Archive for the 'Big Sur' Category
Get a third night for free at 35 California hotels
October 21, 2009 5:59am
Buy two, get one free. That’s the idea behind the Third Night Free offer at 35 California hotels run by Joie de Vivre, a boutique chain based in San Francisco. Launched to promote the company’s new “Joie of Life” micro-site that focuses on social networking, the deal isn’t being advertised on the chain’s main website. But you can book it there anyway — if you know the code.
The deal is worth hunting up because Joie de Vivre runs a lot of fun and well-located hotels in a range of prices, such as San Francisco’s Hotel Rex and Hotel Vitale, Hotel Angeleno in Los Angeles and Hotel Erwin at Venice Beach. The 411:
Deal: Pretty straightforward. You book a room for three nights in a row, and the third night is free. There are two ways to get the deal: You can book it through the Third Night Free section of the Joie of Life micro-site or go to the regular Joie de Vivre website and enter the code “JOIE” in the “Promo Code” window when making a reservation. The micro-site lists the participating hotels, with nightly rates that start at $79 to $459, depending on the hotel.
Big Sur: Watch for endangered California condors Sept. 13 on coastal tour
September 10, 2009 1:21pm
Among the 130 threatened or endangered wild-animal species in our state is the California condor. The largest flying bird in North America, it can be found in areas from Big Sur on down to Southern California’s Sespe Wilderness, as well as in the Grand Canyon, according to the Ventana Wildlife Society.
This nonprofit group, which works to conserve various native animals and their habitats, conducts viewing tours of the birds in Big Sur on the second Sunday of every month, and the next one is this Sunday, Sept.. 13. On these tours, you have a very good chance of seeing one or more condors, organizers say, and are virtually guaranteed to learn at least a little something along the way.
Starting at the organization’s “bird-banding lab” in Andrew Molera State Park, the two-hour tour is by caravan, in participants’ own vehicles. Driving along the coast, tour-goers stop at pullouts in areas frequented by condors, while the guide presents information regarding condor biology, the Big Sur birds individually and as a whole, and the organization’s condor restoration program. Read the rest of this entry »
Last-minute Labor Day campsites at California state parks
September 3, 2009 1:04pm
Time is running out if you want to reserve a campsite for Labor Day weekend at California state parks. And don’t expect to get a prime spot. Fortunately, about two dozen parks offer camping on a first-come, first-served basis. You just have to get there early; most of these campgrounds will fill up by early tomorrow ( Friday), park officials say. Here are your options:
Reserve a campsite: You need to book at least 48 hours in advance of arrival with the ReserveAmerica service. So the earliest night you can book today is for Saturday, and you need to book by 5 p.m. PDT. More than 30 parks still had weekend campsites available as of Wednesday. Typically, these are primitive sites, and you often must walk a ways to get to them. Or they are inland, in warmer areas. Among the parks with space were Orange County’s Crystal Cove (campsites, not the cottages, which were booked) and Cuyamaca Rancho in San Diego County.
Take your chances: A total of 26 California state parks and recreation areas accept at least some campers on a first-come, first-served basis, usually at sites with few services. Among them are Andrew Molera State Park (pictured) in the Big Sur area, and Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Fall for a $99 stay at ‘rustic’ Big Sur River Inn
August 20, 2009 11:17am
After summer road-trippers are gone but before winter delivers its consistent coats of cold air and rain, fall is a beautiful time to visit California’s Big Sur area. Lush and leafy, coastal and cozy, Big Sur is one of those magical places that draws its fans back again and again to hike and adventure, watch for warblers or simply skip rocks riverside.
If you’re staying in the region, you’ve got a wide range of lodgings to choose from, like camping, staying in a yurt or cabin, or luxuriating at the romantic Post Ranch Inn. If you’re on a budget, though, and want to sleep indoors, one of the best deals I’m seeing in fall is at Big Sur River Inn. But there’s a caveat. See below.
Deal: At Big Sur River Inn, you can take advantage of a “$99 Fall Back Special,” which gives you, for that appealing pre-tax rate, a queen-bed room for two with a full breakfast off the menu thrown in for both members of the party (note that tip is not included). Read the rest of this entry »
Higher fees at California state parks start today: Where to find details
August 17, 2009 5:34pm
Starting today, Aug. 17, it will cost you more to visit and camp at many California state parks. In some cases, the cost has doubled.
The increases stem from California’s budget crises, which has put the state billions of dollars in debt. “In these dire economic times, we can longer afford to keep our fees at their current levels,” State Parks Director Ruth Coleman said last week in announcing the fee hikes.
Officials waited until today to release a park-by-park rundown of the new fees for day use and camping. Among Southern California parks affected, with sample fees:
> Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: Parking went from $6 per day year-round to $5 to $8, depending on the season. Borrego Palm Canyon developed campsites with hookups were $24 to $29 per night, depending on season; now $35 year-round.
Ritz-Carlton’s $199 sale at two California coastal resorts
May 18, 2009 8:52am
Ritz-Carlton is selling rooms for $199 during the prime summer season at two luxury California coastal resorts, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Orange County and and Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay south of San Francisco, where nightly rates often start at more than $300. The deal, called the California Coast Summer Special, was put up at 7 a.m. today and is scheduled to last 72 hours.
Jennifer Chiesa, spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, said, “We have great availability, especially during the weekdays,” when the $199 rate applies. In a quick check online around 7:30 a.m., I found the deal at both hotels for a weekday stay that I checked, June 23-24 (Tuesday and Wednesday).
The deal: You must reserve by May 20, and the deal is supposed to be good for weekday stays Memorial Day through Labor Day, according to a Ritz-Carlton news release. But exact travel dates may vary. Half Moon’s website listed the deal as good for stays May 21 to Sept. 7; Laguna Niguel’s said May 18 to Sept. 30.
Roundup: JetBlue one-day sale, fares from $39 OW in California; AirTran sale, $119 OW cross-country; Travel + Leisure best affordable beach resorts
March 4, 2009 8:51am
JetBlue is having a one-day sale — today. Fares start as low as $29 each way, pre-tax, but the lowest I found out of Long Beach was $39 each way to Oakland (OAK), Sacramento (SAC), San Francisco (SFO) or San Jose (SJC). Those are good deals, but flights to Portland, Ore. (PDX), Seattle (SEA) and Salt Lake City (SLC) were especially cheap, at $49 each way, pre-tax. Book your flight today by 10:59 p.m. PST for travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from March 10 to April 1, 2009.
[Note: They also have fares from Burbank (BUR) to Vegas (LAS) for $29 each way, and Burbank to New York for $69 each way, pre-tax.]
California coast trip, Day 6: From Nepenthe to Half Moon Bay, with stops to chat along the way
January 7, 2009 1:30pm
The day is done, and I have in my right shirt pocket a matchbook from Nepenthe, a Junipero Serra prayer card from the mission in Carmel, and a receipt for a perfectly adequate scallops dinner here in Half Moon Bay.
Which means, dinner snarkiness aside, that I put in a lot of stops along the 167 miles between Ragged Point and here. And it’s a funny thing. Some days, on a trip like this, you fall into a landscape habit and spend the day walking or climbing, but you don’t talk much with other people. Other days, you bounce from one conversation to another, never get to half the spots on your itinerary, yet feel great about the way it turned out.
And then there are days like today: landscape and people, people and landscape.
California coast trip, Day 5: unexpected rewards in Morro Bay, cranky elephant seals farther north
January 6, 2009 12:46pm
Sometimes the key to a great travel day is something you did the day before — making a reservation, say, or getting a tip from a local. In my case, the key to a great Day 5 was what I failed to do on Day 4.
If I’d bothered to check the weather for Morro Bay, I’d have seen an overnight low in the high 30s — and that alone might have banished the thought of a little hike at dawn. But I didn’t see the weather report, and I did get up early and hustled up to the top of Black Hill (661 feet above sea level and very close to my hotel).
The reward didn’t come easily. I got to the top all right, but the sun and clouds played peekaboo for a good half-hour before spilling light over the rippling green hills, the long spit of seaside dunes, the coastal mountains to the north (Santa Lucia?), and finally Morro Rock itself, which rises 578 feet from the sea. That was a nice moment, which I savored with my hat on snug and fingers stuffed into my pockets.
And about the sea. If I’d read that weather report, it would have prepared me for an afternoon high of about 58, with light rain. That’s not the sort of news that prompts most people to say, “Hey, let’s go sit in kayaks and let the wind come screaming at us across the frigid water!” Read the rest of this entry »
12 books of Christmas: ‘John Muir’s Botanical Legacy’
December 21, 2008 4:00pm
Most coffee table books let the photos do the heavy lifting.
Not so “Nature’s Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir’s Botanical Legacy,” by Bonnie J. Gisel, with images by Stephen J. Joseph and foreword by David Rains Wallace (Heyday Books, $45).
Don’t misunderstand: It is beautifully illustrated with the species that Muir catalogued on his numerous journeys. (The book is divided into sections: “From Scotland to Wisconsin,” “Canada and Indianapolis,” “Kentucky to the Gulf of Mexico,” “California” and “Alaska.”)
