Golden Door

This was my first visit to a destination spa, and I will be back. The model at Golden Door ensures it will change your life. I started every morning with a hike, and it was perfect. Returning to my room after a wonderful hike to be met with a delicious breakfast while enjoying my Zen garden view was so special. My daily massages were amazing. I loved that I could upgrade to a hot stone or a Thai massage which I did. The classes are amazing from relaxing yoga to intense circuit training. The personal trainers are excellent as are the choices of facials. I even had a back facial. My massage therapist and aesthetician were wonderful, and I loved having them for the full week. The food was delicious and healthful. The personal growth classes were amazing and so fun. There is no spa that empowers you and enhances your health more than Golden Door.

Golden Door strives to be perfect. The landscaping and planning that has gone into creating an oasis is remarkable. I have respect for every single person that works there. They will go the extra mile to please you and treat the new folks with as much respect as the people that have been there many times. They want you to come back and they earn your patronage. No matter how many changes we requested and how much we asked for help with our aging Mom, they smiled and did their best. We were so pleased that we are coming back. It was me, my partner, and her mother. They had something for each of us to do and fill our days, minds, and hearts. See you next year, friends.

Golden Door is nice but not great! The accommodations, spa services and classes are all fine. The food is disappointing. The price would be appropriate for excellence and that is not what they offer. I theoretically enjoy many of the activities they offer. Theirs need improvement. The attention to detail is simply not present. Their motto you should be you get what you get and don’t get upset.

The most delicious and healthiest spa food I’ve ever tasted. Room service breakfast every morning after an optional vigorous hike (3 miles or 5 miles of hills) or gentle stroll. Daily massages in your room! Four facials and four sessions with a personal trainer! Manicure, pedicure, body scrub, herbal wraps! Plus… yoga of all types, Pilates, cardio classes, mindfulness. The setting evokes a serene Japanese ryokan, with gardens, silk screens, flower arrangements, and stone lanterns. I felt transported to Kyoto for a week!

Not a place to relax. Exceptional classes, worldclass landscaping, fun and friendly vibe, good food, but the atrocious service overwhelmed much of that for my own experience. The concierge and housekeeping staff seem to be in some weird fight, or housekeeping runs the property. Example - Setting: Midday half way into the week. Me: "Hi, I know you only change linens once a week. Any chance I could please get my linen changed today, I got my sheets pretty dirty." Concierge: "I'll check with housekeeping." Me (3 hours later): "Hey, any luck with the fresh linens?" Concierge: "Sorry, housekeeping said no." Me: "What?" Concierge: "They won't change them after 12 pm noon." Me: "Don't they enter our rooms for your 'turndown service' every night? Maybe they could bring them then? Or if they tell me where to get clean linens, I don't mind changing them myself." Concierge: (calls housekeeping) "Sorry they said no again." Example 2 - Setting: 10:30 AM on a Thursday Me: "Hi, I think today is laundry service day, right? You guys offer that on Tuesdays and Thursdays? I left my bag of laundry outside my room." Concierge: "Housekeeping will only pick it up if you leave it before 8:30 AM" Me: "Okay, but today's the morning of laundry day and I really would like to be able to wear clean clothes." Concierge: "I'll see what housekeeping says." There were 4 more examples of this throughout the week. I offered to pay extra if they wanted to send laundry to third party facility, and offered to wash it myself if they would give me access to the laundry room. Both requests firmly denied. The funniest was when I escalated this to a manager (Debian I believe) and she said, "we'll make a special exception for you this once, but you must hurry and bring it immediately, and housekeeping will only wash one pair of underpants and socks." It was unfortunate that such a silly issue marred what would otherwise have been a great experience. Almost everything else was 5/5 or even better. Every class instructor (meditation, yoga, personal training) was exceptional. The kitchen staff and chefs were amazing. My only other complaints (that would maybe have been worth 1/2 of a star off) is that the entire property is within earshot of the local highway. Even on hikes, you have to get 3+ miles away before you're out of earshot and eyeshot of the highway. Not ideal for serene contemplation. Lastly, there were some weird things with food and water. They default to serving "alkali water" in every room and even in almost every fitness center and water station. Alkali water can be made in a few different ways. They add a mild laxative to theirs and many guests were confused by that. At least half a dozen guests said at different points, "The food is great, I don't know why but my stomach has been hurting since I got here." Lastly, quite a few repeat guests said the secret to having a good time at Golden Door is to ensure you bring your own condiments and some extra food. Apparently this place used to be a "fat camp for hollywood" and they have some weird policies left over. Fortunately, the kitchen staff is awesome and if you go up to anyone of them, they're happy to provide any standard condiment as well as additional high quality food.