South of Sycamore Canyon, roughly three miles from the heart of Big Sur village, Hwy-1 passes between two of California’s most deluxe small resorts. The larger of the two, Ventana (831/667-2331 or 800/628-6500), covers 1,000 acres of Big Sur foothills and offers saunas, swimming pools, and four-star accommodations in 1970s-style cedar-paneled rooms and cabins. Rates range $200–800 a night, and there’s also a very fine restaurant with incredible views and reasonable prices, to which guests are ferried in a fleet of golf carts.
Completed in 1992 and directly across Hwy-1 from Ventana, the Post Ranch Inn (831/667-2200 or 800/527-2200), a low-impact but ultra-high-style luxury resort hanging high above the Big Sur coast, is at the forefront of eco-tourism. In order to preserve Big Sur’s untarnished natural beauty, the Post Ranch Inn is designed to be virtually invisible from land or sea: The 24 accommodations—all featuring a king-sized bedroom and a whirlpool bath with built-in massage table—blend in with the landscape, disguised either as playful tree houses raised up in the branches of the oaks and pines, or as underground cabins carved into the cliff top. Rates start at $300 a night, but if you want to have a look and plan for a future escape, free tours of the resort are given Monday–Friday at 2 pm.
