The first time I saw The Madonna Inn on instagram my first thought was oh my – what and where is this place because I must go! Founded in 1958, The Madonna Inn is a motel off the highway about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles in San Luis Obispo. Each one of the 110 rooms have a unique theme and in my opinion fall into three categories – rock rooms (apparently the most popular) glam, and 1960s kitsch. The property has a Swiss Alps look on the exterior with two restaurants, a spa, tennis courts, a garden and beach entry pool on site.
Now usually I am all for finding the cheapest safe and clean accommodations available but I really wanted to indulge in the fun of The Madonna Inn. Rooms start at $219 for some of the less over the top rooms that would fall into the 1960s kitsch theme to over $300 for elaborately themes suites, there is also a $35/day resort fee. During our recent week in So Cal we took a two day mid week break to enjoy some time alone and see if The Madonna Inn lived up to the hype (spoiler: yes!). To make the most of our visit I booked us in a different room for each night – this is apparently common among Madonna Inn guests and they will even move your luggage for you if you have it ready by 10am.
For our first night, we stayed in the Merry room as this was one of the first I saw on social media that said to me girl, you need to go here. A night in the Merry room was $249 and it falls into the glam category.
The Merry room was just as fabulous in person as it looked online and is everything girly, sparkly dreams are made of. I did bring a tulle robe (another thing social media told me I “needed”) to take some pictures in this room and asked Shaun to take some pictures throughout ours stay but I also really just wanted to enjoy the time to relax.
For our second night I had booked a more modest room but it was double booked and we were upgraded to the Cabin Still room. Themed as a moonshiner’s distillery cabin, Cabin Still is one of the rock rooms and would have cost $259 for the night.
Although it was fun to check out one of the room themes The Madonna Inn was most known for we didn’t enjoy The Cabin Still as much as Merry, but that’s our personal taste. The Merry room had plush carpet and large windows while Cabin Still had textured rock floors that were uncomfortable to walk on barefoot and was much darker. We also really enjoyed the Toto Toilet seat in the Merry room and were disappointed to see our next room didn’t have one.
During our stay we enjoyed the beautiful pool area in the early evening each night and again in the AM before our noon check out. The beach entry pool is heated to 85 degrees year round which made it very enjoyable! There are also two hot tubs and a waterfall in the pool area making it the perfect spot to relax.
We also briefly stopped by the tennis courts – mostly for the photo opp but also just to see them since you don’t see pink tennis courts on a regular basis.
On our second night we also had dinner at the Goldrush Steakhouse, which is also known for it’s over the top pink decor.
The food here was good but nothing overly special, the real star of the show here is the decor! I did appreciate the complimentary antipasto platter we received before our meal.
Overall we really enjoyed our visit; with the Merry room and pool being highlights of our stay. While there are more affordable accommodations in the area the uniqueness of The Madonna Inn is reflected in the premium pricing. However, to be fair in my review let me point out a few cons that you wouldn’t know from looking at the photos online. The mattresses were not the most comfortable, but not the worst either. No breakfast is included in the stay and room service is not available, a small breakfast of coffee juice and one pastry can be brought to the room in the AM for $15/ person – we did not think this was worth the price. I also think charging a $35 resort fee on top of the premium room pricing is a bit much when they are plenty of other hotels with pools that don’t charge an additional fee. We were very interested in spa services but I found the pricing to be much higher than other spas in the area – we wound up going to a non frills asian spa on town and paid $40 more to both get a 90 min massage that what one hour long massage cost at The Madonna Inn spa. There is no elevator so we did have to haul our stuff up to the third floor to stay in the Merry room. And finally – I originally attempted to book through The Madonna Inn’s reservation number and it was obvious that the representative was not only not onsite but most likely in an overseas call center that services many properties; I think if Madonna Inn is going to charge resort pricing they should offer resort services and provide a reservation specialist with knowledge of the property that can answer questions on the various rooms. I don’t say any of this to discourage anyone from staying at The Madonna Inn as I would absolutely go back, but just to provide a balanced view to help you determine if a stay is right for you.
I hope you enjoyed this overview and found it helpful! If there’s anything about our stay I didn’t cover and you would like to know just leave a comment below or DM me on instagram.