I had an amazing 28th birthday, the room was huge and so private. There was a large walk in closet and bathroom with 2 sinks, a private toilet seperate from the rest of the bathroom, plus the large spa/tub was seperate from a large shower. The bed was comfortable and the balcony had lounging chairs and table plus it's own personal hot tub. The staff was so helpful and set up a whole birthday suite for me with no extra charge. There were chocolate covered strawberries and a chilled bottle of champagne and birthday card from staff. On top of that there was a personal bar/ sink, etc and a fire place. It felt like home and I will go back as soon as I can and recommend it to everyone.

I scoured the TripAdvisor reviews to see if Carmel Valley Ranch Resort would, indeed, still have all I was looking for after staying there 17 years ago. I took in all the criticisms but was still compelled by the descriptions of spacious rooms (I hate to be cramped), beautiful views and quiet serenity. It delivered on all counts!

My husband and I stayed three nights in early May in a Veranda Suite with sweeping views (Room 210). If anyone had been staying in Room 211 it would have been a bit distracting since we could see their deck from part of ours, but no one was in that room. And while the parking lot was fairly full, we only glimpsed a few other guests and never heard anyone else.

I agree that the rooms are showing their age a bit, but I still felt they were lovely and all that incredible space made up for it. Our bed was comfortable. The new in-room coffeemaker made decent coffee. We were well-stocked with firewood and used the fireplaces several times. We discovered the incredible bath salts sold at Island Soap Candle Works on Cannery Row and put them to use in the nice big tub.

The room was always clean when we returned and turndown service was great (except we never saw a chocolate chip cookie as someone mentioned!) We enjoyed watching deer resting in the grass below our deck and I saw a mama turkey hustling eight to ten babies through the tall grass as well. Delightful!

There is no CD player in the room, but the new alarm clocks double as an IPOD docking station. There was a bit of trash in the groundcover outside our front door that was never taken care of and some room service plates sat on the ground next door for more than 24 hours. We also had a staff person walk into the room after only a faint tap at the door. A bit awkward. We did not eat at the restaurant. The one time we looked for the concierge she was on a break, but the staff person at the front door answered our simple question.

Oh, and lest I forget, we appreciated the champagne on ice sent to the room in honor of our special occasion, which we had mentioned when making the reservation.

If they make the upgrades so many have recommended in their reviews, we probably won't want to spend the money they'll charge to stay there. So we were delighted to enjoy it as is!

My wife and I stayed here about four years ago, and recently decided to visit again for an overdue weekend break. Check-in was swift (though they now have a gated entrance which they didn't have before), and the person on reception was very pleasant.

The last time we stayed here, we had a room closer to the golf course, and not such a great view. This time, we had room 213 with a great view of Carmel Valley. Breakfast on our private deck on Saturday morning was well worth the price of admission alone!

If there's a downside, it's the 'resort fee' setup. I don't mind paying such a fee if everything is included, but unfortunately they also add an automatic 22% gratuity for room service. If they put at least a portion of that toward making the rooms slightly more fresh it would be money well spent.

Overall, well worth the stay for the location alone. I wish the resort fee was really all inclusive though.

We stayed at the Carmel Valley Ranch April 5 - 12 room 263 and had a wonderful time. We loved it so much we extended our stay by an extra day. We stayed there with 2 children and found lots of fun things to do within the resort. My children loved the pool by the tennis courts. The pool was very clean and the hot tub was fantastic. The pool house was well equipped with clean towels, soap, shampoo and even sunscreen. The rooms in the Ranch Suite are extremely spacious and more than enough for a family of four. The beds were exceptionally comfortable especially after a day's hike in Point Lobos and Big Sur. The front desk was friendly though they forgot to give us new keys when we extended our stay so much so that we were locked out and had to hike down to the lobby to get new keys. The rooms also don't get cleaned until later in the afternoon and one day we came back to the room , after a hike, at 3:00 and it was still not cleaned. We loved the quietness, cleanliness and the friendliness of the staff and would go back to vacation there again. We also loved the fireplace and made great use of it.