered by La Creme, was nothing short of five star restaurant quality. We've received countless compliments from our guests about how delicious everything was! This was a big deal, especially coming from our families who are used to extravagant New Jersey weddings with an abundance of food. They all told us it was the best wedding food they'd ever had, which is about the highest praise you can get from a family who knows food! Everything about The Holly Farm was perfect--from the gorgeous, tropical setting that felt like a hidden paradise against the coastal backdrop of Carmel to the impeccable service and food. We couldn't have imagined a more beautiful, heartfelt, and memorable experience, and our friends and family STILL haven't stopped raving about it! Our wedding weekend was made even more special thanks to the onsite haciendas where we, along with some of our close friends, stayed. The houses were cozy yet luxurious, and perfectly appointed with a level of service that truly felt five-star. Each detail was perfect, from the unbelievably comfortable beds to the wood burning fires that were lit by hand each night and the wonderful house staff that made everyone feel at home the moment they arrived. Getting to spend the whole weekend in such an enchanting space made the whole wedding feel so much more special, a truly immersive experience vs a single-day event. We loved discovering the countless nooks and crannies throughout the property where our friends and family could relax, chat, and soak in the surroundings. It created a sense of intimacy and closeness that made the entire experience feel so special. When the weekend was over, we genuinely didn't want to leave. Heck, we may even crash the wedding that's probably getting ready to kick off this weekend! The Holly Farm made every moment magical, and we will forever cherish our time spent there with the people we love most.

Found Gardener Ranch through Here Comes the Guide and loved it. Inquired about more information and…read morestarted looking at reviews on here. I saw a review left by Sarah A. about hemophobia, but gave the Ranch the benefit of the doubt, because they responded denying the claim. Anyways, I reached out multiple times and was very upfront about being queer. I was not answered once. Despite what they say, they don't host same-sex weddings - either that, or their organization skills are abysmal. Very disappointed -- wish I would have heeded another Yelper's warning

Love this venue! As a photographer this venue seems like it was made with a photographers eye…read more Every detail is thought of from the bridal suite to the gorgeous pool. To the black and white dance floor. I love it!

Mike and crew were great guides. Horses healthy and well taken care of. Beach ride is a trail…read moreride, nose to tail, but was still enjoyable.

Ten years ago exactly, I met Steve and his horses while on my travels (from England). It was a…read morelife-changer. I'll never forget his kindness, respect and map drawing in the sand while I rode Bailey - forwards and backwards; a far cry from the suburban nose-to-tails in Richmond Park, Surrey. Such fond memories and much missed, all of it. Highly recommended.