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America’s Best Hotel
Y
ou may have heard or read that Montecito’s 116-year-old
500-acre San Ysidro Ranch was named America’s Best Hotel
2009 by
Forbes Traveler
magazine. What you may not know
is that the designation was arrived at not by a columnist or by
the magazine’s quirky owner,
Steve Forbes
, but that the ranch
won its accolades in competition with nearly 800 U.S. hotels, most of which are
much larger and more well known.
A panel of experienced high-end travelers –
Arianna Huffington
, Olives
founder and chef
Todd English
, chef and cookbook author
Rocco Dispirito
,
NBC’s “Today Show” Travel Editor
Peter Greenberg
, and “Lonely Planet” co-
founder
Tony Wheeler
– began with 800 hotels and pared the list down to create
the
Forbes Traveler
400 before settling in to name the “Single Best Hotel Overall.”
Making the top five list were the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, Auberge du
Soleil in Napa Valley, The Point in Saranac Lake in upstate New York, the Beverly
Hills Hotel & Bungalows, and the San Ysidro Ranch. That Montecito’s intimate
41-room hideaway took top honors is a David versus Goliath accomplishment of
the highest order.
by Thedim Fiste
ontecito
hideaway
m
by Thedim Fiste
San Ysidro Ranch, recently named by Forbes Traveler as 2009’s Single Best Hotel Overall,
occupies 500 acres with the most agreeable climate and spectacular views in Coastal California