I live squarely in the Colorado Rockies. My town of residence, Crested Butte, is located at 8,900 feet elevation and the base of my local ski “hill,” Crested Butte Mountain Resort, is at almost 9,400 feet. Other mountain destinations around the U.S. Mountain West are equally as obvious, yet it’s also fun to discover destinations and properties that aren’t as readily thought of as connected with mountains but when you arrive it’s an “aha” moment.
Recent travels brought me to the Carmel/Monterey area in California. I joined several meeting planners in experiencing Holman Ranch in Carmel Valley with 10 guest rooms, a wine cave, vineyards and beautiful indoor and outdoor meeting spaces. We also sipped wine at Holman Ranch Tasting Room and Jarman Tasting Lounge & Patio and dined on an incredible array of tasty dishes at Will’s Fargo restaurant, all owned by the ranch and located in the nearby village.
A lifelong friend and I continued on from there to explore the area, including Pacific Grove and Carmel-by-the-Sea before landing at Cannery Row and downtown Monterey and staying nearby at the largest conference hotel in the area, Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course. This 550-room, full-service property with 43,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function space tends to book up especially in busy summer months so reserve early. It’s closer to the water than the hills unlike our next stop, Hyatt Carmel Highlands overlooking the Big Sur Coastline.
This property is big on wow factor with the 48 guest rooms and suites spread out in several smaller buildings, with the main lodge featuring spectacular views from the Pacific’s Edge Restaurant and Lobos Lounge, complete with binoculars to look for whales and other sea life even in guest rooms. There is nearly 5,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, from a boardroom to a ballroom with coastal views, and renovations are currently underway for some of the rooms. We got up close to orcas, humpback whales, seals and sea otters on a whale-watching excursion with Princess Monterey Whale Watching, launching from Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey. On the trip back to Los Angeles, we drove along the famous Highway 1 to see the beautiful coastline.
My experiences in the Carmel/Monterey area were immediately followed by travels to the Marriott Convention & Resort Network’s JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass, JW Marriott Camelback Inn Scottsdale and JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge in Arizona, which I’ll write about next. These trips made me think that a story on this topic—places you don’t think of as mountain destinations—should go on our 2017 editorial calendar for Mountain Meetings. Email me if you have other destinations and properties in the U.S. Mountain West to consider.