Cambria, United States

White Water

Price per night from$127.30

Price information

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 (USD127.30), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

White Water Photos

Style

Scandi surf

Setting

Mystical Moonstone Beach

Explore

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White Water is a seaside lodge in central California with adventure-ready surroundings and serious design cred (the interiors by Nina Freudenberger are the last word in coastal cool). The front door is steps from a stretch of surf-blessed beach, a five-minute bike ride from Cambria’s quaint cafes and fifteen minutes by car from the Paso Robles wine region. Inside, you’ll find Aesop bath products, Erewhon goodies in the minibar and fresh pastries delivered daily to your door.  This former motel may be just off Highway 1, but it’s a stop so spoiling you won’t want to put it in the rear view.

Smith Extra

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A bottle of sparkling wine

Facilities

Photos White Water facilities

Need to know

Rooms

25, including three suites.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.

Prices

Double rooms from £105.46 ($143), including tax at 12.695 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional service charge of $2.25 per room per night on check-out and an additional service charge of $11.27 per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates include free coffee and pastries delivered to your room every morning. For heartier breakfast fare, you’ll need to head into town (it’s just five minutes by bike).

Also

The highly curated shelves in the lobby double as a general store – those design books, vintage vases and beach blankets are all available to buy.

Please note

Due to Covid-19, there are some extra health and safety precautions in place: you’ll need to wear a mask in the hotel’s common areas (there are disposable ones on hand), cleaning and disinfecting has been increased in all bedrooms and public areas, and coffee and pastries are delivered to your room daily, not laid out in the lobby.

At the hotel

Free WiFi, public beach in reach, boutique, library with board games and vintage magazines, Linus bikes to borrow. In rooms: TV, Aesop bath products and an indulgent mini bar with local wines and Erewhon goodies.

Our favourite rooms

You’ll feel like you’re bedding down in a magazine spread no matter which room you’re in – the interiors are an inspired mix of Baltic birch wood, beach-house whites and organic textures. The Ocean View King rooms merit special mention for their panoramic views of the Pacific and outdoor soaking tub so you can stargaze by night.

Packing tips

A rash guard if you plan to brave the breakers and a fleece for dawn whale-watching missions.

Also

All common areas and a number of Double Queen and Premier King rooms are wheelchair accessible.

Pet‐friendly

Four legged friends are welcome but need to stay on a lead at all times – there’s a charge of 100USD a booking. You can’t take dogs directly on Moonstone beach, but they’ll be more than happy bouncing along the boardwalk. See more pet-friendly hotels in Cambria.

Children

All ages are welcome, but it’s definitely better suited to adventurous teens who want to hike or hang ten.

Food and Drink

Photos White Water food and drink

Top Table

By the windows, for views of rolling dunes and white-capped waves.

Dress Code

Come-as-you-are casual.

Hotel restaurant

There’s no full-service restaurant on site, but the lobby serves a selection of small bites and sharing plates like cheese fondue and charcuterie. 

 

Hotel bar

The petite bar in the lobby lounge has striped wallpaper in a rusty hue, beer on tap and a terrazzo countertop. You’ll also find local wines from their favourite vineyards in Paso Robles, ciders and spirits. Ask about the daily happy hour deals and plan your day accordingly.

Last orders

Food and drinks are available in the lobby from noon to 9.30pm daily.

Room service

There’s no room service, but there are Erewhon snacks, chocolate, local wine and craft beers in your minibar to stave off hunger pangs after dark.

Location

Photos White Water location
Address
White Water
6736 Moonstone Beach Dr
Cambria
93428
United States

White Water is ensconced in the evergreens above Moonstone Beach in Cambria, just off California’s scenic Highway 1.

Planes

There’s a small airport in San Luis Obispo (a 50-minute drive from the hotel), but you’ll need to connect through a larger hub like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas or Denver.

Trains

The Amtrak station in San Luis Obispo offers daily service by the Coast Starlight train (which travels between Los Angeles and Seattle) and the Pacific Surfliner (which travels along the coast from San Luis Obispo to San Diego).

Automobiles

Hit the ignition – Cambria is equidistant from Los Angeles and San Francisco (about three and a half hours from each) on the famous Highway 1, so it’s the perfect overnight stop for both you and your little red Corvette. And, being a former roadside inn, there’s plenty of free parking on site.

Worth getting out of bed for

If you’ve brought your board, you can find some of the central coast's best surfing on naturally secluded Moonstone Beach. There can be strong swells so it’s best suited to intermediate or advanced riders. If you prefer to stay dry, you can borrow one of the hotel’s Linus bikes and explore the boardwalk. The scenic, looping trails at the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve wind through pine forest, rolling grasslands and have stunning views of the coast – you might get lucky and spot a migrating whale (yelling ‘ahoy’ is optional but strongly recommended). 


Fifteen minutes’ drive up the coast is Xanadu-like Hearst Castle, the former newspapers tycoon’s mind-boggling mansion that houses more art and antiquities than you could ever see in a day (plus a herd of zebras, for some reason). Or wend your way to the exciting wine region of Paso Robles – book ahead for tastings and tours at Tablas Creek, Tin City and Austin Hope.

Local restaurants

Head to Hidden Kitchen for their famous blue corn waffles, tacos and superfood smoothies (the Cambria location is only open on weekends, but the Cayucos location twenty minutes’ drive south is open six days a week). Unabashedly kitsch Sea Chest is the place for a plate of oysters and sea views from the patio. Madeline’s on Main Street has a bit more romance, plus a bottle shop selling boutique wines.

Local bars

Mozzi’s is the last cowboy saloon standing in Cambria, complete with taxidermy, a jukebox and a pool table – yee haw. 922 is a micro-brewery that makes some of central California’s best IPAs, ales and stouts (they’ve even got growlers to-go for your hotel room enjoyment).

Reviews

Photos White Water 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 coast-hugging hotel in California and unpacked their wetsuits and local wine, a full account of their engine-revvin’ roadtrip will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside White Water in Cambria…

Miraculously, seeing as it sits between San Francisco and Los Angeles on Highway 1 – that rite-of-passage road trip on everybody’s bucket list – Cambria still feels blissfully sleepy and undiscovered, the kind of place where you can drive in and slow right down. Continue past Main Street’s adorable delis and seafood restaurants and you’ll find White Water sitting pretty between the Monterey pines and the pounding surf on Moonstone Beach. The former motel is part of the PRG portfolio (they’re the Golden State gurus behind fellow Smith spots Sparrows Lodge, Casa Laguna and sister hotel Cambria Beach Lodge) and recently got a ravishing re-do by Nina Freudenberger, a Los Angeles-based designer who’s made her name as the arbiter of surf shack chic. These are the kind of laidback interiors that encourage you to come back sandy, windswept and water-logged, because nature is the main event in these parts. Just be sure to wrap up your surfing, hiking or coastline cruising in time for happy hour in the ocean-gazing lobby – you wouldn’t want to miss chef Jason’s famous fondue…

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