Laguna Surf

Access to the beach from the hotel.

Super friendly and helpful staff and in a perfect location. We loved that it was right on the beach, easy to walk down the steps to the sand, and sit on the benches and terrace to watch the sunset. It is in the heart of downtown with tons of restaraunts and art galleries to walk to.

Location is really good, on the ocean side of PCH just south of Main Beach. However, the property has not been maintained well, several items in the condo did not work (dishwasher; entry door; hair dryer, to name a few). Stairway to the beach was not useable (broken stairs - looked like the problem had been there for quite a long time). The layout of the condo was poor. When the murphy bed is down, there is less than 6" to the wall, so really hard to walk past it to get to the door or the kitchen. The oven door can only be opened if the refrigerator is also opened. The drainage from the patio / balcony has no diverter, it lands on the patio of the condo beneath.

What a world of difference! Out of the 20 rooms (according to our estimate), all but maybe 6 are ocean front. The odd-numbered rooms are "Village View" which means bus and truck exhaust and lots of street noise. All the rooms are located on 3 floors with the majority of those rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors. But this time wow! Our room #312 was all we could have hoped for (view-wise). Breath taking sunsets and steps-to-the-beach proximity were perfection. Those "steps" do include a very large staircase between Laguna Surf and the beach. The rooms are pretty much the same in all the units: smallish queen-size bed, 1 and 1/2 bathrooms, a functional kitchen (a bit snug) and all the appliances one needs to prepare meals. There is a creative solution to the 2nd bedroom set-up: it is a Murphy pull-down bed but it occupies the same space as the tilt-up dining table. When we set the table up, it immediately collapsed and we were thankful we hadn't set the table yet. All I could imagine was wine glass and plates flying everywhere. The solution was to take a barstool and wedge it under the table. We appreciated that the resort had a laundry room with one dryer and one washing machine. It free to use. Just plan accordingly as others will need to use it, too. The gated secure parking holds all the assigned parking spaces and they certainly are nicely sized. Laguna Surf sits on PCH about 2 blocks away from Ralph's grocery store and, in the other direction, maybe 3 blocks to Main Beach. Forest Avenue has become a pedestrian zone for a block or so off PCH and it pretty much marks the heart of this beach-y little downtown. Laguna runs a free trolley that ends up at the Ritz Carlton hotel and Monarch Beach. The walking paths go through the golf course area and along the beach. Lots of grass, attractive picnic areas, and loads of vistas worthy of photo opportunities. Would I come back here in the future? Yes, but only if an Ocean front unit was booked.