The Best Hotels in Laguna Beach, by the Record
The best hotels in Laguna Beach, by the professional record: Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Guide have both weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Montage Laguna Beach comes out on top.
The Ranch at Laguna Beach and Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa hold the next two places. Michelin Guide shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Forbes Travel Guide next.
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Stone pathways wind through lush gardens on a clifftop bluff above Laguna Beach, which sets the tone for this full-service luxury resort. The Arts and Crafts movement is the organizing inspiration, and original works from that era share walls with contemporary pieces throughout. Rooms and bungalows have private balconies with ocean views, fire pits burn at dusk, and the pool sits improbably blue below the Pacific sky. It holds a Forbes Five Star and two Michelin Keys.
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Deer graze the golf course while guests roast s'mores at the fire pit, which tells you something about the vibe at this resort tucked into two canyons just across PCH from the beach. Eighty-seven acres of hills and ravines give it more of a nature retreat feeling than a seaside hotel. Laguna Beach has an old artist-colony identity beneath the resort gloss, and the Ranch, with its ranch-style rooms and coastal-chic sustainability angle, leans into that quieter story.
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Twenty-two rooms tucked into a hillside above the Pacific, with a garden courtyard quiet enough to make you forget Laguna Beach has been discovered. Casa Laguna reads more like a large, well-curated bed and breakfast than a proper hotel, which is part of the appeal. The breakfast has its admirers well beyond the coast, and the spa keeps things unhurried. A Michelin Selected Hotel for travelers who'd rather feel like a houseguest than a check-in number.
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Woven rattan pendants, curved wooden headboards, and patterned throws replace the usual beachy kitsch at this 70-room clifftop boutique hotel, which reopened recently with a Mallorcan-inflected, warm-minimalist sensibility. The Pacific does the decorating through the windows. Ocean-facing rooms add balconies or pool access, and a guest-only policy keeps things quieter than you'd expect for a place this central to Laguna's gallery-and-restaurant corridor.
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