As I've mentioned before I have a passion for hotels and more than anything I love discussing them here with you all! The most important element of any hotel is its rooms...yes, the lobby can be great, the restaurant fantastic but ultimately if you are going to spend the night (and the money) then the room needs to be up to snuff. The High Priestess of any room is undoubtedly the bed and the sermon she preaches are the bed linens. I've said this before but in my book a prerequisite for any 5 star hotel is top of the line Egyptian cotton sheets and a plush mattress. The second prerequisite is an amazing bathroom. Those are the first things I check as soon as I enter a room and of course impeccable cleanliness is a must, that goes without saying!
So, the rooms at the Pelican Hill resort off the coast of Southern California (see my previous and forthcoming posts on the resort) pass the prerequisite test with flying colors. Now it gets trickier to differentiate the amazing rooms from the "in a league of their own" rooms. Decor starts to become important...questions like "when was this last updated, renovated?" start to be asked unconsciously...once again Pelican Hill had state of the art appliances and everything was, well, practically new.
The color palette of California neutrals allows the extraordinary ocean views to play a central role in the rooms, or bungalows as they are called, at Pelican Hill. Indeed, there are no elevators to get to your room only exquisitely lush courtyards leading to bungalows where visitors spend the night. A large fireplace in the center of my room was the great focal point, especially in the evenings...one simple flick of the switch and the sound of soothing flames filled the atmosphere. But most beautiful of all was the extraordinary balcony with ocean view...it will melt the hardest of hearts and turn the greatest cynic into a ridiculous optimist...
