The 206 spacious inn rooms are spread about the property in 10
cozy,
Spanish Colonial buildings. Some rooms have fireplaces and most have
terraces with spectacular views of the mountains and golf course.
Twenty-two
rooms in the historic Hacienda building have been renovated
in the style of the
1920s, with touches like hand-carved four-poster
beds, Morris chairs, Mission
armoires, pedestal sinks, hand-painted
tiles and original hardwood
floors.
The spa, which opened in 1997, has the appearance of a Spanish
village and serves up an intriguing assortment of therapies, such as
the “Ojai
Orange Honey Body Masque.” The Hollywood set still flocks
here, many of them to
stay in the spa’s magnificent, four-bedroom,
3,500-square-foot penthouse—which
rents for a mere $2,000 a night. The
penthouse has a fireplace in every room, a
private elevator, a private
treatment room, and sunrise and sunset terraces with
Jacuzzis.
The service and the Pacific provincial cuisine at the Inn’s
signature restaurant, Maravilla, is outstanding. The Inn also offers
horseback
riding, guided hikes, bird watching tours, tennis, heated
swimming pools, jeep
tours, wine tours, ocean and lake fishing
excursions, children’s programs,
conference facilities and an array of
other comforts.
But Ojai’s centerpiece
is its wonderful golf course. The nearly
200-acre site “gave [me the]
opportunity to select natural holes rather
than to build artificial ones, and to
include great diversity in the
shots provided,” wrote Thomas in an article for
Pacific Golf and Motor
magazine. The rolling, contoured fairways are
immaculately maintained,
the bentgrass greens are smooth and true, and the views
of the Topa
Topa Mountains and the Ojai Valley are dazzling.
At Ojai, you
never get that feeling you’ve played the same hole
earlier in the round—a
tribute to the talents of Thomas, who must be
resting easier now that they’ve
resurrected those lost holes that were
buried under Army tank tracks for so
long.
