Customer Reviews

California Coast Getaways: Classic Resorts and Inns Along the Coast Between San Francisco and Los Angeles

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Some of the worst cynics in the world are travel writers, people who have been everywhere, done everything...and like absolutely nothing any more. So it was quite refreshing to come upon Tom Wilmer's "California Coast Getaways," composed with what seems like genuine wide-eyed curiosity about, and sincere appreciation for 32 classic inns, bed-and-breakfasts, and dude ranches sprinkled from Santa Cruz County down to the Ojai Valley (what's often called California's "Middle Kingdom"). Wilmer offers first-person field reports that not only provide basic info, but introduce readers to the owners of his favorite old hotels and suggest some low-impact adventures--from kayaking to gliding--to keep vacationers occupied between sumptuous repasts and poachings in the hot tub. Historical anecdotes keep the narrative rolling. Did you know, for instance, that Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle built the Montecito Inn at Montecito? Or that Czar Nicholas II's last vice-counsel to the United States once owned a cabin on the Santa Cruz site of today's Babbling Brook Inn? I look forward to seeing (in some future book) Wilmer's take on the resorts/inns along the rest of California's long coastline. His book is a friendly, fascinating, sometimes funny traveling companion