This past weekend was by far one of the best weekends I have had in a while. Not only was it the weekend prior to my birthday, but I got to spend it at the Terranea Resort which is located along one of Southern California's most scenic coastlines, FOR FREE!
The property has a 270 degree oceanfront view and is probably the only luxury resort destination located at the Los Angeles coast. The other luxury hotels that I know of are mostly located more in the Orange County. Such as the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, Montage in Laguna Beach or Pelican Hill in Newport Beach. Unfortunately, given that it's a relatively new resort, plus it is located at such a reclusive location, not a lot of people in LA know about it. I did some simple comparison on Google map and found that this resort actually isn't too far from everywhere else in LA. It is about 20 miles from Los Angeles International and Long Beach airport; about 30 miles southwest of Downtown LA; and it's 45 minutes away from major attractions in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
To reflect the Mediterranean nature of the resort's coastal setting, you'll see hints of Mediterranean influence throughout the resort's architecture and design, which I kind of prefer over extremely fancy decoration with flowered wallpaper matched up with everything in gold tones.
After 11 days of retweeting, I had no luck. But on the very last day... I was selected as the winner!!! And just like that, I won the biggest prize of the giveaway - 2 night stay at an ocean view room! :D I couldn't believe my eyes because I never win random stuff like this.
We headed to the resort on Friday night to start off the birthday weekend at mar'sel, the fine-dining restaurant on the property. It was too dark to take good picture of the courses we ordered so here's a picture of the delicious starter bread. On a side note, the drive there was extremely fun it was a windy road that was fairly hilly and pitch dark, I even had to switch on my high beam light from time to time.
It was literally pitch dark outside after we finished our dinner (around 10pm) so we just checked-in and headed straight for our hotel room. Upon checking in, we each received a glass of champagne :) Cheers!
Although the wifi at the resort was free, it was very unstable. I guess that was a good thing because we didn't have the patience to wait for our laptops to load and we stayed off our iPhones for the majority of the time. It was truly a relaxed getaway, everything was off our minds.
The room we got was a standard size guest room with a king bed. Each room at the resort has a balcony that extends out. Our view was facing the side of the mar'sel restaurant. It wasn't the best of the views, but then again, it was a free stay, I can't complain :P
Here's a little welcoming birthday gift waiting for me in the room.
We came to the realization that the best reason for staying in a hotel is that we get to watch TV in a comfortable, big bed! I haven't had the luxury of doing that for a long time. We watched multiple TV show (there was a really good episode of CSI Las Vegas on haha) and a few good movies.
The next morning we started the day off with brunch at Catalina Kitchen. I can't describe the feeling when we were able to arrive at the restaurant within a 3 minute walk from our room. Catalina Kitchen serves Californian/Mediterranean cuisine. But since we were there for breakfast, I got a single order of Belgium waffles while he ordered an all-you-can eat buffet. The weather was absolutely gorgeous that weekend. We sat at the outdoor patio onlooking the resort pool.
When we made sure we have stuffed ourselves, we began our adventure on the resort. At first we wanted to join one of the many Pointe Discovery activities, there are horseback riding, kayaking, tidepooling, etc. But the cheapest activity to sign up for was $49/person and I noticed that it had changed to $79 on the bulletin board.... perhaps for the weekend since it was so busy. So, we decided to explore the property on our own, at our own pace.
First stop was the golfing range. Since I'm not familiar with golf at all, so I can't really explain anymore than that it is has 1,239 yards form the back tees, with a par of 27. From my understanding, it is not a full golf course, so for more professional golfers, they would prefer going to the nearby Trump National Golf Club which has the entire course.
We just walked along the trail and sighed every second at the beautiful view :)
The weather is breathtaking isn't it? One downside is that there isn't any beach by the resort so we can't go down and run in the waters.
This is the other side of the resort, the Spa and Bungalows. I was curious to know how much it costs to stay in the bungalow for a night but the website kept on popping out error, so maybe you can figure it out on your spare time.
I was also very tempted to get a massage at the Spa but the cheapest session costs $100 for 30 minutes! Definitely not something I can easily afford as a student right now... maybe I will come back after I start to earn my own money!
As we walked on, I noticed there's a lighthouse from far away that looks pretty cute! Instead of walking all the way there, we took a complimentary shuttle.
So it turns out that there was a festival at the Point Vicente Lighthouse that weekend. There were animals such as llamas, turtle, and random stands selling handmade accessories.
By the lighthouse was a small US military exhibition showcasing their helicopter, trucks, cars, etc. I have to admit it was kind of boring and the view of the lighthouse was much better from far away than closeup, but it was still fun just looking around.
When we got back, we were greeted by a group of Lamborghini at the front entrance.
After enjoying another movie in the hotel room, my friends started to arrive one by one :) For dinner tonight, I made reservations at Nelson's because I knew they have a lot of seats on the patio with fire pits. I thought it would have the perfect view to see the sunset.
First of all, I called a week in advance to book an outdoor patio seat by the fire pit because I wanted my friends to see the sunset and roast s'mores afterwards. But when I checked in at the restaurant and reminded them of my seat request by the fire pit, they said "they are working on it." Instantly I knew something was wrong, sure enough, we didn't get the fire pit seats. The waitress claimed that those seats are available for whoever was there and we can go there too, but we all know that if you occupied those seats in the first place, you'll never leave! Thankfully, the waiters had the sense of moving 5 of the heater lamps around us, otherwise we'll probably be freezing to death after the sun set. But I was still very upset that we didn't get the seat that I requested. They should've told us that fire pit seats were not reservable...
Second, the service was super slow. I know there were a lot of people there on a weekend night so they should arrange more waiters/waitresses.
Next, our waitress had a bad attitude. When our dishes started arriving (after a loooong wait) a couple dishes were still missing because she brought the wrong dishes. Then she started speaking in a demanding voice asking us who ordered it. Sigh, such a disappointment. I didn't have high expectation of the food there actually but as a resort, I think service and ambiance should their top priority!
Since we never got to occupy the fire pit seats... and I've already bought a s'more pack at Sea Beans, coffee shop at Terranea, we had to find somewhere with a fire pit. Luckily, we were able to find one by the Lobby Bar.
Woohoo! I have always liked marshmallow :) Instead of having a birthday cake (meaning I'm getting older and older) I chose to have s'mores this year! Each of my friends and I took our turn to roast the marshmallow.
Kevin's caught on FIRE became the highlight of the night.
After we all ate our s'mores, it was gift opening time!
I feel LOVED by my friends! It already meant a lot to me that they drove all the way down to Palos Verdes to celebrate my birthday since I was staying at the resort. They all wrote a CARD to me (which is the thing that I care about the most).
Yes, I got teary within 3 seconds... I didn't disappoint my friends XD
And here are all my gifts~~ I love them so much~~
Thank you Terranea, for a great birthday getaway at the :')
(But please remember to work on your service at Nelson's!)
I'm already thinking of where we should go for the next getaway, any suggestions? ;)
Terranea Resort
Category: Hotel
Address: 100 Terranea Way. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Phone: (310)265-2800
Website: http://www.terranea.com
No comments:
Post a Comment