This hotel, the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort is one of the reasons I love having an Amex Platinum card. We always check Amex hotel bookings online when we are planning our trips. If you book places labeled “Fine Hotels” with this card, they usually come with perks like late check-out, breakfast, and some kind of amenity (here it was $100 for resort credit) sometimes even if you only stay for one night. Often there are also deals like if you book two nights you get one free and that is a big reason why we chose this hotel when we last visited California. There was a promotion for three nights for the price of two. Los Angeles is only a two hour direct flight from Seattle so it’s a really easy trip to get to sunshine from our city even for a weekend. We rented a car and it was about an hour from LAX and we stopped at the In-N-Out by the Los Angeles Airport on our way. (This was part of a trip to visit Joshua Tree as well if you are looking for a longer California trip too)
So what is the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort like?
A little spendier than resorts we usually stay at, this resort was a bit of a splurge because it was our first trip in two years after we had paused everything for COVID-19. We wanted to just sit and relax by a pool and a beach and get some sun without traveling too far from Seattle. Even though it was a little cooler than usual for this time of year in Dana Point we were able to get exactly what we were looking for at the Monarch Beach Resort.
Thankfully we were upgraded from a potentially upstairs parking lot facing view to a spacious ground floor fireside Terrace Room (room upgrades are a great bonus of booking on Amex travel as well). This room had a lockable French door that opened to the courtyard and pool area and because we could use the key to get in and out of the sliding door (unlike the poolside terrace rooms we had at the Fairmont Vancouver) we never had to go through the hallway inside the hotel. We ended up eating takeout on our patio every night because the fire pit was like a beautiful restaurant table and we weren’t really into eating in too many places at this time.
Additional Charges we didn’t think about when we booked at this resort
I totally forgot about resort fees and parking when I booked at the Monarch Beach Resort and parking when we went here was $60 a night and the resort fee was $55 a day too. The parking felt a little steep because there really isn’t anywhere else you can park but the resort fee included things like some fitness classes, a tram that we used often to take us between the beach and our hotel, bikes you can rent and I did not realize you could also get athletic gear laundered: 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and/or shorts, 1 sports bra and 1 pair of socks daily per room with an anticipated 24 hour turnaround.
One time we ended up doing our laundry in a sink in a hotel in Germany and so seeing a few laundry items included when I looked up the resort fee was a perk I haven’t seen before (have you?). Of course these kinds of things change over time, so make sure you always check with the hotel before you go to see if these policies are still in place.
We are Hilton Gold members because of our credit card and Waldorf Astoria is part of the Hilton brand. We kept getting emails to make sure to take advantage of our Gold member privilege which was $25 dollars resort credit daily for two adults but when we checked out of the hotel and were given our bill we were told this could not be combined with our Amex deal. I would say always make sure you ask when you book or when you get to the resort if you have a question about a charge like this but because of the emails we kept getting after we booked the hotel I don’t know how we would have done things differently or known that things weren’t combinable in this case and thankfully Hilton refunded the extra charges.
Things to do near the Waldorf Astoria Beach Resort
We don’t usually sit still for very long but it was very easy to relax at this hotel. The guys (and all the kids we saw at the resort) really enjoyed playing with the soccer ball they always found in the courtyard. The pool was warm and rarely crowded. There was even another small splash pool around the corner from the main pool that would have been perfect when our kids were smaller. We really enjoyed the Infiniti hot tub and it felt so nice to be outdoors without having to wear a jacket or raincoat. The private beach was windy when we were there but we still had fun chasing waves and playing on the sand. We used the free rental bikes one morning and had such a delightful ride down to the beach and to the nearby Ritz Carlton resort.
One day we drove to Mission San Juan Capistrano which was maybe 15 minutes away, and this was a place I visited on a fam trip with Visit Orange County and Visit California a few years ago. The area around the mission is so gorgeous. We had lunch at Bueno Bueno Mexican Kitchen and coffee from the Hidden House Coffee. We also walked by Zoomars at River Street Ranch another place my guys would have loved for its petting zoo and train when they were tiny. We all decided we would like to go to the Tea House on Los Rios next time. (well maybe one of us decided that we would go next time but she also has author’s privileges to tell the story however she wants .)
And where to eat nearby The Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, California?
We found the coolest taco shop that you need to go inside to order to really see how cool it is. We were just going to do the drive-through at Sancho’s Tacos but the inside has really intense decor and I’m glad I didn’t miss out. We walked up the street from the resort one afternoon and grabbed sandwiches from the Beach Hut Deli and popsicles from Hivexo. We also had coffee and wanted pastries from Moulin. We ate breakfast at AVEO Table and Bar a few times at the hotel and their Cazuela de Huevos was a big hit with our family- it was also so nice to eat outside on the balcony in such a beautiful place.
Are there monarch butterflies at the Monarch Beach Resort?
I think this is deep down what I was hoping for when we booked this hotel-I wanted to see swarms of Monarch Butterflies. One day I want to go back to Santa Cruz where ages ago the hubby and I went to look for Monarch Butterflies at the Natural Bridges State Park but once again we were a little too early. A tram driver told us they plant a lot of vegetation that Monarch butterflies like at this resort and you can see many more later in the year-I was really thankful when we saw a few fluttering around on our bike ride. Every night with turn down service we were given chocolates in cute little butterfly boxes too.
We had such a lovely visit and it was a really relaxing, carefree and warm stay after two really cold Seattle winters without traveling to see sunshine. I would definitely recommend getting a ground floor terrace room if you travel here with young kids and we noticed that this is a pet-friendly hotel too and pets seemed to enjoy this place as well. (Scout stayed home with grandma and grandpa this time.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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