Michelle and I recently celebrated five years of dating (August 1st!) by visiting Alila Ventana, a luxury hotel in nearby Big Sur. I thought I’d write a few tidbits about our experience; we did some research beforehand to make sure we were making the most of our time there, so maybe this will help others too.
Planning the visit
Funnily enough, we had booked a reservation here last year in 2024, but weren’t able to make it since I had a jury duty summons (after an already-deferred jury duty summons prior in the year). If I deferred it again I ran the risk of being summoned during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, so we decided to defer our anniversary celebration last year. I’m super glad we were finally able to do it, and 5 years is a nice round number that feels a tiny bit more special.
Getting There
From Potrero Hill in San Francisco, it took about 3 hours to make the drive on a Thursday morning. We deliberately left early in the morning so that we could make it by ~11:30am. I had made a reservation at Sur House, the restaurant on the property, so that we could start our stay earlier than room check-in and eat our first free all-inclusive meal!
Even though check-in is at 4pm, if you arrive earlier, your all-inclusive experience can begin earlier in the day.
Starting our experience
There are a number of activities available on the Alila website. You can book these with a special code that you can get from the hotel via email or phone (they use a code to ensure that only guests are able to reserve time slots for the activities). There wasn’t availability on the day we would be there for a couple’s massage, and so we opted for a kintsugi exercise instead.
While a lot of the activities have availability, we only looked into the spa about 1-2 weeks before our stay. I’d recommend looking earlier if massages and especially couples massages are in your ideal itinerary.
Kintsugi - ‘Perfectly Imperfect’
The activity is a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending with gold-mixed lacquer or epoxy. We liked this idea because the principle behind it is that repair is part of the history of an object, and an item can still be made beautiful and useful after a problem occurs. We broke and mended two small plates that now sit in our apartment as a reminder (and convenient souvenir) of our time there! We also saw some A-list celebrities as we walked into our class.. very cool!
Gym + Pool Time
After our class, our room became available. We checked in to our spacious suite (en-suite bathroom and outdoor hot tub included!) and quickly changed for a quick workout and poolside sit.
I will say, the ‘gym’ only had 2 pelotons, a rowing machine, 1 TRX suspension training set, and a dumbbell rack up to 50lb. I would have loved more machines, but the space was really small.
We got to the main pool (out of four) and lounged with some charcuterie (included for free) and drinks (not included!). Most people are in the same vibe, lounging under the umbrella covers or appreciating the view of the forest from the infinity hot tub. These two pools are clothing required, while the Japanese bath house and ‘Mountain Pool’ on the other side of the resort are clothing optional (we didn’t see anybody nude at those pools though). It was a great time to relax and read by the pool.
Dinner at Sur House
Definitely a highlight of the stay, dinner at Sur House had a wide variety of options to eat. We chose to have the scallop crudo, mussels, grilled octopus, and a campanelle pasta. I also added a third steak entree (extra $30). Our dessert had a cute “Happy Anniversary” tag on it, and we really appreciated the personal touch. We caught the sunset and went back to our room. Before turning in, we lit a fire in the room’s fireplace with a provided bag of firestarters and logs, which was super convenient (the matchbox is also a cute souvenir to keep).
Room service is also all-inclusive with a $10 fee per delivery. It takes about 30-40 minutes for delivery, but food still comes hot. I was curious about another entree so ordered the chicken. After the dinner and room service, we were so stuffed I passed out shortly afterward.
The final morning
Check out time was 11am, and we had to call the morning-of to ask for late checkout. It was a Friday though which seems to be their busiest day, so late checkout wasn’t accessible. We ordered one final room service for cappuccino and a quick bite before packing our bags and loading into the car. We still had time, so we took the walk around the grounds suggested on the map. It’s a 1.1 mile loop that brings you from the rooms to closer to the parking lot / Sur House. It takes you past the organic garden on-site so we popped in for a quick look at all the fresh herbs (many which are probably used for meals at Sur House!). We made it to Sur House for a final brunch reservation (talk about maximizing the value of all-inclusive). I was pretty full so I took half my brunch sandwich in a box to go (which they are happy to do).
The highlight - birds!
For our final activity, we booked a falconry experience on-site. The falconer comes by and we sat in the middle of the trail aptly named ‘redwood cathedral’. It is a pretty magical thing to see these birds of different shapes and sizes up close. For the first time in my life I saw a peregrine falcon - the fastest animal on the planet - as well as a burrowing owl (so smol), kestrel falcon, red tail hawk, great horned owl, and a harris’ hawk. We learned how these birds of prey play an important role in their food chain ecosystem, as well as how they are at risk due to the increasing development and urbanization of areas they are local to. It was definitely a special experience that I would really recommend! At the end, we were able to put on falconer’s gloves and do some landing tricks with the harris’ hawk ourselves. You really get the POV of a rabbit as the hawk descends on your hand.
Fin
All in all, a totally worthy experience. We used 90,000 Hyatt points to pay for the stay (cash price of the suite is between $2,000-$3,000 per night) and felt that we really maximized our all-inclusive time with all the meals. The activities and room service and tips added close to $1,000 of extra surcharge but I felt they were very worthwhile. Big Sur was a wonderful getaway from the city and only three hours away made it feel so surreal to be out with the redwoods. It was the perfect way to spend our five year anniversary together!