San Ysidro Ranch, a Ty Warner Property

We spent four nights at the San Ysidro Ranch at the end of August. Most of the time, it felt like we had the place to ourselves. The Ranch is lush, full of flowering trees and bushes, and terraced up a mountain canyon next to a creek. It is the most beautiful resort we have ever visited, and as you can see from our other reviews, we have been to a lot of very nice places. It is hard to believe that this amazing place was comprehensively destroyed by a mudslide just over seven years ago. The owner lavished attention on its restoration. Our room, Lavender. was luxurious and comfortable, with its own private patio, fireplace and hot tub. The service was exceptional everywhere in the resort, and the staff really friendly and helpful. The room charge includes three meals a day in the hotel restaurant, which occupied two levels of the Stonehouse at the base of the resort. The food was stunningly expensive for those not on the meal plan, which, as others have complained about, did not include alcohol, gratuities or desserts. Dinners for two with wine and cocktails could easily run $800-1000. The style of cuisine might be characterized as "1980's flashy", with lots of flaming dishes and a glass box "smoker" for cocktails. Though it had its moments (Dover Sole eg.), in general, food quality did not match the rooms or the surroundings, and there were a few staff that aggressively upsold the big ticket menu items (like the $300 caviar service). SYR's cuisine cries out for modernization. We spent a lot of time at the lovely pool at the top of the resort, and enjoyed an amazing hike in the mountains above the resort, which comprises over 500 acres. We had an exceptional and relaxing four days and cannot wait to return.

The SYR is so luxe and private feeling and the food quality is off the charts good. We have stayed there a few times and recently went to an Easter brunch with family. Even though the brunch was outrageously expensive (~$2k for 4 adults and 2 kids), the experience was worth it b/c the meal was one of the best that we ever had and it almost felt like we had the entire resort to ourselves even though there were many guests there. The staff is very polite and attentive and every detail feels like they spared no expense to make your experience as pleasant as possible.

Let me start off by saying this is the first review I’ve ever written and I’ve been a Tripadvisor member for a very long time. I rely on TripAdvisor for honest and unbiased reviews. And appreciate the insights members provide. We stayed at San Ysidro Ranch in October 2024 and like most guests at this five star beautiful historic resort, this was meant to be a special trip. Sadly, our trip wasn’t what we expected it to be from beginning to end. We arrived at the resort and the man at the gate was very friendly and directed us to the building with reception. We checked into our lovely cottage and shortly thereafter went to the pool to embrace the sunshine and unseasonably warm October weather. We had lunch at the pool and then went back to our room when we came to discover that none of our keys worked. We thought, no problem and flagged someone working there buzzing by on a golf card and said our keys aren’t working. He tried to use the keys himself in case it was user error and realized they did not in fact work. We waited ten minutes or so for someone to come and let us in- a young woman who worked at the resort came, and once again tried the keys that we were given, doubtful that they would’ve made a mistake. She then asked for me to produce my ID before she could let us into the room with a new key. You might imagine that coming back from the pool, wet wrapped in a towel waiting outside for a while, I was a bit surprised that she was asking for my ID for a room that we had just checked into and they had given us the wrong keys for. I found my ID, I showed it to her and she let us in. It was odd and a bit offensive, but that was something we could live with if it was an isolated experience. We then decided that we would drive down to the beach. I went to the reception area and walked in expecting to be greeted with a warm smile like we had received earlier when someone different was working and they said to me “what’s up?” in the way you might say to someone you’ve run out of patience with. I said we would like to go into town and to the beach and do they recommend a place to go thinking that a place like this would have recommendations they would be eager to give. Not so. She responded that basically all the beaches are the same and you just put into your GPS “beach”and we should end up at one. I said my friend had recommended Butterly Beach who went to college here and she said oh yeah that’s a nice one. Yeah go there. The service level just was not what we expected from this boutique five star world renowned place. Once we returned from the beach, we showered in our rooms and got ready for the dinner. Like other reviewers have mentioned, dinner is included in the stay but not the 20% added gratuity, which makes for a confusing dining experience and you have to sheepishly ask your server what’s included in the package and it’s frankly uncomfortable. Before we left for dinner, someone on staff knocked on our door and asked if we would you like caviar before dinner. We thanked him but said no thank you. The man said oh please have the delicious and it’s included in your stay, it’s free. We were skeptical and asked are you sure we really don’t want to order anything if it’s not included and we want to also save our appetite for dinner. He said no it’s absolutely included in your room and we said OK. That would be lovely. Thank you. Probably 20 minutes later he arrived with three separate gigantic servings of caviar that was beautiful but also much more food than we needed and we really did not need three separate servings. We get to dinner and they tell us we see that you got caviar so that means that you cannot get your dinner because you already used your alottment for your dinner. Frustrated, we explained we would not have even gotten the caviar had the gentleman not insisted it was included in our stay. They said they would speak to a manager and begrudgingly admitted the mistake made, and took it off our bill -mind you each serving of caviar was over $280. I’m writing all of this because as you might see there were several errors made and the staff made us feel uncomfortable. We were paying over $2000 a night and we found ourselves surprised again and again with the level of service and the confusion that occurred, not to mention feeling offended when we were made to produce an ID simply to get into our room when they made the mistake on the keys. We would love to some day return because it’s an absolutely beautiful guy l place. Last thing I’ll at is there was a wedding occurring during our stay and it was unclear where we could and could not be at the resort. Our dinner conversation was drowned out by the sound of a dj and dancing.

I have not stayed in this so-called highly rated hotel for many years. I planned a special trip for my family and was shocked how much the experience has changed. For example, they have no room service past 9 PM unless you want a microwaved meal for $6000 a night Suite. So sad.

if i could give more than a 5 star, i would...my family has been traveling around california staying in fancy hotels...this is our top favorite...we have stayed here twice now and anticipate more...stayed in the terrace and orange cottages...this place is heavenly...we had a personalized tea in the rose garden, and a personalized wine tasting in the huge wine cellar...both exceptional experiences...the grounds are meticulously cared for with free roaming rabbits for entertainment...the food is above exceptional and the room service is brought to your private patio with a white table cloth...the staff obviously love their jobs and are all so happy...totally tranquil vacation...highly recommend