Truly magnificant! (Hearst Castle)

Member Name: janeh

Product:	Hearst Castle
Date:	22/07/02 (230 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Neptune Pool, Roman Pool, Gardens

Disadvantages: Out of the way, Quite a few steps to climb, Recommend to pre-book

Hearst Castle is located midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles at San Simeon and is well worth a visit if you are in the area or travelling down the Pacific Coast Highway.

The castle itself is located high up on a hillside overlooking the pacific coast. You get to it by driving along a narrow road just off Highway 1 until you reach a car park area. Once parked you go into the Hearst Castle National Geographic Centre. Here you can buy tickets, food, gifts etc. You would be advised to pre-book tickets a few days before you want to visit as tours get booked very quickly.

There are 5 tours you can do, we chose Experience Tour1 as it was recommended for first time visitors. Each tour takes approx 1hr 45 mins and includes a bus journey to the actual castle. Prices range from $10-20 per adult. Ours was $14 each.

The Experience Tour takes in some of the grounds, main house, guest house and Neptune pool. Other tours take in some of these and/or other sections of the castle. Their website www.heastcastle.org explains more. The tour we took also included a 40min film called Building the Dream. This is shown every 45 mins in the National Geographic Theatre. It is well worth watching this film, preferably before you take the tour as it gives you the background to the man who had the castle built - William Randolph Hearst and details of how it was built and why.

The theatre has a huge screen and seating is very comfortable, some of the film includes footage taken from the air and you actually feel like you are twisting and turning with the plane. The film is very informative and covers the life of William Hearst, how he became interested as a young boy in the arts and architecture etc. It follows his career, love life and eventually his dream to build the castle. He employed a female architect Julia Morgan which at the time was unheard of (1919) and it took 28 years to complete. The story is fascinating and provides a great background w
hen you see the castle in the flesh during the tour.

Each tour is timed, so you need to be a the departure point on time, you have the obligatory photo taken in front of a picture of the castle and then the coach takes you in the journey up the hill to the castle (approx 20 mins). Remember to use the toilet at the centre as there are none after boarding the bus! When you get to the castle you are met by your tour guide. We were given all the do’s & don’ts such as no chewing gum, no flash photography etc. On the tour you go through beautiful gardens with magnificent statues. The Guesthouse is huge and very ornate. Rooms are covered in huge carvings, spectacular ceilings, wall hangings and superb furniture. The bedrooms had indoor bathrooms with showers and toilets which at this time in history was still a luxury. The main house is even more fantastic, especially the indoor Roman Pool which is covered in mosaics both inside the pool and the room itself from floor to ceiling. The room took seven years to build and lay the tiny 1” mosaic tiles which are blue and gold. The ceiling looks like a night sky with stars. I personally found the pool to be very tacky looking but very impressive all the same. The pool has changing rooms, a diving board and lots of statues.

My favourite part of the tour and the part of the house I found most impressive was the Neptune Pool. This is a huge outdoor pool which has the most magnificent views possible. This pool took ten years to build and was built, pulled down and re-built three times as Mr Hearst kept changing his mind on what he wanted. The pool is 104ft long and 95ft wide and holds 345,000 gallons of water. The floor of the pool is beautiful blue tiles which reflect the blue out of the water onto the white colonnades and statues surrounding it. You cannot put into words just how breathtaking this pool is. It is what you would image Greek Gods would bathe in. This perhaps sounds melodramatic, but
unless you have seen it you cannot understand its magnificence and beauty.

When your tour ends you are met by a bus and transported back to the main tourist building. On your return you have the option to buy the photograph that was taken of you. If you do you get two large photos and a rather large key ring.

We felt that we would have liked to go on another of the tours to see other parts of the house, but none were available. Unfortunately when you first visit you cannot know that you may want to do other tours. You may want to give yourself the option to go back the following day if you cannot book an additional tour on your first visit. If you decide you don’t want to return there are plenty of other things in the area to do.

I am really glad we visited Hearst Castle and even if you are not into visiting stately homes etc you cannot fail to be impressed by this place. Definitely recommended.

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