The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay

The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay combines nature at its most dramatic with comfort at its most refined. Situated 23 miles south of San Francisco, the bluff-top property evokes a classic Scottish seaside resort with its shingled buildings and gabled roofs, emerald golf links, and windswept waves.

Two-thirds of the guest rooms and suites at the only full-service oceanfront resort in the area face the rugged California coastline from windows or terraces, most with an in-room fireplace or outdoor fire pit crackling nearby. The five-diamond caliber of service and appointments, both in the six-story main building and three adjacent guesthouses, extends to 21,000 square feet of indoor meeting and banquet space. Planners mix and match sites among one of the largest ballrooms on the Northern California coast, 10 additional meeting rooms, and a choice of Ocean,
Mar Vista, and Miramontes lawns and terraces. Team-building options span an equally broad range and include everything from cooking classes to beach Olympics and meaningful volunteer opportunities.

Naturally, most guests’ free time focuses on golf: the Old Course, an American parkland–style design originally laid out by Arnold Palmer, and the Ocean Course, an Arthur Hills design renowned for its links-style layout and finishing holes high above the Pacific. Only the restaurants and spa rival the golf courses in popularity, closely followed by the fitness center, indoor swimming pool, tennis complex, trail to the beach, and Ritz Kids children’s program.