Hotels: Rancho Valencia
So for our two night stay in San Diego between the Disneyland excursion and the flight to Hawaii Mary got a nice deal at the Rancho Valencia resort in Rancho Santa Fe, just outside San Diego. Interestingly enough, this is an area that we never visited in some 15 years living in San Diego county. It's very exclusive, we're kind of surprised they let us in. Or at least a little perturbed they let me in.
The resort is set in a canyon near the beach town of Del Mar. It's a beautiful area that we didn't see much of as we arrived quite late - around 10:00pm. Unlike the rest of San Diego there are few street lights and it's quite a winding route one has to follow to find the resort.
We were upgraded on arrival as we had booked through FHR (Fine Hotels and Resorts) program of American Express. As a member one gets a variety of options like a free room upgrade if available on check in. In our case we had a choice. The upgraded room was actually somewhat smaller than the original room though newer and it had some other options like a huge flat screen display and a whirlpool spa on the patio. The older room had a separate bedroom with a door, something Mary usually insists on so she can sleep when I decide it's time for a big bowl of chips, an ice bucket of beer, and a Rambo movie. For once Mary decided she could live without the separate bedroom, mainly I think because she had us scheduled too tightly for me to stay up late anyhow, so we took the upgrade. And we're glad we did. It was excellent. The bathroom and attached walk-in closet was one of the largest I've ever seen with a steam shower thrown in for kicks. I'm not sure exactly what a steam shower is supposed to do but there's additional controls and those were fun to fiddle with.
We got a nice basket of fruit soon after we arrived, an amenity we do not believe is an FHR add-on, and just something they do for all guests. Or all guests who's first names start with 'M'. We played hide the grape and then hide the orange and then, we'll you can see where this is going and it disturbs even me a little.
When we awoke the next morning, birds were singing, completely free of duress insofar as we could tell. The sun was shining though a thick layer of fog down in the canyon where we were situated but it burned off quickly as it is wont to do in San Diego. We enjoyed fresh squeezed orange juice which is delivered with one's morning paper. We'd asked for the Times of London but we were in the Colonies and had to settle for one of the less reputable broadsheets like the Wall Street Journal. Since we were on a schedule, we had previously ordered room service and had a light repast. Fruit, toast, eggs, hash browns, three types of breakfast pork products, hot cakes, oatmeal, and 32 ounce steaks. Well, actually we just stopped at the eggs and toast but I'm sure the rest of the breakfast offerings were equally as good. Though I'm reasonably certain that 32 ounce steaks weren't on the menu for breakfast. But Rancho Valencia strikes me as the kind of place that would make sure you could have a two pound steak for breakfast if that's what you really wanted.
Anyhow, since our time was so limited we were unable to really torment the help and see how accommodating they were though our limited interactions were very satisfactory. We felt that if we ever want to come back to San Diego and spend a few days completely withdrawn from the hustle and bustle this is a wonderful resort hotel to spend some time at. We'd love to come back someday and enjoy it when we weren't so rushed.
