I just finished my second stay at the Madonna Inn. My first stay was five years ago, where I got to enjoy the William Tell Room for at least three days. For this second stay, I chose the Love Nest room.
The reason I chose the William Tell Room, back when I did, was the red theme… which contrasts nicely with the overwhelming pink theme throughout the rest of the inn. Indeed, the Love Nest room is entirely bright pink, including the vivid shag carpet. I was only a little bit disappointed that the "tower" that the Love Nest's spiral staircase goes up to is barely big enough for one person to stand… there's no seat in there or much space for two people to sit (or stand) side by side comfortably.
The bathroom had a Japanese style toilet seat warmer (wow!).
The ideal stay here would be for either two or three days. My first visit lasted three days and I used that time to go visit the spectacular Hearst Castle (about 45 minutes drive up the coast) and also check out the local scenery. My second visit was only overnight and it was entirely too short to properly enjoy the surroundings on (and just off) the property.
In terms of maintenance, the hotel buildings itself seem to be teetering on the edge of needing some thorough renovations and general fixing up of the fixtures and theme decorations in...I just finished my second stay at the Madonna Inn. My first stay was five years ago, where I got to enjoy the William Tell Room for at least three days. For this second stay, I chose the Love Nest room.
The reason I chose the William Tell Room, back when I did, was the red theme… which contrasts nicely with the overwhelming pink theme throughout the rest of the inn. Indeed, the Love Nest room is entirely bright pink, including the vivid shag carpet. I was only a little bit disappointed that the "tower" that the Love Nest's spiral staircase goes up to is barely big enough for one person to stand… there's no seat in there or much space for two people to sit (or stand) side by side comfortably.
The bathroom had a Japanese style toilet seat warmer (wow!).
The ideal stay here would be for either two or three days. My first visit lasted three days and I used that time to go visit the spectacular Hearst Castle (about 45 minutes drive up the coast) and also check out the local scenery. My second visit was only overnight and it was entirely too short to properly enjoy the surroundings on (and just off) the property.
In terms of maintenance, the hotel buildings itself seem to be teetering on the edge of needing some thorough renovations and general fixing up of the fixtures and theme decorations in the property. At the very least it needs some more gentle TLC. The room was very clean (vacuuming that shag carpet must take a lot of muscle effort for the housekeeper girls) but there were cobwebs outside the windows in our Love Nest room and burned out lights over the entryway. The comforter (or duvet cover?) on our bed in the Love Nest seemed a bit old and worn out (it doesn't match the same bright looking one you'll see in the souvenir postcard that you'll see in the office or gift shop).
Internet in the rooms is via Ethernet and costs $10, but I ended up just using the free internet that's offered via WiFi in the main building (where the steakhouse, cafe, and small senior-demographic-skewed boutiques are found).
The attached Alex Madonna Steakhouse is just as over-the-top gaudy as the rest of the inn, but the food was amazingly good. We did two entrees and dessert for just under $80. They didn't charge us a corkage for a bottle of wine we had brought from Monterrey. They do have a wine shop downstairs so you can also have a bottle either from there or from the Steakhouse's wine list, of course. Both the filet mignon I had and the pork tenderloin my significant other had were so tender they could be cut with a butter knife, which I thought was quite excellent.
Yes, I agree it's a definitely somewhat overpriced (my overnight hotel stay, all in, was just over $300 per night) but the memories of the place will remain long after you forget the hotel bill. Hopefully the management will fix up the property a bit more to make it live up to its promise.More
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