Guaranteed for a swell time.
I’m not a pro surfer, but I know I can be riding the wave with them on one thing. The Kimpton Shorebreak Resort is Huntington Beach’s premier surfer hotel and is an epic choice if you want an insight into the glamorous side of surfer life. Just like surfers themselves, this boutique hotel oozes cool with its bright, surf-inspired décor, chill coastal vibes and breezy, open-air design.
Best hop on board, as this is one hotel that is a shore bet for a good play and stay.
Location
The hotel boasts a location that is hard to beat. Sitting along Pacific Coast Highway, it is an easy hop, skip and jump on your surfboard and Huntington Beach’s famous pier. It also is a short stroll away from all nightlife action along nearby Main Street.
The rooms
Be gone with the sterile hotel room of yesteryear as rooms at Kimpton Shorebreak Resort are anything but.
There is something said about entering a hotel room that results with having an inner conflict of what to do next. After stepping into the room, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to explore Huntington Beach’s sublime coastline or bask in the modern chic my hotel room. Not only was I going to be Huntington Beach’s next surfing superstar, it looks like I was also going to be its next DJ star!
See more: How To Spend A Day At USA’s Surf Capital Huntington Beach
It was such a novelty to have a record player in the room, complete with a mini collection of records. How sublime it was to play The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations’ while I tucked into my welcome treats while standing on the balcony and overlooking the coast. Hello to the good life!
Just like the Beach Boys finding their paradise on ‘Kokomo’, I found mine in my trendy hotel room. The rooms boast ample natural lighting and are airy and bright throughout with its cool hues of blue even on its wavy blue and white carpet design. Matching its floors was its ultra-trendy blue and white corner lounge chair featuring a stylish mermaid pattern. The rooms are splashed with quirky wall art inspired by the sea to give it that extra bit of ‘Surf’s Up’ feel.
For the first time in my accommodation stay history, I had the dilemma of where I wanted to kick the flip flops off and rest up. The king beds are like clouds, topped with a sea of pillows but in stiff competition was its giant bathtub, equipped with a selection of bath salts that needed to be soaked. The stress relief bath salts were my top pick and rightfully so. After a day of combating fears and getting up on the board for the first time, I needed to unwind from surfers’ adrenaline.
I put on the room’s thick Italian Frette bathrobes after my DIY hotel body treatment to continue my Zen session. An afternoon kip with the cool ocean breeze was my idea of sleeping in paradise.
New age hotel amenities
It’s the little things that can make the biggest difference. For me, that came in the form of free coffee and bike hire – score!
If you are one that prefers a morning wake up in the form of a cuppa instead of a cold morning dip like me, the hotel lobby has a complimentary freshly brewed coffee and tea station to help perk you up for the day. In the afternoon, this is switched up with iced teas and cold brews. After all, caffeine is going to be needed to make the most of its 25-kilometre coastline!
Talk about a lush beach life; the hotel ups the amenity ante with supplying beach umbrellas, towels, beach chairs to make your Huntington Beach dip that extra bit divine.
As I am one for being active, the hotel’s free bike hire was more my jam. Riding along Huntington’s Beach’s palm ridden, beach-side pathway was a perfect way to soak up the coastal vibes and was a highlight.
Complimentary happy hour
It’s clear to see Kimpton Shorebreak Resort wants to bring the sense of surfer community from Huntington’s coast to the hotel, and I am all for it. Instead of being strangers, hotel guests are encouraged to socialise at it’s complementary (and very generous) happy hour including beer, wine and spirits – cheers to that! It is a much appreciated social lubrication to kick start guest interaction and kick start evening festivities – that’s if you manage to leave the hotel. I struggled.
The allure of the hotel itself is too great as the lobby area is anything but lacklustre. The social hour is hosted in the lobby’s record room and spills out outside with its outdoor bonfires a perfect place to soak up its chilled out atmosphere. The outdoor setting makes it far to easy to become new BFF with fellow guests over a game of futsal, giant chess, and the hacky sack game, Cornhole.
Feel the sugar rush of S’Mores
Not only does the hotel want you reeling in on surfer high, but it also wants you to get a sugar high with its nightly complimentary S’Mores.
S’Mores is a Northern American guilty pleasure. The sugar-overload treat consists of toasted marshmallow layered with chocolate and sandwiched between two crackers. Having difficulties perfecting your S’More? The staff are on standby to help you toast your marshmallows over the bonfire. As a savoury lover, I could only stomach one as this ultimate guilty pleasure was a bit too sugary for me.
Dinner time
For dinner, it would be a rookie error not to look past the hotel’s balcony restaurant, Pacific Hideaway overlooking Huntington’s golden coast.
The modern restaurant spills both inside and outside; however, a cocktail under the stars and hearing the waves pound was more my style of living and breathing the beach life.
The restaurants’ Latin American and Asian fusion share plates are worth the indulgence. As my eyes are bigger than my stomach, surfing the menu proved to be a grand affair, and I may have eaten more than I needed to. But with a menu that included Bao-inspired Lao sausage lettuce wraps, charred cauliflower, fresh scallops with squid ink risotto cakes and crab cakes with coconut, it was hard not to give in to temptation.
My justification? I will further indulge in Huntington Beach and work it all off in the next surf lesson and bike ride.
The details
Kimpton Shorebreak Resort – 500 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, CA 92648
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Julia was a guest of Visit Huntington Beach and all thoughts and opinions are of her own.
