Cliffside icon
Big Sur
Post Ranch Inn
Perched 1,200 feet above the Pacific on Highway 1, this 40-room adults-only sanctuary earned three Michelin Keys and remains the definitive Big Sur splurge.
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For groups
A vineyard estate, taken over.
Reunions, milestones, and offsites, on an estate built to gather and to scatter.
Design This TripTake over a cluster of villas at Bernardus Lodge and Spa, where 28 acres of vineyard and garden give a group room to gather and to scatter. Open with a private tasting at the Bernardus Winery room in the village, then reconvene for a long, unhurried dinner at Lucia built around the kitchen garden and a 5,000-bottle cellar.
Fill the days with tee times across Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Spanish Bay, or send the non-golfers down the 17-Mile Drive to the Lone Cypress and a sunset bagpiper.
Close enough, yet your own.
Reserve the spa for a group afternoon, then let the team unwind on the patio under the valley stars, close enough to the action yet far enough to feel like your own estate.
What’s inside
- Villas across 28 vineyard and garden acres at Bernardus
- A private tasting at the Bernardus Winery room
- Tee times at Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Spanish Bay
- A long garden-to-table dinner at Lucia
- A group spa afternoon under the valley stars
A sample rhythm
- 01
Gather
Arrivals at the estate and a private winery tasting.
- 02
Play
Tee times at Pebble Beach, or the 17-Mile Drive for the rest.
- 03
The long table
An unhurried garden-to-table dinner at Lucia.
- 04
Unwind
A group spa afternoon and the patio under the stars.
The Big Sur & Carmelwe’d build in
The pieces that fit this trip.
Where to stay
A cliffside icon, a forest retreat, a village inn.
The peninsula keeps its great hotels in three distinct moods: the open cliffs of Big Sur, the sun-warmed vineyards of Carmel Valley, and the walkable heart of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
All-inclusive forest
Big Sur
Alila Ventana Big Sur
A 160-acre adults-only retreat of 54 rooms with Japanese hot baths and redwood groves, on an all-inclusive rate that folds in dining and wellbeing.
Visit official siteRelais and Chateaux
Carmel-by-the-Sea
L'Auberge Carmel
An intimate 20-room Relais and Chateaux hideaway in the heart of walkable Carmel, home to the two-Michelin-star Aubergine.
Visit official siteWine-country luxury
Carmel Valley
Bernardus Lodge and Spa
A 73-room estate on 28 acres of vineyards and gardens, pairing a 5,200-square-foot spa with its own-label Bernardus wines.
Visit official siteAll-suite family
Carmel Valley
Carmel Valley Ranch
A 500-acre all-suite ranch in the sunny Santa Lucia Mountains with a Pete Dye golf course, a working farm, and hands-on farmstead programming.
Visit official siteHistoric oceanfront
Carmel Highlands
Hyatt Carmel Highlands
A 1917-built clifftop hotel with sweeping Pacific views and oceanfront dining, minutes from the trails of Point Lobos.
Visit official siteOn the course
The most celebrated public golf in America.
Pebble Beach anchors a stretch of public golf without equal, from the oceanfront links that host the U.S. Open to the oldest course west of the Mississippi.
World-famous oceanfront
Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach Golf Links
The most celebrated public course in America, hugging the cliffs of Carmel Bay and a regular U.S. Open and AT&T Pro-Am host.
Visit official siteDunes and forest test
Pebble Beach
Spyglass Hill Golf Course
A Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that opens through Spanish Bay dunes before turning into the Del Monte Forest, widely rated among the toughest public courses.
Visit official siteScottish-style links
Pebble Beach
The Links at Spanish Bay
A windswept, links-inspired course along the dunes where a lone bagpiper plays out each sunset.
Visit official siteOnly NorCal Pete Dye bentgrass
Carmel Valley
Carmel Valley Ranch Golf
A par-70 Pete Dye design, the only Pete Dye bentgrass course in Northern California, with dramatic elevation changes and valley panoramas.
Visit official siteOldest course west of the Mississippi
Monterey
Del Monte Golf Course
Open since 1897 and the oldest continuously operating course west of the Mississippi, a classic, walkable parkland layout near downtown Monterey.
Visit official sitePar-3 short course
Pebble Beach
The Hay at Pebble Beach
A Tiger Woods-designed nine-hole par-3 short course on the historic Peter Hay grounds, lit for evening play and ideal for families and a quick round before dinner.
Visit official siteIn the glass
A walkable village pour and valley estates.
Wine tasting splits between the one-square-mile village, where roughly 14 rooms sit within a stroll, and the estate patios of Carmel Valley along the river.
Estate flagship
Carmel Valley
Bernardus Winery Tasting Room
The first tasting room ever opened in Carmel Valley, in 1994, pouring estate Bordeaux blends and Chardonnay on the patio or in the renovated Pon room.
Visit official siteGarden and live music
Carmel Valley
Folktale Winery and Vineyards
Fifteen sustainably farmed acres along the Carmel River with daily reservation-based tastings, weekend live music, and a lively wine-garden scene.
Visit official siteSelf-guided village tasting
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Carmel-by-the-Sea Wine Walk
A self-guided trail through roughly 14 walkable tasting rooms in the one-square-mile village, from Caraccioli to Silvestri and Dawn's Dream.
Visit official siteSparkling and Pinot
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Caraccioli Cellars
A family-owned Santa Lucia Highlands estate known for traditional-method sparkling wine and Pinot Noir, poured in an elegant Dolores Street salon.
Visit official siteMonterey-grown estate
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Scheid Family Wines
A sustainably farmed Monterey grower with a downtown Carmel tasting room showcasing single-vineyard bottlings from the cool Salinas Valley.
Visit official siteHistoric estate pours
Carmel Valley
Holman Ranch Tasting Room
A historic 1928 Carmel Valley estate pouring estate-grown Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Sauvignon Blanc in a stone-walled village tasting room on Carmel Valley Road.
Visit official siteSpa and stillness
Clifftop healing and vineyard treatments.
Recovery here means an outdoor thermal cycle, a redwood-shrouded sanctuary, or a grape-and-garden treatment among the vines, with the open Pacific never far.
Outdoor thermal cycle
Carmel Valley
Refuge
America's first co-ed outdoor relaxation spa, with hot pools, cold plunges, a Himalayan salt sauna, and eucalyptus steam across a hydrothermal cycle.
Visit official siteCliffside healing arts
Big Sur
The Spa at Post Ranch Inn
A clifftop spa of body therapies, shamanic and crystal sessions, and guided experiences set against the open Pacific.
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Big Sur
Spa Aiyana at Alila Ventana Big Sur
A redwood-shrouded spa weaving Big Sur botanicals into massage, facials, and Japanese-bath wellbeing rituals.
Visit official siteVineyard wellness
Carmel Valley
The Spa at Bernardus Lodge
A 5,200-square-foot vineyard spa offering grape-and-garden-inspired treatments, couples rooms, and dedicated wellness programming.
Visit official siteHilltop ranch
Carmel Valley
Spa at Carmel Valley Ranch
A hilltop spa pairing locally sourced treatments with yoga, lavender from the resort's own plantings, and valley views.
Visit official siteCliffside hot springs
Big Sur
Esalen Institute
The legendary cliffside retreat center on Highway 1, where clothing-optional hot-spring baths perched above the surf are open to overnight workshop guests and by limited late-night reservation.
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Tasting menus framed by the open Pacific.
The peninsula punches far above its size at the table, from clifftop tasting rooms over the ocean to a pair of Michelin-starred jewels tucked into the village streets.
Cliff-edge tasting
Big Sur
Sierra Mar
Post Ranch Inn's farm-driven dining room offers an ingredient-led tasting menu through floor-to-ceiling windows above the Pacific, backed by a Wine Spectator Grand Award cellar.
Visit official siteTwo Michelin stars
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Aubergine
Chef Justin Cogley's eight-course seasonal tasting menu at L'Auberge Carmel earned a second Michelin star in 2024, served beside a 3,700-bottle cellar.
Visit official siteOne Michelin star
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Chez Noir
Chef Jonny Black and Monique Black's seafood-centric prix-fixe is a community-driven, one-Michelin-star jewel tucked into the village streets.
Visit official siteGarden-to-table
Carmel Valley
Lucia Restaurant and Bar
Bernardus Lodge's Forbes Four-Star dining room builds California-regional plates around its organic kitchen garden, honey, and an award-winning 5,000-bottle cellar.
Visit official siteIconic coastal classic
Big Sur
Nepenthe
Open since 1949 and perched 800 feet above the ocean, Nepenthe pairs sweeping coastal views with California fare and the famed Ambrosia Burger.
Visit official siteResort farm-to-fork
Carmel Valley
Valley Kitchen
Carmel Valley Ranch's signature restaurant serves vibrant indoor-outdoor dining drawn from the resort's own farm and local producers.
Visit official siteOr another way
More ways to experience Big Sur & Carmel.
Private Group Retreat
Let’s design it around you.
Share what you can already picture. A concierge fills in everything still open and sends back a plan, not a quote.