Rosewood Miramar Beach – rooms built onto Montecito's sand

On Miramar Beach in Montecito, within view of the Santa Ynez Mountains, Rosewood Miramar Beach is the only five-star resort directly on the beach in Southern California, situated less than an hour north of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara's affluent Montecito community. Developer Rick Caruso rebuilt the storied Miramar by the Sea from the ground up, reopening it in March 2019 after purchasing the site in 2007 and demolishing the dilapidated original hotel in 2012. The MICHELIN Guide awards the house two Keys, and its Italian restaurant Caruso's carries one MICHELIN Star and a MICHELIN Green Star under chef Massimo Falsini. With 158 ultra-luxury rooms, including 35 suites, spanning 16 acres, and a run of rooms built straight onto the sand, it reads less like a conventional resort than a private coastal estate handed down through generations — precisely the impression Caruso set out to create.

01The house

The land's story begins long before Caruso. In 1876 Josiah and Emmeline Doulton bought the twenty-acre oceanfront property and, by 1889, had built a cottage for visiting friends that soon grew into a working hotel; a guest suggested the name Miramar, 'to behold the sea'. By 1910 the resort had expanded to twenty-nine structures, before the Depression pushed it into bankruptcy and the Doultons sold to Paul Gawzner in 1939. The hotel passed through developer Ian Schrager in 1998, closed in 2000, and was sold on to hotelier Ty Warner in 2005 before Rick Caruso purchased the site in 2007 and demolished the by-then dilapidated buildings in 2012.

What rose in its place, opening on 1 March 2019, is an entirely new-build estate rather than a renovation. The result feels like a regal family compound: a manor-style house anchors the property, with private bungalows, a grand lawn, English-garden landscaping, a bocce court and open-air pink 'Jolly' cars ferrying guests across the grounds, alongside the sweeping spiral staircase at the lobby's heart.

02Rooms and suites

The resort counts 158 ultra-luxury rooms, including 35 suites, spread across 16 acres of landscaped grounds, with amenities that run to a custom 'Marine Fresh' line, bed linens from Rivolta Carmignani, Caruso-blend coffee and Mariage Frères tea. The Beach House rooms sit on the property's second storey directly over Miramar Beach, each with a furnished patio looking straight onto the Pacific — a configuration no other Southern California resort can claim.

Insider tip

Reserve fine-dining tables (Caruso's, AMA Sushi) well ahead; both rooms are small.

At the other end of the property, the Manor House holds three signature suites — the Founder's Residence, the Miramar Suite and the Ambassador Suite — which can be combined with adjoining king guestrooms to form a private seven-bedroom retreat for families or wedding parties taking over the house for the weekend.

03Where to eat

Caruso's is the resort's flagship table, run by chef Massimo Falsini, who began his career in Rome as a dishwasher before rising through the city's most acclaimed kitchens. At the 82-seat oceanfront restaurant, his Italian upbringing meets Central Coast farming in dishes such as California king crab risotto with pickled blueberries and Brentwood corn; nothing is flown in, with fish drawn from local waters, produce from nearby farms and the property's own gardens, and honey harvested on site. Caruso's has retained its MICHELIN Star for four years running, 2022 through 2025, and also carries a MICHELIN Green Star. For a single table each evening, Falsini and wine director Rob Smits curate Sapore di Stelle, a twelve-course tasting menu served in a private cabana on the sand.

AMA Sushi opened under three sushi masters — chef Kentaro Ikuta, Scott Yonamine and Wendy Ramos — and today is led by California-born chef Scott Yonamine, who brings two decades of craft to the room's scallop-shaped, 13-seat white onyx sushi counter.

04The bar

Down on the sand, the Miramar Beach Bar keeps a livelier register, serving cocktails and bites through the day with a summer Thursday DJ series running from 2pm to 5pm through Labor Day weekend.

05Spa and pools

Sense, A Rosewood Spa, is rated Forbes Five-Star and sits alongside a full fitness studio and the resort's two distinct pools. The Cabana Pool and Manor Pool each come with dedicated food and beverage service from the Cabana Bar or Scoop Shop, giving guests a choice between an adults'-leaning scene and a family-friendly one without ever leaving the grounds.

06The neighbourhood

Miramar Beach itself is a quiet, south-facing cove that most visitors to Santa Barbara never see unless they are staying nearby, long associated with the blue-roofed hotel that once stood here. The Amtrak Pacific Surfliner's tracks, in place for nearly a century, still run between the beachfront rooms and the main resort — an odd, almost charming reminder of how old this stretch of coast really is. Montecito around it has become shorthand for a certain kind of California wealth and privacy, a community less than an hour north of Los Angeles, with Santa Barbara's own airport roughly twenty minutes from the hotel's door.

07Making the most of a stay

Beyond the restaurants, the retail runs from Chanel to Zegna across the grounds, and the resort was the site of goop's first permanent hotel shop alongside a concept store curated by designer James Perse. Both of the resort's fine-dining rooms are small — 82 seats at Caruso's, thirteen at the AMA Sushi counter — so reservations, and particularly the Sapore di Stelle beach dinner, are worth securing well before arrival.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.