Everything good about the Bacara comes back to the bluff, 78 acres of white Spanish Mission buildings and zero-edge pools above the Pacific. The rooms don't match the price, though, because the July 2025 refit changed the fabrics more than the bones and the old marble bathrooms feel a long way behind what a Ritz-Carlton costs here. A Club-level room helps, since the lounge kept us fed from breakfast to a last glass of wine, but with no loungers on the beach either, I wouldn't rush back. See pictures ↓
Service
The service is friendly and unfussy and suits the place, though the resort is too big for it to feel personal. We drove in under the big arched gate with the BACARA sign, and a golf buggy was waiting to take us and our bags to the room. You'll ride in those buggies a lot, because the resort spreads along winding paths between white walls and red tile roofs and our room was a fair walk from reception. I liked that nobody hurried us.
With 358 rooms it runs more like a small town than a private house, and outside the lounge we saw different faces every day. The Club Lounge team were the people we got to know, and they helped us plan our days around the spa and the cliff path. After a long day at the pool I came to look forward to walking back to a dimmed, tidied room with two chocolates by the bed.
Rooms
Our Club-level room was cosy, but the bones of it are old. I lit the gas fireplace, set in a white plaster nook with a terracotta hearth, before we'd even unpacked, and once it was going the whole room went soft and warm. I hadn't thought I'd want a fire in California, but it was on every evening. The room is about 45 square metres, with a four-poster king and wooden shutters, and out through the doors a big terrace where I sat in the sun with the sea breeze coming up. From ours, though, you only saw a sliver of the Pacific over the rooftops and palms.
The bathroom shows how far the July 2025 refit went. Meyer Davis brought in new fabrics, rugs and furniture, and they look lovely, but the cream marble and the big terracotta floor tiles are the old ones, with one basin by the tub and glass shower and a second out by the wardrobe. The Diptyque toiletries were a nice touch, but the hallways feel dated too, and at these prices I wanted the bones of the room to be as fresh as the cushions.
Ask for an ocean view if the view matters to you, and I'd still pick a Club-level room, because the lounge comes with it and you'll use it all day. If you're a family, the two Ritz-Carlton Suites are about 185 square metres each, in their own villa buildings close to the ocean, with two king bedrooms and a kitchenette.
Food and drink
The Club Lounge is the best reason to eat in, and Marisella is the dinner to book. The lounge is a bright room with timber beams and blue chairs near the spa, with a terrace over the adult pool, and it's quiet enough to feel like a private club. Food goes out five times a day, from breakfast through afternoon tea and evening canapés to desserts at night, with the wine, beer, cocktails and spirits included. One morning a sparrow flew in at breakfast and I fed it a few crumbs of bread. On lazy days we didn't need anything else.
Marisella was our best dinner, California-Italian in an old Mission-style building facing the ocean, and the handmade pasta and the seafood are what to order. Book ahead if you want the terrace or a table by the fire. For sunset I'd go to the 'O' Bar, with its round bar clad in Malibu tiles, a loggia over the ocean and a list of agave spirits.
Mission Market does coffee and pastries baked that morning, and it's a good stop on the way to the pool. One lunch of pulled pork sliders and mussels in a stone bowl, eaten outside looking at the sea, was simple and very good.
Setting
The bluff is the reason to come. On our last evening I walked the clifftop path as the sun went down, with the white villas turning gold behind me and the sun dropping into the Pacific below, and that's the picture I took home. The pools are the heart of the day, three zero-edge saltwater pools with two looking out to sea, and the adult pool is well away from the family one, so it stays calm. The spa is enormous, about 3,900 square metres, with a sauna, steam room, hot pool and a terrace for resting after a massage, and the gym is the biggest I've seen in any hotel.
The beach surprised me. Under Coastal Commission rules it's left natural, with kelp where the tide drops it and no chairs, umbrellas or service on the sand, so I walked it in the morning and spent my afternoons at the pools. Downtown Santa Barbara is a drive away, so you'll want a car for evenings in town.
Value
Not in a standard room. A garden or resort-view room usually costs about $650 to $900 a night and an ocean view about $1,000 to $1,350, and I found that steep for an old marble bathroom. A Club-level room is where the numbers start to work, because the lounge is included in the rate, and once you're eating and drinking there most of the day you spend very little in the restaurants. It's part of Marriott Bonvoy, so you earn points on the stay and can spend them here too.
Rosewood Miramar Beach and San Ysidro Ranch cost a good deal more. For grounds and pools like these the Bacara is the better buy, but if the room matters most to you, Rosewood's newer rooms on the sand are worth the extra.
Who it suits
Pick the Bacara if you're a couple or a family after a big California resort with a serious spa and room to roam, and book a Club-level room to make the most of the lounge. It's the wrong choice if you want a beach with loungers or a fresh modern room. For a newer room right on the sand in Montecito, I'd book Rosewood Miramar Beach, and for private cottages at the top end, San Ysidro Ranch.
