We stayed here for my mom’s 80th birthday, who lives nearby. We had a great experience with Chris, the owner/manager/host all the way from initial inquiry to follow-up. We stayed a week and I’m thrilled we did.
The home is beautiful, gorgeously situated in the Laguna Beach hills, a good, healthy 15 minute walk to the shops of PCH (not for the sedentary or infirm, there’s a shuttle that runs to the downtown area that stops pretty nearly at the front door). Easy access to grocery store (with full liquor/beer/wine), shops, restaurants and beach, as well as greater local OC & LA sites.
Quiet, peaceful, well-constructed home with lots of sunlight and breezes. Breathtaking sunset views, couple different porch spaces for relaxing with morning coffee and evening cocktails. The adjoining gardens are as tranquil and beautiful as the larger surroundings. Hummingbirds everywhere! The chorus of coyotes baying in the distance one night was odd and beautiful.
Highest compliments to Chris, host with the most: did everything he could to make us comfortable, had all kinds of beach and outdoor activity equipment available (thanks for getting the bikes out, Chris; sorry we didn’t use them!), hugely informative and helpful about the local community, extremely personable and both almost instantly accessible and nearly invisible. Great job!
Important side note: the home was built extensively “green”: lots of eco-friendly water- and energy conservation initiatives during construction. Chris is clearly passionate about sustainable building and systems and it shows.
On the downside: 1) there were some problems with water pressure and hot-water availability for some bathrooms (our bathroom was fine throughout). As soon as we mentioned it, a plumber was called to investigate and make repairs. I think by the end it was better (while still not 100% great), but I really appreciated the quick response.
2) Only one television in the house. It was actually pretty nice to NOT have it constantly blaring away. That said, wifi signal was strong and we had great reception the whole week, both on our laptops and the one cable-supplied tv. THAT said, cellphone reception was rough, but that’s probably more due to geography than anything else.
All in all, we had a lovely experience here. It was a great value and we liked the home and the host so well, we were already talking about coming back for our Mom’s 85th. I’d stay there again and would highly recommend Bluebird Canyon to friends.