California is known for its majestic coastline, but the Central Coast is an especially beautiful place to visit with breath taking views and a climate just perfect for making wine!
For my mother’s birthday she wanted to go to her favorite inn, The Apple Farm. Located in San Luis Obispo,
Apple Farm is a decorators dream!! A picturesque Victorian mansion, set in wine country, where no one room is the same. All the rooms are uniquely decorated in either French Country or Shabby Chic, leaving the guest feeling elegant yet comfortable all at the same time. Now normally
The Apple Farm is not what you would consider a budget hotel, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t great deals.
Apple Farm offers year round special packages and the Trellis Court, which is an attached drive up motel.
To make this a really memorable trip we decided to make a road trip out it and stopped first in
Solvang, a sweet little Danish village in Santa Barbara County. I recommend grabbing a visitors’ guide while you are there. They often have great coupons for lunch or dinner specials and information on wine tasting and happy hours.
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| Solvang |
After lunch and some shopping we were eager to get to The Apple Farm Inn. Road trips are an affordable way to travel, but if you are a California local I would also suggest taking the train.
Amtrak only costs about $49 round trip and there is a station in San Luis Obispo. Just call Apple Farm Inn and they will pick you up! Pretty sweet!
There are no words for what it feels like to arrive at
The Apple Farm Inn. You feel as if you are taken back to another time and place. It is truly a fairy tale. Now with rooms normally costing about $150-$280 a night how did I experience luxury on a budget? Well
The Apple Farm Inn offers some great specials year round! Since we were going in the fall we decided to book the
Bounty of the County package. For $399 a couple you get a two night stay at the Apple Farm Inn, private transportation to a number of wineries and/or other central cost sites where you will receive free wine tasting and other gifts, two delicious boxed lunches to enjoy at one of the stops, complimentary breakfast for two and a daily wine reception at the Inn. Phew! What a bargain!
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| Apple Farm Inn |
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| Apple Farm Inn |
Upon check in we all immediately hit our complimentary wine reception, where relaxed talked about the events of the day and the adventures for tomorrow.
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| Welcome Wine Reception |
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| Welcome Wine Reception |
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| Welcome Wine Reception |
Dinner is amazing at
The Apple Farm Inn. In fact my sister will drive 3 hours just for dinner at the
Apple Farm Inn’s restaurant. Sometimes when you book, the inn also gives you a dinner voucher, which we received at check in. The mac n cheese is mind blowing and the meatloaf always sells out! Enough said! I’m hungry now!
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| Apple Farm Restaurant |
Attached to
The Apple Farm Inn Restaurant is a darling shop filled with seasonal goodies and decorative items. There is also the
Millhouse where you stay in one of the two Millhouse suits, shop and sample some of the homemade apple cider.
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| Millhouse |
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| Apple Farm Shoppe |
After dinner the lobby hosts a cookies and coffee reception before bed. Complimentary homemade cookies, hot tea, coffee and homemade cider can be enjoyed while unwinding in an overstuffed chair or planning a leisurely game of checkers.
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| Lobby |
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| Coffee reception and checkers |
When you stay at
The Apple Farm Inn you really do get your money’s worth, because you want to spend all your time in the rooms. They are unbelievably beautiful and
Apple Farm does not skip on the details. When you book your room you receive shinny red souvenir apples and a welcome basket filled with fruits, cookies and a bottle of sparkling cider. Every room has a fireplace and there are also plush terry cloth robes hanging in the closet for you to relax in while you sip on hot tea before bed.
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| our room |
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| My parent's room |
The next morning, we woke up and enjoyed some hot coffee and fresh fruit in the lobby while we waited for our winery tour to begin. Leif and Doc, our drivers and tour guides for the day, gathered the group and loaded us into vans by 9:00 am. As we drove through the beautiful countryside, Leif told all about the landscape and what brought him to San Luis Obispo. It was so nice knowing you could just relax, drink wine all day and someone else was driving you around, especially if you don’t know the area.
Our first winery of the day was
Ancient Peaks Winery, near Paso Robles, where we had a wonderful wine tasting and tour of the family farm.
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| wine tasting at Ancient Peaks |
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| The barn at Ancient Peaks Winery |
Next stop was
Happy Acres Family Farm. There we got to milk goats and make our own goat cheese. Sounds different, but it was one of my favorite stops of the day. Stephanie, the owner of the farm was so sweet and generous that it just made for a wonderful experience. If you wanted you were able to purchase a number of goat milk based products from their farm. I recommend the goat milk soap…it makes your skin look and feel amazing.
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| Getting ready to make cheese |
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| Dad milking a goat |
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| Stephanie from Happy Acres |
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| Happy Acres shop |
When we arrived at the
JanKris Winery, they had it all setup outside where we could enjoy our boxed lunch and taste some wines. When you hear boxed lunch I can bet that you don’t imagine what I’m talking about. This lunch was AMAZING!!! Everything was from the
Apple Farm Restaurant. It was fresh and filling. We were also given a tour of the vineyard, where we were allowed to pick and touch merlot grapes fresh off the vine.
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| boxed lunch |
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| wine tasting at JanKris |
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| Merlot grapes |
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| JanKris tasting room |
Our last stop of the day was
Cass Winery. We were taken into what was called the library room where we learn how to make a delicious and simple appetizer by their head chef and given a wine tasting.
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| Cass Winery |
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| Cass Winery |
Seven hours and countless glasses of wine later, we were headed back to The Apple Farm Inn. All the activities of the day were included in our package price of $399. Crazy right? Since we were getting such a fabulous deal we decided to purchase a bottle of wine from every winery as a memento of our trip. We also bought a few bottles for friends and family as gifts for the holidays. It’s nice to not only support the family owned wineries, but you usually get great deals on their house blends.
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| Bottle of wine from Cass |
After a whole day of drinking wine, we were tired and hungry. Needless to say, but we skipped our free wine reception at the Inn that night and went straight to dinner. It was comfort food at its best.
The next morning we cashed in our breakfast vouchers and enjoyed another delicious meal at the restaurant. After we were nice and full we head off to the
Madonna Inn. It was gaudy yet fabulous. There we explored the Inn and some of its crazy rooms.
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| Madonna Inn |
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| Madonna Inn |
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| Madonna Inn |
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| Madonna Inn |
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| Bathroom at Madonna Inn |
The Central Coast is not only beautiful it’s exciting, and with the right research can be very affordable. So grab the one you love and make plans for a romantic weekend at The Apple Farm Inn.
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| Apple Farm |
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