Nice beach, but there is easy public access and parking close by. Stay somewhere else and enjoy the beach at your convenience. It is actually easier to get to the beach from the public beach access parking than from the inn.

Best B&B breakfast I have ever had. And I have had some good ones. The breakfast cook and host is superb. In my opinion she is the only thing holding this operation together.

This inn has a policy of charging you for your entire stay when you make your reservation. So you are not making a reservation, you are paying for the whole thing right then, in our case sight unseen.

Before you will be allowed to check into the room you have already paid for, you will be required to sign an authorization to bill your credit card another $500 in the event the inn keepers don't like the condition of your room after you check out. What are you going to do when they surprise you with this after you have driven for an entire day to get there? This is a very unscrupulous practice. They will tell you that everyone is doing this, but we checked around and that is not true. In fact, other Elk inn keepers were appalled by the policy--as were we.

There were a number of repair and damage issues in the room, which you can only discover after you have signed the authorization and check in. We worried that the inn keeper was going to blame us for pre-existing damage, and use our authorization to pump up their revenue stream. We haven't gotten our credit card bill yet, so the outcome of this is still unknown.

The young woman who checked us in offered a long dry spiel in lieu of a welcome, and generally had a can't be bothered, no can do attitude.

This place has the most guest-unfriendly policies we have ever encountered, and because of that we will never stay here again.

(For an even better breakfast, check out the Little River Inn just south of the village of Mendocino)

Positives: Lovely grounds, great views, wonderful proximity to cozy Elk Cove beach. Very nice welcome basket of a delicious split of wine, organic fuji apples and good homemade cookies. Organic restaurant on site. Large, quiet room (Cypress Garden in main Victorian house). overlooks garden and statueque cypresses. Plush towels and crisp linens. Joelle (not sure of spelling), day time innkeeper, had a remarkably infectious and joyful presence and handled the inn as best she could given the policies.

Negatives: Upon making our reservation, we were informed that our credit card would be charged immediately, that we had "bought" the room for the night as opposed to the credit card being used to secure payment of the room in the event we failed to check in. When I questioned this policy, I was told that "all the inns on the (Mendocino) coast did this". After our trip, I decided to call a couple other inns to see if this was true. The first one, McCallum B & B in Mendocino, said they do immediately process a charge for one night's lodging upon making a reservation. The other I called, Sandpiper House Inn, also in Elk, said they wouldn't dream of such a policy. They value their guests as people and do not have a "corporate" approach I was told.

When we arrived at Elk Cove Inn in the evening around 7:30pm, the night time innkeeper was far less than hospitable, at least indifferent and almost hostile. When I inquired if an upgrade might be possilbe since there was a good chance we were the last guests to arrive, we were told that she didn't know if the inn had a policy of upgrading. I asked if there was anyone she could ask if they had such a policy. She said "No". Practically in the next breath she explained that the owner lived almost directly across the street and if there was anything we needed, we could use the phone at the front to call him. I don't know why she was unable to call the owner to ask about an upgrade policy. I would not have given it a second thought if she had said, "I'm sorry we can't upgrade you."

We were also presented upon arrival with a legal form we were required to sign before taking posssession of our room that "pre-authorized" a $500 charge to our credit card in the event we smoked or brought a pet into our room OR caused damage "beyond normal wear and tear". If it wasn't late and the end of driving most of the day, I would have walked right then. There was no mention of this policy when I made our reservation nor did I see mention of it on their website. (The innkeeper at the Sandpiper House Inn was aghast when I told her of this policy and asked if she had one like it. Of course she didn't).

Now, we are guests that wipe up water on the sink, throw all our trash in the waste bins, and straighten up the room before we leave, but we found ourselves on edge throughout our stay that this exisiting nick on the antique buffet, that gouge in the window frame, or some other existing thing would be charged to us. It felt much like when we rent a car and are given a form to note all existing damage on, only there was no form here. It felt like the owner's over-riding concern was his financial well-being, not hospitality.

Of note to us also, given this policy, was the "thrift shop" mismatched furnishings in our room. Not an ecclectic, pleasing combination of previously loved furniture, but awkward ranch house style livingroom end tables for night stands with huge oriental style livingroom lamps on them. A more modestly priced and presented inn could have perhaps gotten away with it, but we felt a little misled by this inn that presented itself to be of a high caliber.

A minor thing was that the down comforter they made a point of advertising was totally flat and didn't even provide much warmth.

I know this sounds picky, but many inns do provide consistent hospitality and quality, nicer rooms and friendlier policies for the same $200 a night, and also have a beautiful setting (though, admittedly, not often with that kind of beach access).

It may be just right for you, and the things that bothered us may not bother you, but for our $200, we will go elsewhere.

We arrived late in the evening on our honeymoon trip through California and had no other choice. They charged us 336 $ (!!!) for one night, but after our return to Germany they charged us another 511 $ (!!!!!!!!!) accusing us for smoking in the room. We are both nonsmokers, the only smoke in the room came the whole night from the old oven which we had to feed with a lot of firewood. Stay away from this place if you dont like problems, better choose a cheap motel anywhere.

My wife and I spent the 5th night of our most recent trip to California in Elk at the Elk Cove Inn on Feb 26th. Previously on this trip we'd stayed in Monterey, San Francisco, Napa and Calistoga. We enjoyed all of the other stops but this was by far our favorite.

The Inn is located on a cliff overlooking a beautiful cove about 12 miles south of Mendocino. The view from the entire property is breathtaking. When we arrived we were greeted by the owner David and presented with a very nice welcome basket containing a small bottle of Husch chardonnay, fruit and 2 delicious homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. A very nice touch.

We stayed on the 2nd floor in the Cypress Garden room. The room was beautiful and quite large for an Inn. A big comfortable bed, window seats, sofa, large glass coffee table and a gas fireplace. The bathroom was also quite large, the largest in the house they say on their website. Also in the room was a small decanter of port and 2 Lindt truffles.

There is a path you can take from the Inn that brings you right down to a secluded beach. A nice place to go for some quiet time with your loved one. You can also take a path that runs along the bluff all the way to town, which is about a 10 minute walk, longer if you stop along the way and take in the amazing views.

As you've probably already read Elk doesn't offer an abundance of things to do at night. I'd recommend driving to Mendocino during the day to explore the town and have lunch there (we ate at the Mendocino Hotel and it was excellent) and dining in Elk, either at the Inn (the restaurant was closed while we were there) or walk to Bridgett Dolan's Pub which was more than adequate. This way you can avoid driving back at night on pulse quickening route 1, which is even trickier if you've had a few drinks.

Breakfast is served in the morning and from what I've read can either be a large buffet or plated meal depending upon the time of year or occupancy. Ours was plated and was fantastic. We helped ourselves to coffee and juice and were brought a basket of fresh, warm croissants and biscuits served with homemade jam. That would have been enough to fill me up but there was more. We were then served a plate of eggs, homemade corned beef hash and 2 breakfast sausage. The best part of breakfast is the amazing view of the bay from the restaurant. We could have sat there all morning drinking coffee and gazing out at the ocean hoping to catch a glimpse of a migrating whale. Binoculars are actually provided for this at each table.

We can't say enough about our stay at the Elk Cove Inn or David's hospitality!! It helped to make what to that point was a great trip even better. You can be sure we'll be back only this time staying longer than 1 night.