Carmel-by-the-Sea, United States

Stilwell Hotel

Price per night from$460.38

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD460.38), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Stilwell Hotel Photos

Style

Breezy bon vivant

Setting

Crushing on Carmel

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Stilwell Hotel is making waves along California’s Central Coast, in the small fairytale town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Interiors are a contemporary ode to its Pacific-side setting, and a maze of outdoor courtyards is embellished with water features and fire pits. There’s an alfresco oven for flamed-to-perfection pizzas and your ethereal locale puts Monterey Bay’s sun-basked beaches no further than an open-toed amble away. 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

$50 credit to use at the Café

Facilities

Photos Stilwell Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

42, including eight suites.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include a buffet breakfast (including gluten- and dairy-free options), served daily at the Café.

Also

All three of the hotel’s accessible rooms (two King and one Double Queen) are set on the first floor and suitably adapted with roll-in showers, grab bars, lowered sinks and space for wheelchairs users. The hotel’s outdoor spaces are set on level paths, and all communal areas are accessible for guests with limited mobility.

At the hotel

Golf storage and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, climate control, dry bar, mini fridge, Nespresso coffee machine, steamer, bathrobes and Lather bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Clean-lined, contemporary interiors encapsulate Carmel’s coastal spirit throughout. Some are bathed in natural light, others warmed with the gentle hue of ambient lighting, but picks with private balconies have our hearts. All the suites come with tubs for bubble-topped trysts and the Carmel Bay and Mountain View Suites both catch glimpses of the ocean and surrounding mountains.

Packing tips

A driver, putter and a few irons — Pebble Beach’s links aren’t just for Tiger Woods.

Pet‐friendly

Up to two pups under 70 pounds are welcome to join you for a nightly charge of $50 each. See more pet-friendly hotels in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Children

Welcome; there aren’t any dedicated facilities, but the Double Queen room and all the suites sleep between four and six.

Food and Drink

Photos Stilwell Hotel food and drink

Top Table

The scent from straight-out-the-oven pizzas hits alfresco tables first, and notable nooks rest around the cheek-rosing fire pits.

Dress Code

Along this laidback stretch of California’s coast, as you are is all that’s asked.

Hotel restaurant

The open-plan Café is made up from an assortment of outdoor courtyards, warmed with crackling fit pits and tuned to the ripple of surrounding water features. In the centre of the gardens, wood-flamed pizzas are puffed to perfection in a clay oven and paired with seasonal salads and charcuterie boards. And on Sundays, house-made ice creams form the foundation for make-your-own-dessert stations.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar, but classic cocktails, beers and a sommelier-worthy selection of wines are available to order from the Café.

Last orders

Pizzas are plated between 4pm and 9pm.

Location

Photos Stilwell Hotel location
Address
Stilwell Hotel
5th Avenue
Carmel-by-the-Sea
93921
United States

Stilwell Hotel sits in the small, one-square-mile town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, on the Central Coast of California in the western Monterey Peninsula.

Planes

If you’re arriving internationally, you’ll most likely touch down in San Francisco. From there, you can either catch a connecting flight to Monterey Regional Airport (a 10-minute drive from the hotel) or make the almost two-hour drive through San Jose and down the coast to Carmel.

Automobiles

Carmel itself is walkable, but in this sprawling state a car will come in handy. There’s free private parking at the hotel, including chargers for electric vehicles.

Worth getting out of bed for

Stays at Stilwell mean Carmel-by-the-Sea’s boho boutiques, independent cafés and quirky architecture are never more than a meander away. There are almost 100 galleries to roam in its small one-square-mile stretch, and Carmel Beach — just down Ocean Drive — is your sun-coated welcome to California’s coast. If you’re seeking an urban fix, the peninsula’s eponymous city of Monterey is a 10-minute drive away.

Pebble Beach Golf Links pulls putters for its famed courses, and over in Pacific Grove, the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary sends sights aflutter. The drive is as striking as the destination if you’re heading to Molera State Park’s hiking trails, which sits just off Big Sur’s 90-mile highway. Garrapata State Park is a closer alternative, and treks up to its Soberanes Point reward handsomely with boundless Pacific views. Sample California’s terroir at Talbott Vineyards, where county-crafted chardonnays and crisp pinot noirs are sommelier-selected standouts. 

Local restaurants

Californian ingredients are championed at Foray Restaurant, a fine-dining pick down San Carlos Street, where elevated dishes nod to seasonal, coastal cuisine. Akaoni is a catch for sushi, and French-Italian fare fills bistro-style tables at locally loved La Bicyclette Restaurant.

Local bars

Don’t let Café del Mare’s unfussy façade put you off: house-made coffee and sweet treats are made from traditional Italian recipes, so you can trust they’ll hit the moreish mark. All-American pies and batches of freshly baked brownies, cookies and donuts are the sugary lures at Sweet Reba’s, a pretty-in-pink bakery down Dolores Street.

Reviews

Photos Stilwell Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this coastal crashpad on the Monterey Peninsula and unpacked their gallery goodies and local wines, a full account of their Californian break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Stilwell Hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea…

Coasting down California’s Highway 1 — preferably in an open-top, if you were to ask us — features on most people’s bucket lists in one way or another. And we aren’t here to detour such dreams, just suggest a slight gear shift with a worthy pitstop at Stilwell Hotel, just off the revered route. 

There’s a whimsical wonder to this boutique stay’s Carmel-by-the-Sea setting, where its offbeat architecture, independent shops and crooked alleyways wouldn’t look out of place in Hansel and Gretel. But back at base, breezy rooms and suites tell a different tale: contemporary finishes and coastal artwork depict the Golden State’s laidback attitude, and there’s a lacing labyrinth of alfresco spots that encourage slow-paced sips over a cocktail or two. Staff are on call to organise anything and everything, but something as simple as a slice of the chef’s lauded wood-fired pizza will be enough to curtail cravings to get back on the road. 

Book now

Price per night from $458.88

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