Magical Inns for the Holiday Season
Escape the holiday hustle, warm the soul, and find serenity this season with a stay at a bed and breakfast inn. Steeped in nostalgic charm, these intimate B&Bs create quiet, magical settings with festive lights and sparkling holiday finery. Curl up next to a roaring fire amid the magic and rediscover the splendor of the season.
MacCallum House Inn
One of Mendocino’s finest Victorian landmarks, the MacCallum House Inn and Restaurant gets pretty magical for the holidays. Located in the heart of Mendocino Village, the inn exudes the charm and romance of a bygone era. The Christmas elves decorate the mansion with thousands of twinkling lights. A large Christmas tree stands in the foyer with dozens of wrapped gifts beneath it. All three of the antique Riverstone fireplaces in the restaurant are aglow all season long, providing cozy dining spaces for breakfast and dinner. The restaurant is open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and will host its annual New Year’s Eve dinner featuring a five-course tasting menu.
Kenwood Inn & Spa
In Sonoma wine country, the newly revamped Kenwood Inn & Spa sparkles with festive décor and holiday cheer. In the central courtyard, guests can cozy up to the roaring outdoor fireplaces with decorated mantels. Draped with garland, lights, and ornaments, the outdoor fireplaces offer festive spaces for relaxing with a glass of wine. Throughout the hotel, guests will find walkways and fountains festooned with garland and twinkling lights. Several Christmas trees add to the magic. The Kenwood Inn & Spa is a Mediterranean-inspired hideaway featuring lush gardens, heated pools with private cabanas, an onsite spa, and views of the surrounding vineyards.
The Genevieve
Escape to a world of holiday magic this December with the Joie de Noël Package at The Genevieve in Santa Ynez. The Christmas elves at this boutique hotel have turned their two-queen suite into a luxe winter wonderland festooned with Christmas trees, lights, and beautiful mantel decorations above a roaring fireplace. With the Joie de Noël package, guests can enjoy a stay in the fully decked Christmas suite along with Christmas cookies and cocktails. The package is available for the full month of December and can be booked online. Also through December, guests can enjoy hot cocoa in the lobby and hot buttered rum at the nightly dessert reception. In addition, the hotel’s on-site restaurant, The Victor, is hosting special dinners on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Set amid enchanting gardens with outdoor fire pits, The Genevieve offers luxurious rooms, gourmet breakfasts, a whiskey library, and an intimate spa.
The Queen Anne Hotel
The holiday decor at the historic Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco evokes scenes reminiscent of a Charles Dickens novel. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, the hotel is dressed to the nines with the warm glow of festive lights and decorations, mixed with ornate Victorian furnishings and flickering fireplaces. Guests can bask in the holiday sparkle of the hotel’s parlor and library with a hot cup of tea or cocoa, or perhaps a nip of sherry. Located in the charming Victorian neighborhood of Pacific Heights, this landmark hotel is within an easy stroll of the shops on Fillmore Street and Union Square with its enormous tree, light displays, outdoor ice rink, and department stores.
Gingerbread Mansion Inn
In the village of Ferndale and just a block off Main Street, the Gingerbread Mansion Inn glows with old-fashioned holiday magic and Victorian finery. Each of its three parlors is decorated to the nines. Ornate stockings are hung with care on festooned fireplace mantels with nutcrackers standing watch from above. Banisters wrapped in garland and holly run the length of the stairs. Throughout the inn, more than a half dozen decorated Christmas trees sparkle with lights and ornaments while and Bing Crosby croons over the radio. The mansion’s 11 lavish guest rooms evoke a bygone era with period wallpapers and antiques.
Victorian Inn
Also in Ferndale, the stately Victorian Inn glitters with thousands of twinkling lights through the holidays. A magnificently decorated, 18-foot Christmas tree stands near the fireplace in the main dining room and becomes the backdrop for dozens of guests’ holiday photos every year. Outside, the entire historic village of Ferndale is decorated in festive lights, including the largest living Christmas tree in the United States, just around the corner from the inn. The Victorian Inn features beautifully appointed, nostalgic guest rooms with lofty ceilings, vintage fixtures and furnishings, and private baths.
Benbow Historic Inn
The day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas elves at the Benbow Historic Inn in Garberville start their work of transforming the inn into a holiday wonderland with a Toyland Christmas theme. All public areas including the lobby, dining room, lounge, and entrances are festooned with decorations. Outside, the inn is strung with thousands of twinkling lights. Guests are welcomed with a warm, wood-burning fire in the lobby, Christmas décor, and music all around. Some guests return to the inn year after year for an array of holiday traditions including addressing holiday cards in the great room, singing carols, and a lavish four-course Christmas dinner. In addition, the inn will host a New Year’s Eve celebration with dinner, dancing, champagne, and fireworks at midnight. The historic inn is nestled amid the redwoods on the banks of the Eel River and features an award-winning restaurant and wine cellar.
Martine Inn
At the Martine Inn in Pacific Grove, the innkeepers hang wreaths, wrap the banisters and fireplace mantels with boughs and holly, and put up individually decorated trees in every guest room. They also trim a large tree in the library and decorate their porch tree with miniatures of local historic buildings made by the docents of the Monterey History Art Association. The oceanfront inn overlooks Pacific Grove’s rocky coastline and features museum-quality American antiques, wood-burning fireplaces, and claw foot tubs.
McCaffrey House Bed & Breakfast Inn
In the High Sierra, the McCaffrey House Bed & Breakfast Inn offers a warm and welcoming respite during the busy holiday season. Amid the warm glow of the fireplace, the festive holiday trimmings include a beautifully decorated tree with an antique train circling its base and holiday mementos collected from around the world. Guests can curl up with a book by the fire and watch the snowflakes fall against enchanting forest views. Each morning, they can enjoy delicious homemade breakfast, venture into town for gift shopping or sightseeing, and return in the evenings to share stories with friends while sipping wine. All the guest rooms feature fire stoves, cozy chairs, and views of a forested winter wonderland.
McCloud Hotel
In the picture-postcard town of McCloud at the base of Mt. Shasta, the grand McCloud Hotel is decorated to the nines every holiday season. In the lobby of the 1915 Art-and-Crafts-style hotel, a warm fire crackles in the fireplace and the grand staircase is festooned with garland, twinkling lights, and red velvet bows. Throughout the hotel, you’ll find at least seven Christmas trees all aglow and hundreds of charming set pieces from the Department 56 Dickens’ Village series collection. The hotel also hosts a Dickens’ Dinner with a reading from A Christmas Carol, live musicians with carols sung around the lobby piano, and horse and carriage rides with staff dressed in period costumes.
Simpson House Inn
A Victorian estate tucked amid an acre of hushed gardens in Santa Barbara, the Simpson House Inn pulls out all the stops in decorating for the holidays. Poinsettias line steps to the wide, wraparound porch, where red candles flicker. Garland and ribbons weave along the stair railings and trim the front door, where an enormous wreath is framed in the glow of the glass door panel. Inside the front parlor, a towering Christmas tree glitters with lights and ornaments and is topped with a Victorian angel. Vintage toys encircle the tree beneath its boughs. The inn evokes a timeless elegance with antique wood beds, oriental rugs, claw foot tubs, and wingback chairs flanking wood-burning fireplaces.
Inn at the Presidio and Lodge at the Presidio
This holiday season, the Inn at the Presidio and Lodge at the Presidio provide a much-needed respite for those seeking a relaxing holiday getaway. Located in San Francisco’s national park site, the hotels are set amidst 1,500 acres of restorative nature with stunning bay and Golden Gate Bridge views. Both hotels are beautifully decorated for the holidays with wreaths handmade from Northern California fauna, stunning Christmas trees, and thousands of lights. A cozy outdoor fire pit at each hotel is the perfect spot to enjoy the complimentary wine and cheese evening reception complete with homemade cookies and milk.