If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD663.33), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Two hours from the star-studded bustle of Los Angeles, the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern has attracted big names, but had humble beginnings. Opened in 1886 by Felix and Lucy Mattei, just off Los Olivos’ storied stop along the Pacific Coast Railroad, this former inn has been lovingly restored by the Auberge Resorts Collection into the American dreamboat that stands today. Spacious suites have both sun-soaked patios and cozy fireside nooks, while Californian wellness comes courtesy of the cabana-lined pool and lavender-scented spa. Once local wineries have been sampled and horse rides relished, yet more simple pleasures await at this ranch-style stay.
Noon; check-in, 4pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £594.91 ($743), including tax at 12 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional resort fee of $56.00 per room per night on check-out and an additional government tax of $2.50 per room per night on check-out.
More details
Rates don’t usually include breakfast; à la carte options are served at the Tavern.
Also
Mattei’s is fully ADA approved and has rooms that have been adapted for those with reduced mobility and limited hearing. One of the accessible suites also has two separate bedrooms for those traveling with a carer or aide.
At the hotel
Fitness center with free daily classes, boutique, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, and bespoke bath products.
Our favourite rooms
All rooms have either a patio or terrace, so alfresco apéritifs are on the cards regardless. If you’re looking for something with a little extra outdoor space, the Sun Porch rooms have a (you guessed it) front porch, decked out with a swinging bench and rocking chair. Set along an idyllic suburban-style street, four of the 19th-century cottages were caringly converted and still have many of their original features.
Poolside
Striped sunloungers and cabanas surround the hotel’s heated outdoor pool (open 7am to 10pm) and alongside the bar, which serves light Mediterranean bites; and you’ll find a small hot tub hugged by an open fire pit which warms a lounge area.
Spa
Surrounded by fields of fragrant flowers and herbs, the fittingly named Lavender Barn is soon to open; but in the meantime, deep-tissue and healing hot-stone massages, warm salt scrubs and reiki sessions are held at the Cottage Spa between 10am and 5pm (6pm on weekends).
Packing tips
Bring jodhpurs, boots and your best riding hat for canters through the Valley.
All ages are welcome; there’s no kids’ club but staff will happily tailor an itinerary for any accompanying little Smiths.
Sustainability efforts
The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern does its environmentally friendly part: single-use plastic is banned, all waste is recycled and repurposed, energy usage is monitored and minimized, ingredients are sourced locally or grown onsite in the gardens and the hotel exclusively partners with biodynamic wineries.
Watch Rhoda at work with a table alongside the open kitchen at the Tavern.
Dress Code
Your chicest cowboy get-up for dinners at the Tavern, otherwise Californian coastal blends best.
Hotel restaurant
Felix Mattei’s wife, Lucy, once helmed the inn’s original restaurant, but today dining – spread across four restaurants these days – is in the award-winning hands of executive chef Rhoda Magitang. In the 19th-century stagecoach inn, where you can still read the hotel’s very first guestbook, the ranch-inspired Tavern dishes up Californian classics (menus change seasonally, but the crispy cauliflower gets a lot of love year-round) from its steel-cast open kitchen. Just through the doors, the rouged walls of Felix Feed & Coffee are adorned with portraits painted by Felix’s son, who’s rumored to have used the inn’s famed residents – Herbert Hoover among them – as his muse. Menus are light and laidback here, serving just-brewed coffees and freshly baked pastries in the adjoining Wicker Room. And, set in an outhouse that borders the pool, the Shed delivers all-day Mediterranean bites straight to candy-striped loungers and secluded cabanas.
Hotel bar
Alongside the Tavern, the Bar serves light bites, classic cocktails and local Californian wines among bespoke leather chairs and cozy furnishings that replicate a western ranch. Behind the roaring fireplace and just beyond the copper-capped bartop, a set of horseshoes, from each of the original Los Rancheros Visitadores’ equines (including Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan), hang on the walls as an ode to the group’s once-famed pit stops.
Last orders
At the Tavern, breakfast is 7am–11am; brunch is 10am–2pm on Sundays; lunch is 11.30am–2pm, and dinner is 5pm–9pm (9.30pm at weekends). Felix feeds from 6am–2pm; the Shed, 11pm–5pm; Gin’s Tap Bar from 1pm–6pm, and the Bar closes at 10pm (11pm at weekends)
Room service
Breakfast is available in-room from 7am to 11am, and an all-day menu is served from 11am until 9.30pm.
The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern is in the Santa Ynez Valley’s small town of Los Olivos, around 30 miles inland from Santa Barbara in Southern California.
Planes
International flights land at Los Angeles’ airport, which is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the hotel. You can also fly to Santa Barbara Airport, which is a shorter 45-minute drive, but if you’re arriving from Europe it’ll require a connection. Private transfers can be arranged by the hotel on request.
Trains
Direct trains run daily from LAX to Santa Barbara Amtrak – a 45-minute drive from Mattei’s – where private transfers can be arranged.
Automobiles
If you’re planning on exploring the extent of the Valley’s vineyards, you’ll need a set of wheels (and a designated driver). Otherwise, Santa Barbara has good rail routes to California’s larger cities.
Worth getting out of bed for
Wine and wellness fill your days at the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern – and when you’re in ‘Napa Valley before it was Napa Valley’, we’d expect nothing less… Stay within Mattei’s grounds for cabernet sauvignon and sparkling wine samplings or visit nearby vineyards for tours and tastings with the owners. Cocktail classes behind the bar focus on mixing with hand-picked herbs, cooking classes are hosted by executive chef Rhoda Magbitang and lessons on infusing olive oil are held in the gardens. Once you’ve wined and dined to the brink (if that’s even possible), head to the water tower for art lessons, or pay a visit to in-house tintype portraitist, Linsey Ross. Los Olivos’ surrounding scenery is also primed for hiking, cycling and horseback riding through the Santa Ynez Valley – you are staying along the Rancheros Visitadores route after all; and, if you’d rather stay onsite, pilates, yoga, barre and sound-healing classes are all held at the fitness center.
Local restaurants
Stop in at SY Kitchen, helmed by Verona-born brothers Luca and Franceso Crestanelli, for handmade pastas perfectly paired with Californian reds. From the same team, Nella Kitchen & Bar dishes up meat-focused Italian fare along Grand Avenue. If you’re seeking coastal classics, Bar Le Côte serves a seafood-centric menu (oysters by the dozen, pickled scallops and garlic-marinated shrimp, to name a few) for lunch and dinner.
Local bars
At Story of Soil, along San Marcos Avenue, wine is the main event and owner Jessica Gasca has spent years researching and refining the collection of hand-pressed pinots, syrahs and sauvignons that grace its tasting menu.
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 historic hotel in Los Olivos and unpacked their cases of cabernets and lavender-infused oils, a full account of their grape-and-the-good break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern in California…
Born off the back of Swiss immigrant Felix Mattei, who arrived in the Santa Ynez County on the Pacific Coast Railroad back in 1886, the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern has housed weary travelers for centuries; and now, reformed and renovated by the Auberge Resorts Collection, it’s full steam ahead. After reaching Los Olivos, Felix and his wife Lucy stumbled across a run-down stagecoach inn, sitting steps from the station. Before long, its six standalone cottages were spruced up into resting places for passers-by, and news of Lucy’s first-class cooking began to reach California’s further corners, luring in famed families, from the Vanderbilts to the Pillsburys. Today, her recipes are honored in the restaurants, Felix’s original ledger lays at the entrance of the bar (for some serious name-dropping), their son’s oil paintings hang in the café, and four of the original cottages still house secluded suites for more modern journeyers, primly appointed with exposed brick fireplaces, steel-framed accents and front porches with swings that feel more New England than SoCal. Like Felix and family heading to Santa Ynez to build this American dream, you’ll be all aboard.
