Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
vorce), entertained a steady stream of the era's biggest movers and shakers. Invitations
were highly coveted, but Hearst had his quirks - he despised drunkenness, and guests were
forbidden to speak of death.
Hearst Castle is a wondrous, historic (Winston Churchill penned anti-Nazi essays here
in the 1930s), over-the-top homage to material excess, perched high on a hill. California's
first licensed woman architect Julia Morgan based the main building, Casa Grande, on the
design of a Spanish cathedral, and over the decades she catered to Hearst's every design
whim, deftly integrating the spoils of his fabled European shopping sprees including arti-
facts from antiquity and pieces of medieval monasteries. The estate sprawls across acres of
lushly landscaped gardens, accentuated by shimmering pools and fountains, statues from
ancient Greece and Moorish Spain and the ruins of what was in Hearst's day the world's
largest private zoo (drivers on Hwy 1 can sometimes spot the remnant zebra herd grazing
on the hillsides of adjacent Hearst Ranch).
Much like Hearst's construction budget, the castle will devour as much of your time and
money as you let it. To see anything of this
state historic monument
( info
805-927-2020, reservations 800-444-4445;
www.hearstcastle.org
;
750 Hearst Castle Rd, San Simeon;
tours adult/child 5-12yr from $25/12; from 9am daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year's
Day, closing time varies)
, you must take a tour. In peak summer months, show up early
enough and you might be able to get a same-day ticket. For holiday and evening tours,
book at least two weeks in advance. Dress in plenty of layers: gloomy fog at the sea-level
visitors center can turn into sunny skies at the castle's hilltop location, and vice versa.
Tours usually depart starting at 9am daily, with the last tour leaving the visitor center for
the 10-minute ride to the hilltop by 4pm (later in summer). There are four main tours: the
guided portion of each lasts about 45 minutes, after which you're free to wander the gar-
dens and terraces, photograph the iconic Neptune Pool and soak up views. Best of all are
Christmas holiday and springtime evening tours, featuring living-history reenactors who
escort you back in time to the castle's 1930s heyday.
At the visitor center, a five-story-high
theater
shows a 40-minute historical film (free
admission included with most tour tickets) about the castle and the Hearst family. Other
visitor-center facilities are geared for industrial-sized mobs; it's better to grab lunch at
Se-
bastian's General Store
across Hwy 1. Before you leave, take a moment to visit the often-
overlooked museum area at the back of the visitor center.
