Alila Marea Seashore Vacation resort Provides Clifftop Luxury To San Diego’s Coastline

With its extended-awaited opening this spring, Alila Marea Seashore Resort provides important splash to the San Diego coast. Significant on a coastal bluff in the funky-chic surf town of Encinitas, the 130-room home is portion of Hyatt’s Alila luxurious chain of 17 accommodations about the entire world. But from the views to the vibe, this luxurious boutique lodge could not definitely be wherever else but San Diego.

A yr-moreover into quarantine immediately after all that time stuck at home, my wife imagined it would be intelligent for my teenage son and me to have some bonding time someplace, wherever, that wasn’t our kitchen, lawn or Zoom place. So, both freshly vaxed, Sebastian and I headed south from Los Angeles for an adventure by the beach front. It was our first leap again into the planet of vacation considering that the shutdown, and Alila Marea manufactured the landing quick in many additional approaches than one.

Keep

From its discreet driveway entrance, Alila Marea feels like a little lodge but it is pretty grand with 114 spacious guestrooms, 9 studio rooms, five one-bed room suites, and palatial Ponto and Grandview presidential suites. The stylish clifftop aerie has postcard sights up and down the Encinitas coast, with mighty brown pelicans gliding previously mentioned and beneath in graceful splendor. The resort decor, by San Diego-primarily based Joseph Wong Design and style Associates with interior style and design by Mark Zeff Associates, is modern day and clean up with microdoses of seaside interesting. Sleek stone reception desks, touches of driftwood, non-public patios with fireplace pits, evocative ocean artwork by regional surf photographer Aaron Chang. Imagine the classy beachfront residence of an individual who’s made zillions in the skate or surf sector (there are a good deal of those people today all-around the neighborhood) and you are going to get a perception of the seem and truly feel at Alila Marea.

The pool is oddly little, or maybe it is the panoramic ocean all over that would make it sense that way. But it’s pleasant to dangle and have fish tacos or hand rolls at The Pocket pool deck spot with its custom handmade surfboard-motivated wall panels from area “shaper” Brian Szymanski.

Alila Marea performs tricky to enjoy perfectly with the neighbors, down to supplying area roaster Lofty Coffee basically on IV drip. There are bikes available at the valet stand from Electra Bicycle Enterprise, the Encinitas-primarily based e-bicycle brand name, which custom made a fleet of two-wheelers for the house. You can choose surf lessons with Surfin Fire nearby, one particular of the prime area surf colleges. Mint Studio is a Carlsbad imaginative collective that associates with the resort on curated activities in crafting, portray and other Etsy-approved arts.

Consume

San Diego indigenous and James Beard Award semifinalist Claudette Zepeda oversees the menu at Alila Marea, and that could possibly be the greatest purpose — beside those amazing views — to check out the home. At VAGA Restaurant & Bar, Zepeda serves San Diego Saraspe blue fin tuna crudo, crispy housemade gnocchi and a 26 oz Snake River tomahawk steak big plenty of to paddle your sea kayak. In a flash (not to point out in a pandemic), Zepeda has developed a single of San Diego’s most interesting new dining places.

In town in Encinitas, Le Papagayo is not extravagant (fancy doesn’t truly fly in Encinitas) but you’ll be loads glad with Oaxaca skillet steak tacos or the Pacific rim bouillabaisse, and it’s usually a lively, spouse and children-friendly scene.

Nectarine Grove is earthy, healthier, sunny and nicely caffeinated—a fantastic place for organic and natural, paleo, gluten-absolutely free really feel-superior dining and groovy individuals watching.

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On the curated checklist of “Alila Experiences,” there’s this superior flyer: An outdated-fashioned journey of the most heart-pounding form, San Diego Sky Tours right away summons every single adrenaline molecule you’ve remaining dormant more than the earlier yr of nothing-performing. The company’s open up-cockpit biplane charters alongside the San Diego coastline are personalized to your comfort stage, whether or not that is a gentle sunset tour or a total-on aerial-demonstrate-fashion acrobatics stunt out with loops and corkscrew dips (guess which a single the 17-year-aged chose and why I determined to keep on the ground.).

The pilots are the most effective of the best (behold their assessments!). We were being fortunate to have Vinny “Otter” Lostetter, a retired U.S. Air Drive Colonel who flew B1 bombers, which makes him sound like a fasten-your-seatbelts-maggots kinda dude but he’s a sweetheart. Otter retired from the Air Power in 2013 and is Air Power JROTC Commander at a neighborhood San Diego Higher Faculty when he’s not again-flipping these nimble bi-wings. 

Mountaineering the bluffs and beaches alongside the Encinitas coastline is your Zen rehab soon after regardless of what stoked-up thrill you have picked out, and—at sunset especially—the trio of trails at Batiquitos Lagoon, Torrey Pines and San Elijo remind you how good it is to be looking at attractive new horizons again.