Mar Monte Hotel
Santa Barbara, California
Mar Monte is nestled in between downtown Santa Barbara and Montecito, surrounded by vacation homes of Hollywood elite. You can take a bike ride along the beach, sip wine at a tasting room nearby, or lounge by the pool. Read on to find out what to expect when staying here from a Hyatt Globalist.
HYATT LOYALTY HIGHLIGHTS
Globalists receive a daily $35 credit per person for breakfast at the restaurant on site, Costa.
Suite Upgrade Awards (SUAs) are accepted for the King Ocean View Suite.
Valet parking ($42 per night) is waived for Globalists on award stays. There is no self-parking option. They kindly waived my valet fee on a cash stay.
No welcome note, but Globalist status was recognized upon check in.
I loved getting upgraded to a bigger ocean view suite at Mar Monte!
HOTEL BRAND OVERVIEW
Mar Monte is part of Hyatt’s Unbound collection, which includes boutique luxury hotels such as this one.
The property originally opened in the 1930s and was constructed in Spanish Colonial Revival style. It joined Hyatt in 2010.
Mar Monte has a boutique, beachside California style
BOOKING
This is a Hyatt category 6 (out of 8), meaning a stay here requires 25,000 Hyatt points per night at the standard rate. Cash rates can range from around $200 to $600 per night.
I opted to book a standard room with cash at $247 per night, then applied a suite upgrade award (SUA).
LOCATION
Mar Monte sits between downtown Santa Barbara and Montecito. It is a 30 minute walk or just over 5 minute drive to either.
A street separates the hotel from the beach, but the ocean views are still lovely. Many guests take advantage of the free bike rentals from the hotel.
It takes about 1.5-2 hours to drive to the hotel from LAX, depending on traffic.
A lovely view of the Santa Barbara shoreline from Mar Monte
CHECK IN
Check in is at 4:00pm. We arrived at 5:00pm and our room was ready.
While I had booked the King Ocean View Suite, I was upgraded further to the Deluxe version of the suite. The Deluxe is about 200 square feet larger.
The hotel lobby was dressed up for Christmas - a sure stop for Santa
ROOM
The hotel is broken into multiple buildings. Our room was located in the Santa Cruz building on the second floor.
The King Deluxe Ocean View Suite is over 700 square feet (about the size of my home!). There were two separate seating areas, with one being next to the kitchenette.
Both a wine and mini fridge were provided.
The bathroom contained two sinks, a shower, and tub. A note on privacy: the door between the bedroom and bathroom is not completely sealed.
A highlight of the room was the large balcony that spanned across the bedroom and living room. There was ample seating and the view of the ocean was beautiful; I’m sure even better on a higher floor.
The bedroom was spacious and opened up onto the balcony
Loved having the balcony door open, listening to the waves crash against the beach
Plenty of seating in the living room of the suite, and another door that opened to the balcony
Check mate! Both a checkerboard and chessboard were included in the room
AMENITIES
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are available onsite. We enjoyed breakfast at Costa. I had the breakfast sandwich, which was good.
An outdoor heated pool and jacuzzi are located in the main building. From the Santa Cruz building, we walked along the street to get there. Although the pool was open until 10pm, we did find that they could run out of towels.
Free bicycle rentals are offered, although only for an hour at a time and must be reserved.
There is a gym located in the Santa Cruz building.
Next to the lobby, there is an outdoor seating area with fireplaces. You can grab a drink at Costa and sit there.
Loved the ambiance of the restaurant onsite, which you get to by following a path of lemons
The breakfast sandwich hit the spot!
Outdoor seating area near the lobby is a great place to sit down with a glass of wine
You can reserve a Mar Monte bike for 1 hour, complimentary
SERVICE
Everyone we encountered was friendly. We ran into an issue with our reservation information at one point and the head of guest relations resolved it promptly.
Through the Hyatt app we requested an electric kettle for the room and it arrived within 15 minutes. Love the responsiveness!
NEARBY ACTIVITIES
Wine tasting is a great option around Santa Barbara. There are numerous tasting rooms in the downtown, or you can opt to visit a vineyard in the area. We stopped by Margerum for a tasting in downtown Santa Barbara, as well as the only tasting room in Montecito: Folded Hills.
If you’re looking to dine out, we had a wonderful Italian meal at Tre Lune in Montecito. The founder is from Brooklyn and it reminded me of NYC Italian food. The service was excellent.
Walking nearby the hotel, you can get to Sterns Wharf in about 30 minutes. Here, you can grab seafood, ice cream, and visit a small aquarium.
We saw so many people enjoying bike rentals from Wheel Fun Rentals in downtown Santa Barbara. For families or groups, they have surreys that fit up to 6 people. It looked like a lot of fun!
Walking along the shoreline is a must - Butterfly Beach in Montecito is a beautiful stop
We enjoyed a great lunch at Margerum during our wine tasting in downtown Santa Barbara
Tre Lune was an excellent Italian spot with personality in Montecito
SUMMARY
I would stay here again during a visit to Santa Barbara. I’d also make sure to book a room with an ocean view and balcony, as this truly made a difference to our stay.
The balcony of our suite had a wonderful view of the ocean - definitely a highlight of our stay!
