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The Resort at Pelican Hill
W
e finished our match at Oak Creek at 4:30 or so and headed toward The Resort at Pelican Hill, a 504-acre playground that
boasts two Tom Fazio golf courses (Oak Creek was also designed by Fazio), 204 bungalow guestrooms, and 128 two-, three-,
and four-bedroom villas, all of which feature a limestone fireplace and spacious terrace. Pelican Hill is one of only a dozen
Forbes
-
rated five-star resorts in the state of California, and of 80 worldwide as of this printing.
We checked in at the main estate, modeled after, we are told, a similar structure in Northern Siena, Italy. The big circular entry court was
inspired by Il Campo, the piazza where the semi-annual
Palio di Siena
horse race takes place.
The entire resort has been animated by the Renaissance architecture of Andrea Palladio, whose four books on architecture –
I Quattro
Libri Dell’Architettura
– published in 1570, explained the importance of symmetry, proportion, and grandeur, and how they can and should
work together. The folks at the Irvine Company seem to have taken that message to heart.
The Villa
T
he two-bedroom villa chosen for us boasted not only an expansive terrace but also an uninterrupted view of the Newport property, the
Ocean North and Ocean South golf courses, the entire coastline, and the beaches below.
Our unit was capacious, with 2,195 square feet of living space, two-and-a-half baths, a full kitchen, large living room, fireplace, and three
flat-screen TVs; it had all the space and desirability of a first-class condominium or apartment, yet was simply a hotel “room.” It also came
with security gates, a one-car garage, and a 24-hour butler.