Laguna | two SoCal beach resorts

view from Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel

I was in Southern California for one night this week and spent the evening at Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel. While there, I had site inspections both of the Ritz Carlton and the Montage Laguna Beach. Here are my impressions of these two beach resorts.

I learned an interesting fact about Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel — it's the first resort that RC ever built. Located above one hundred feet above a long beach, the hotel offers incredible views of the Pacific Ocean. The beach view is so picturesque and inviting that there's a live web cam shown on four large screens behind the front desk... The resort has 396 rooms, and it's definitely worth getting a coastline view room for the beautiful view.

We were upgraded to a Garden View 1BR Club Suite. The rooms at RC Laguna Niguel have recently been renovated, and the results were very pleasant with a restful color scheme (blues and a pastel sea foam green) that gives a sense of place to this seaside resort. Our Suite had a powder room off the living room, and the main bathroom was large with dual vanities. A louvered door separated the vanity area from a smaller room with toilet and shower/bathtub combo.

Regular guest rooms feel spacious with the same color scheme as the suites. Additional space has been captured by removing the credenza from the wall opposite the bed, mounting the flat screen television on the wall, and moving the drawer space into a closet area. The bathroom had dual vanities and the same shower/tub combo. (The resort is 30 years old, and although it feels fresh, plumbing choices were made before separate step-in showers became the standard for luxury hotels).

I enjoyed the food. We ate Friday night at 180BLU, an open-air bar and restaurant overlooking the sea — very informal with a live musician playing an acoustic guitar. Our Saturday morning breakfast was enjoyed at Raya — we had a window seat in front of huge windows facing the sea from which we enjoyed watching the early morning surfers.

view from the lobby of Montage Laguna Beach

Montage Laguna Beach is a newer resort, built 7 years ago, just 10 minutes up the coast from the Ritz Carlton. A more intimate (just 248 guestrooms), our first impression of the property was the inviting lobby area with its inviting living room/lounge area overlooking the Pacific. Light and bright with a white wood cathedral ceiling, it feels like a casual yet elegant beach bungalow.

There are three categories of guest rooms at Montage. Every room faces the ocean, and Virtuoso guests receive an upgrade at the time of booking. You can see some ocean from the lead-in Horizon rooms, but Virtuoso guests are upgrade to Coastal rooms with quite a full view of the ocean. Book a Coastal Room, and you'll enjoy the upgrade to a Surf Room that has views of the ocean and the white sand beache. Guestrooms are a large 500 square feet, and bathrooms come with dual vanities, separate step-in shower and soaking tub, and a WC. The rooms have a residential feel that seemed just a bit tired to me; they could really benefit from new furnishings that reflect the casual elegance of the resort's wonderful lobby.

For a third option along the Pacific Coast in Orange County, consider Pelican Hill. A review from my previous stay can be found here.

copyright (c) 2015 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.