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Riverside's Mission Inn Hotel and Spa Has Its Very Own Docent

Go To The Hotel's Web 
  Site Where: 3649 Mission Inn Ave. [map], Riverside, CA, United States, 92501
May 28, 2010 at 1:40 PM | by | Comments (0)

Not too long ago, we visited one of California’s iconic historical hotels (it’s even listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a California State Historic Landmark), the Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in Riverside.

Now, Riverside might seem like an unlikely place for a 239-room luxury retreat with four gourmet restaurants on-site, and a full day spa. And it’s true, the Mission Inn does stand out from its more…drab…surroundings. But the hotel has a storied past running back nearly 110 years, and has seen no fewer than ten U.S. Presidents walk its halls, not to mention Richard Nixon got married and the Reagans honeymooned there before their arrival would have been announced by a rousing refrain from “Hail to the Chief.”

These days, the resort is undergoing a $15 million redecoration starting with its upper-floor guest rooms and suites, that will move away from the muted Spanish colonial-style furnishings of the past toward more modern, brighter color palettes (not to mention large flat screens in every room, and free WiFi). The “freshening up” aims to retain the Inn’s “eccentric chic.”

When we were visiting the hotel, we managed to take some time out from wining, dining and spa-ing to take a docent tour of the property where our guide David pointed out the historical importance of different point of interest along our route, and showed us all over the hodge-podge buildings of the property.

After the tour, we asked David to stick around and tell us exactly what it is that makes the Mission Inn such a special place. Find out what he had to say in this video, and then if it sounds like somewhere you’d like to experience for yourself, you can book a room there for rates starting at $190.

Full Disclosure: Eric Rosen spent two nights as a guest of the Mission Inn Hotel and Spa.

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