Hotel Review: Carmel Valley Ranch

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Hi! It’s been a long time since I did a hotel review, partially do to life changes (KIDS) and partially due to the pandemic. I’ve also been a little lazy for the last few years in this area. My travel used to be much more “Instagram friendly” – and if I’m being super honest I thought my life would stay like that forever, and having to descend to traveling with children was simply a fate that befell other people. We recently came back from Carmel Valley Ranch however, and I really enjoyed the experience and also had so many little tips I thought of for families (with children) that I wanted to do a review. So fair warning: I’m going to try and do more travel posts, and while I’ll try to make them universal, they’ll have quite a lot of details for those with kids! So let’s go:

The room: we did a hilltop ranch suite on recommendation from our advisor and it was perfect. This is I believe the base (or near base) one bedroom suite – though there are smaller “studio” suites that would be very nice for a couple! For families of 4+ however, I think the ranch suites and above are ideal.

No real extra frills but with lots of space, a smart layout with the living room and bedroom clearly separate, with the bathroom in between. A decent sized balcony with some nice chairs out front. The sofa in the living room easily becomes a sofa bed and more importantly, the sofa bed is quite comfortable – always important as I’ve seen some terrible ones! The rooms have clearly been designed with larger families in mind which I really appreciate. There was also a nice dining area with chairs, but we rarely used this.

The food: there’s a few options on the resort. A restaurant in the main lodge/reception building, a restaurant at the pool, and one at the golf club. We never went to the golf club. We ate at the pool restaurant, once – the menu is strict pool type food, like pizza and hot dogs. Lunch for four ran around $80 I want to say? Also if you’re in the mood for a burger, you can only find it at the pool and golf restaurants – the main restaurant (see more below) doesn’t serve burgers. Making a special point here as I really love burgers!

We ate dinner both nights at the restaurant in the main lodge, called Valley Kitchen. The meal for two adults, two kids ran around $150, or $200+ with some alcohol. Definitely not inexpensive, and I think you could drive ~15 minutes to Carmel downtown for some less expensive options. There is a level of laziness/inertia however – you just have to walk a few minutes to have dinner on property. The food was good (standouts being the lamb and the tuna poke appetizer). And the servers were great and had the usual coloring sheets/crayons for kids.

Hot top: if you want to eat outside (for Covid safety reasons or whatever), do make reservations a few days in advance in busy periods. Otherwise you might only have the option to eat indoors.

For lunch, you have the option of a little cafe, called The Market, located near the concierge area – there are espressos on offer, ice cream, grab and go sandwiches, cookies, etc. The prices aren’t great – I would say even slightly higher than the cafes at say, the Four Seasons Hawaii properties, etc. One relative “bargain” for kids I wanted to share are these $5 sandwiches – the turkey wrap especially!

Another tip: if you’re driving up locally, considering bringing some drinks and snacks with you, including possibly perishables. There is a mini fridge in each of the rooms in which we stored sparkling waters, etc. Next time I’d even consider bringing some little yogurts, etc – just handy to not have to pay $12 or whatever for a tiny smoothie multiple times, etc.

A note for couples/travelers without kids: I thought the resort did a nice job of segregating the louder families with young children with those visitors looking for a calmer getaway. There’s an adult pool, and at the restaurants I noticed they did try to seat the couples apart from the families with kids. And after 8 or so PM, most of the younger kids clear out as they start their bedtimes, and you can have fun with some drinks at the bar and watch the sunset!

One standout benefit are the complimentary s’mores each night. I really don’t understand why more properties don’t offer this – it is awesome and so memorable and fun and pretty inexpensive to offer. They come in little kits and the hotel also has a bucket for “clean” skewers and for “used” skewers. Wonderful and the fire pits were never too crowded after dinner. Kids love it and also there’s no need to order dessert! Just have s’mores!

Activities and grounds: To me, this is where CVR really shines. There are a ton of activities! Some are paid, but they look pretty cool. I was looking forward to doing the bee keeping one but they must have raised the minimum age at some point, so we ended up not doing it. But there was enough to explore on property at your own leisure. Our kids loved walking to the garden (super easy hike…like fifteen minutes) each day and then walking over to the farm to check out the chickens and feed the goats.

The pool, of course, was a key attraction. Because CVR is so large our rooms were far enough that we had to drive to the pool – there’s a small parking lot next to the pool house and we never had trouble getting a spot. The pools are saltwater and you can definitely tell the difference on your skin – a little gentler.

A few notes: the pool was pretty crowded. There might be times you have to wait for chairs. The property sells pool memberships to locals which means that when school is out/on the weekends, it can be quite a lot of people. We never felt overly crowded in though, and there are also two hot tubs and a little baby pool and sprinkler splash area kids can run through. I had meant to take a photo so you could see the true state but honestly each time we approached you could hear the pandemonium and I’d get a little stressed….that feeling of “ahh! We have to get some chairs!” mixed with the kids yelling and I forgot both times. Just imagine the photo above with lots and lots of people and mayhem.

Also note that my comments are for the “family” pool only….the adults only pool whenever I passed looked pretty quiet, though in the afternoons there were a decent number of people as well. Nothing like the chaos and ruckus of the family pool though. I would say nearly everyone aged 15 to 30 and 50 and over was at the nice adult pool. Haha.

Value: I don’t know if it’s just because so many locals are choosing staycations this year, but CVR is expensive. Especially on weekends. It stings a little because we’d originally booked it for late last year and ended up having to cancel because that was when Covid numbers really started to surge…I think the rate we paid the summer was literally 3X more. And it wasn’t even the highest rate we saw. But it’s the price you pay for timing, the weather, convenience, and most importantly, an economy which is no longer staggering under a pandemic. Yeah!!

That being said: if you can, I might try to wait to book in the low seasons (late fall/winter) – prices already look a lot better then. I think it’d be the perfect property when less crowded, too…just an easier time, a little more quiet, less stress. And, less money! That being said, I truly loved our stay and would really recommend it both to couples without children AND families with young kids. The resort does a wonderful job catering to both. I’d say Carmel Valley Ranch is worth the money paid even in high season, but an especially nice time in low season.

Have you been here? I’d love to hear your thoughts!