Each year Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards survey asks readers to weigh in on their favorite hotels, cruises, resorts and more. The results include a “100 best hotels in the world” list that includes every continent — save for Antarctica, a region not exactly known for its four-star resorts — as well as a California-centric list of the top 15 resorts.
The latter are clustered around some of the Golden State’s most popular destinations — the Pacific coast, wine country and that desert oasis, Palm Springs. Santa Barbara’s San Ysidro Ranch, a 550-acre expanse of bungalows, olive groves and gardens favored by a who’s who of celebrities and politicos, tops the list. Mendocino’s Craftsman-style Brewery Gulch Inn comes in at No. 7, and Menlo Park’s Rosewood Sand Hill takes honors in the No. 12 spot. And Sonoma and Napa made the list with MacArthur Place and Auberge du Soleil, respectively.
Here’s the top 10. Find the rest of the list and all the details at www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/.
1 San Ysidro Ranch, Santa Barbara
2 Rosewood Miramar Beach, Montecito
3 Sparrows Lodge, Palm Springs
4 MacArthur Place Hotel & Spa, Sonoma
5 Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa, Rancho Santa Fe
6 L’Auberge Del Mar
7 Brewery Gulch Inn, Mendocino
8 Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort & Club, Dana Point
9 Auberge du Soleil, Auberge Resorts Collection, Napa
10 The Ranch at Laguna Beach