Where to stay when you leave.

Author's Dog-Friendly Hotel Pick in Oprah's Backyard

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  Site Where: 900 San Ysidro Lane [map], Montecito, CA, United States, 93108

1/30/2008 at 3:47 PM
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We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.

The next VIP in the series is Gabe Rotter, author of the Simon & Schuster novel Duck Duck Wally about a chubby whiteboy who is the secret ghostwriter for a famous gangsta rapper, Oral B. Since Wally's beloved bulldog Dr. Barry Schwartzman is an important character in the book (he gets dog-napped!) we figured Gabe could tell us a safe place to travel with your dogs. Enjoy.

[Photo: IanL]

My favorite dog-friendly hotel is a place I'll likely never be able to afford again. I went there once, a few years ago, for two nights. And I'll be working it off until the day I die, old and hunched and grey and wrinkly, drooling into my Jello and dreaming about my two, wonderful nights with my bitch at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara.

Oh, and my dog came too.

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San Ysidro Ranch is nestled in the hills of Montecito, a posh, swanky little community just south of Santa Barbara proper. Anytime something is "nestled" in any way, shape, or form, you can bet it's gonna be good, and San Ysidro Ranch doesn't disappoint.

It's a famed little resort in Southern California, not far from the wine country, and not far from the beach. And not far from Oprah's palatial spread either. The resort's website boasts that "Myth and history mingle in the fragrant gardens where Vivien Leigh and Sir Laurence Olivier exchanged vows; in the setting of John and Jackie Kennedy's honeymoon retreat." Sweet!

"The Ranch," as I like to call it (since I'm an old veteran of the SYR - as I also like to call it), has many beautiful suites, which come in one or two bedroom varieties. However, if you're traveling with-pooch, as we were, you'll have to stay in one of the 41 adorable little (ok, they're not actually so little) cottages that dot the property.

The cottages are a real treat, and they better be, because they cost 74 zillion dollars per night. Each one is large (about 1,200 sq ft), and plushly accommodated, including comfy king-sized beds with the finest linens, antiquey furniture, private patios with hot tubs and rain showers, gorgeous stone fireplaces, heated bathroom floors, and big flat screen TVs.

It costs $100 extra per night to bring your dog, but he or she will be treated to luxury and comfort just as lavish as that of mom and dad. According to their website:

[I]t may not be commonly known that one of the main attractions for the San Ysidro Ranch as a lavish hideaway is its historical tradition in welcoming the family pet. Stemming back as far as former owner Alvin Weingand's famed family of dachshunds in the mid 1930s, pets have often been frequent guests at the Ranch.

And they do it right: The receptionist at check-in gave our dog a cookie upon arrival, and when we got to our cottage, we found that there was a doggy bed awaiting, as well as food and water dishes and some toys and treats. We spent the second day we were there hiking (with our dog) along the many miles of trails around the ranch.

They also provide in-room spa treatments for dogs, which include a half-hour massage for $75. It doesn't get any more swanky/obnoxious than that.

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