Okay, so I know you may be looking at my reviews and thinking, "Whoa, this girl is way heavy with the five star reviews" -- but, hey, maybe the reality of the situation is that I'm only truly motivated to write about places when they are very very good, as opposed to some folks who are motivated to write only when they encounter a situation that is very very bad. Or maybe the reality of the situation is that you would never say the word "Whoa" much less think it, and you have no idea what I'm talking about.
In any case, the Emerald Iguana deserves five stars, no matter what my mental state at the moment I write this.
I came here with my friend Julia because for some strange reason I have wanted to enjoy a long weekend vacation in Ojai since I was a about 12 years old. Maybe it was the memory of my Mom -- my crystal-loving self-help 80's Reverend of the Church of Divine Man (that's the church of the Berkeley Psychic Institute, in case you were wondering) Mom talking about it in some reference to a spiritual nudist massage crystal healing retreat she attended, or maybe because I read about it as the location for the film Lost Horizon, and it was a iiteral Shangri-La, or maybe it was because I was a big Jennifer Jason Leigh fan in the 90s and I read about how her sister ran away to the circus in Ojai.
Anyhow, I wanted to go there, and it was my turn to pick a location with my travel buddy Julia. She is a Libra/Scorpio and I am a Scorpio/Libra and we work so well together. So picked Ojai and found this place online, and boy, it really delivered.
The only slightly strange thing that was on the website it said we had to check in at the sister hotel the Blue Iguana, and the directions lead to there, but when we showed up there they acted like we were a little crazy and told us to check in at our actual hotel, which is the nicer one that does not allow kids or dogs.
Don't get me wrong, I love dogs, but any hotel that does not allow kids, therefore allowing a much more enjoyable experience in the sauna and hot tub as well as over all - is a hotel for me.
Aside from that there was no weirdness in our visit at all. Strictly top shelf all the way.
The first night, Saturday, we had the Grasshopper room, which is also the smallest and cheapest, and the only one still available for that night that was not a large suite that two gal pals did not need.
On our second day there, the lovely lady working at the desk (sorry I don't remember her name) offered us a free upgrade to a large suite (Cricket) bigger than either of our apartments back home.
It was hard to say no so we didn't, but in the end we really loved our sweet Grasshopper room the best. Check out the photos online and you might feel the same. Still, we enjoyed a lovely 2 nights here at the cheapest rate, and had two televisions so we could watch Golden Girls in stereo. Yeah! Golden Girls rock.
The hot tub was LOVELY in the beautiful patio, and the pool was cool (this was January, folks!), but fun for a hot to cold dip. Nice breakfast buffet.
I will also say that we both enjoyed an in-room massage from Elizabeth that was one of the best both of us have ever had. Yeah!
Ojai rocks - especially if you like Spanish architecture, citrus, and historic California.
Also, I accidentally came home with one of their robes (it was Mercury Retrograde), which I plan to send back, and they didn't charge me for it! read more