I first heard about the Alila Ventana Big Sur from another travel blogger who reviewed it almost a year and a half ago. After reading the review, I rushed over to the Hyatt website and booked the hotel for two nights on points. I wanted to stay here because I’ve never stayed at an Alila property before, but also mainly because this was an all-inclusive hotel in California! I’ve only seen all-inclusive hotels in Mexico so I knew this hotel was going to be special. I made this reservation a whole year in advance so you can only imagine how excited I was once the date finally came.

 

Alila Ventana Big Sur Review

Cost

I booked the Alila Ventana Big Sur all on points over a year ago. At that time, the regular rooms were going for only 30,000 points a night. I booked it before Hyatt’s hotel tier increase (Category 7 to now Category 8) and before the off-peak/peak pricing went into effect. A standard Category 8 would normally cost you 40,000 points/night, but after looking at the points calendar, it seems that Hyatt has deemed this hotel to be peak pricing most of the time. So, you should really budget 45,000 points/night if you want to go on a weekend or during months when the weather is nice. 

If you are planning on actually paying the daily rate, I’ve seen the room rates start anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500 a night. After staying here for two days, I can honestly say that it is not worth paying the money for. If you are going to book this place, I would definitely do it on points. 

Insider Tip: These point redemption rooms are really hard to come by. Most of them are sold out until next year. If you don’t mind doing things last minute though, you can find point-redemption rooms for that day or the next. I checked today and there was a room available for tonight! To be honest though, you would probably have to live close by to make a day trip like this. 

 

Location

The Alila Ventana Big Sur is about a 6-hour drive from Los Angeles or about a 3-hour drive from San Francisco. If you are flying, the closest major airport would be San Jose (SJC) and will be a little more than a 2-hour drive. We decided to make a road trip out of it so we did the drive from L.A. to Big Sur. If you’re going to do the same drive, keep in mind that once you get into Big Sur, the roads get super windy and there is NO RECEPTION. Both my friend and I had work to do on the drive up and completely missed conference calls and emails for at least two hours. 

 

 

Room

Our room was the typical One King Bed since I booked on points. I was hoping that I was going to get upgraded to a suite since most of the hotel is made up of suites but alas, I did not. We did get upgraded to a nicer One King Bed though which I’ll explain more under the Globalist section. We were located in the Ridge House in the Corner Room #34. We didn’t have an ocean-facing room, but instead had a forest/mountain-facing room. This was fine with us since I feel like it’s more rare to have a view of the forest than the ocean.

 Alila Ventana Big Sur Property Map

 

Food and Alcohol

Since the Alila Ventana Big Sur is an all-inclusive hotel, I was really excited to stuff my face! Unfortunately, I have to say that I was a little disappointed by the offerings. First and foremost, you should know that alcohol is NOT included. I feel like they shouldn’t use the term “all-inclusive” if it’s not truly “all-inclusive” but I already knew this before booking. There wasn’t even a basic house beer or house wine that you can get with dinner. Also, all the alcohol was overpriced. I guess it’s to make up for all the “free” food, but it kind of ruined the overall dining experience. Cocktails were $18 and wines by the glass averaged around $20/glass.

Second, there is only one restaurant (Sur House) inside the main resort. That means your breakfast, lunch, and dinner will all be in the same place. Although, there is a BBQ joint down at the base of the resort, but you will have to drive there. If we stayed one more night, we probably would have tried that place instead for one of our meals. 

Lastly, the menu does not change daily so you’ll see the same items every day. This is really disappointing seeing that there is only one restaurant so you don’t really have choices. Also, it’s all mostly American food so if you’re looking for something international, they won’t have it.

 

Pool

There are two pools on the property. One of them is the main pool (Meadow Pool) by the spa that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. The other pool (Mountain Pool) is set more inside the resort and it is a ”clothing-optional” pool. They don’t really advertise it on the website so I just want my readers to be aware at least. We visited both pools and the clothing-optional pool was completely empty. Most everyone went to the main Meadow Pool including my friend and I. There’s also an infinity hot tub there where I spent most of my time reading. 

Something special about Alila Ventana Big Sur is that they have these Japanese Hot Baths right by the gym. These are secluded outdoor hot tubs that are separated by genders and I believe these baths are also clothing-optional. I would just keep in mind that these are more western-style than the serene nature-like baths that you would find in Japan. 

 

Spa

Unfortunately, I did not get to try the spa due to lack of time and honestly, money!

 

Activities

This is something that we really failed at. The resort had a lot of activities (hiking, yoga, etc.) that we wanted to try but honestly didn’t have time. I thought staying two nights would give us a good sense of the hotel, but it really didn’t. There was so much to do around Big Sur that the only things we had time for at the hotel were the meals and the pool.

 

Service

I have to say that the service here was incredible! Especially the room service deliveries and the drivers that took you around the resort. They don’t have ice machines so you have to order it from the front desk. Every time we would order it, they would literally be at our door within 5 minutes. Same thing for when we needed a golf cart to take us to dinner. It took them no more than 5 minutes to pick us up.

 

Gratuities/Tips

When you check in at the Alila Ventana Big Sur, the front desk agent will let you know that all gratuities are included with the price of your stay. This was a nice surprise since I feel like tips are never included. There is the option to tip extra though. We were confused and had to ask because all of our bills came with tip lines to fill in, but those are optional. 

 

Alila Ventana Big Sur Globalist Benefits

Room Upgrade

We weren’t lucky enough to get a suite upgrade but we did get an overall room upgrade from a “One King Bed” to a “One King Bed with a Fireplace.” The room was actually super spacious and could have been a suite. There was a sleeping area, a living/wet bar area, a patio, and an extra large bathroom. It was definitely more room than you usually get in a regular hotel room. 

 

Free Breakfast

Since the food is all-inclusive, your Globalist free breakfast benefit doesn’t mean anything. Everyone gets the same breakfast options. I do highly recommend the avocado toast though. It was super light and refreshing. It was so good that I got it for breakfast both days that we were there. 

 

Parking

You can either self-park or valet. Since Globalists get free parking on award stays, we decided to just valet. 

 

Waived Resort Fees

Globalists get waived resort fees on paid and award stays. 

 

Bottled Water

There were bottles of water in the room already.

 

Priority Access to Room (aka Early Check-In)

We did not get early check-in. We got there around 3:30 p.m. and didn’t get to check in until actual check-in time. They did allow us to go to the pool and order snacks while we waited for our room. 

 

Late Check-Out

We were planning to drive back down to L.A. so we couldn’t utilize the late check-out. We did ask if we could check-out at noon instead of 11:00 a.m. and they happily accommodated. 

 

Conclusion

I had an amazing time at the Alila Ventana Big Sur, but I don’t think I will be back. Especially now that it takes 45,000 points per night to stay here. The main reasons are that there is only one restaurant, the menu doesn’t change, and there is no alcohol included. Now that AMResorts are a part of Hyatt, I would rather save my points and spend it on a real “all-inclusive” resort or spend it at the Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas instead.

 

Pictures