Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside resort assessment

Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside location

The Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside sits smack dab in the midst of downtown Lengthy Seaside, proper alongside Ocean Boulevard. The resort is slightly below 7 miles away from Lengthy Seaside Airport (LGB), which takes round 20 to half-hour by automobile to achieve. Relying on site visitors, you possibly can count on to pay round $40 to get to and from the airport through a ride-hailing service.

The property can also be 25 miles south of Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX), and a experience from there can take anyplace from 40 to 75 minutes and price upward of $80 if you’re utilizing a ride-hailing service. Another choice is John Wayne Airport (SNA), which is 25 miles southeast of the resort in Santa Ana, California. The drive from there can take round 40 to 60 minutes and price roughly $70 when utilizing a service like Uber or Lyft.

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Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside reserving particulars

Standout options

• You may need to take a look at the resort’s a number of swanky watering holes, together with the rooftop Halo venue and the foyer jazz lounge Alter Ego.
• The constructing has attractive historic options, in addition to superbly redone rooms and public areas.
• Visitors can anticipate reasonably priced room charges with on-property advantages when reserving immediately by way of Accor.

Drawbacks

The vibe at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside

“That is the mayor of Lengthy Seaside,” our server at Nettuno mentioned as she set down a plate of Caledonian prawns with Calabrian chili butter, indicating a person entertaining a big feast at a close-by desk.

He was simply considered one of many locals we discovered trying out the newly opened resort in November. The spa was principally booked throughout our two-night keep, and each the glamorous eating room at Sky Room and the gardenlike lounge at Halo on the higher flooring have been full of curious Lengthy Beachers desirous to strive the meals and drinks on the metropolis’s hottest new resort.

Little question the fanfare will relax over time and the group combine will veer extra towards out-of-town enterprise vacationers and households trying out Lengthy Seaside’s longstanding points of interest. However for now, it was good to see a mixture of guests and locals alike.

Rooms at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside

Though it had 330 lodging again in its authentic heyday, after the latest renovation, the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside now homes simply 185 rooms and suites. These begin with 279-square-foot Fairmont King rooms and vary as much as the Breakers Two Bed room Suite on the twelfth flooring.

I stayed in a Fairmont Bay View King, which is just a few classes larger, about 20 sq. toes bigger and round $50 per night time costlier than a typical room. It was on the finish of the hallway on the resort’s ninth flooring and supplied views of the Port of Lengthy Seaside and San Pedro Bay by way of massive home windows that allow in loads of pure gentle.

The room had a brief entry hallway and a small closet that have been in all probability vestiges of the historic room footprint.

The room’s colour palette was impressed by the port, with tones of commercial grays, cloudlike whites and swirls of blue and gold on the rugs, plus some framed seashells above the king-size mattress. The spotless white linens, woven straw wall accents and bleached wood flooring gave the room a clear, up to date look.

Hooked up to the wall in a single nook was a big flat-screen TV. To the opposite aspect of the mattress, there was a small kind of multipurpose space that includes a spherical, marble-topped desk that doubled as a spot to eat and work. It had one heavy armchair with a ropelike body (one other nod to the close by port’s industries) subsequent to it. There have been additionally a Nespresso machine and complimentary bottles of water.

Essentially the most spectacular characteristic was the toilet, which was surprisingly massive for an previous resort constructing. The area included a protracted marble countertop with two sinks and mirrors, a separate water closet with a frosted-glass door and a marble spa-style moist space that contained each the tub and the bathe.

There was a wall-mounted, hand-held showerhead and one other overhead one with a number of stream features, together with a mister. Each the self-importance and the bathe space have been stocked with Le Labo Rose 31 merchandise.

Although on the small aspect, the room’s contemporary look and spacious lavatory created an expensive atmosphere equally suited to each leisure and work journeys.

Foods and drinks at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside

There are 5 bars and eating places on the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside, and even a brief keep is sufficient to expertise most, if not all, of them.

Nettuno

Nettuno is the resort’s fundamental restaurant and sits subsequent to the reception space within the foyer. Its eating room has hovering double-height ceilings anchored by squared-off columns with antiqued-mirrored surfaces and Corinthian capitals which might be lovely contrasts to the up to date artwork on the partitions and the chainlike chandeliers strung throughout the ceiling.

The breakfast menu affords requirements like avocado toast with child kale, cherry tomatoes and stracciatella on seedy entire wheat ($18) and an egg white omelet with seasonal herbs, mushrooms and goat cheese ($20), plus pastries like a fluffy blueberry-olive oil muffin ($6) and quite a lot of coffees, teas, juices and smoothies ($6 to $16).

The lunch and dinner menus characteristic principally coastal Italian fare like zucchini blossoms stuffed with lemon-herb ricotta ($24), artichoke tortelli with brown butter and sage ($28) and tiramisu ($10).

Sky Room

Sky Room, which takes up a lot of the resort’s thirteenth flooring, dates to 1938, when Conrad Hilton took over the property and turned a penthouse suite into one of many West Coast’s toniest eating places.

It’s wanting as splendorous as ever once more thanks to a whole restoration. It is easy to image your self right here throughout its prewar pinnacle as you cozy up in one of many monumental round velvet cubicles or on the intimate two-tops by the home windows, all illuminated by a stunning fluted gentle fixture that seems to ripple because it runs practically the size of the eating room.

Open just for dinner Tuesday by way of Saturday, Sky Room looks like a throwback to the supper golf equipment of yore because of the bustling, neatly uniformed employees, a cocktail checklist of previous favorites and a roster of continental classics you might need discovered on among the authentic menus — oysters Rockefeller and clams on line casino, anybody? You’ll be able to really spot among the Nineteen Thirties menus adorning the partitions close to the doorway.

Begin with piping-hot parkerhouse rolls with whipped cultured butter ($8), then tuck into specialties like luscious Dungeness crabcakes with smoked trout roe and caviar butter ($28) — there’s even a complete caviar menu, if that is your factor.

Deliver just a few associates to indulge within the California wagyu beef Wellington with mushroom duxelle, bordelaise sauce and prosciutto encased in a flaky pastry crust ($165), or go lighter with the juicy entire John Dory (fileted tableside, after all) with yuzu-kosho beurre blanc and herb salad (market worth based mostly on weight). The wine checklist options bottles from world wide, together with the likes of chardonnay from Western Australia’s vaunted Vasse Felix vineyard ($105 per bottle).

Order the bananas Foster ($22) to finish your meal with a bang … or somewhat a flambe because the employees units the dish alight proper at your desk.

Halo

Halo looks like slightly secret tucked away on the resort’s prime flooring. Inside, glazed inexperienced tiling, pink wallpaper with unique leaf motifs and a superbly lit, deep-veined alabaster bar all create the sensation of a Caribbean backyard social gathering.

That is solely heightened by the tropical cocktails, just like the startlingly blue Clarified High Flooring Mai Tai ($19) with Bacardi Ocho rum, Plantation Stiggins pineapple rum, Wray & Nephew overproof rum, Grand Marnier, lime, mango and pineapple.

Come the hotter months, the out of doors terrace must be the most effective place on the town to catch the sundown and views of Catalina Island throughout the channel.

An added historic oddity? In case you search for on the resort’s belvedere, you possibly can nonetheless spot a World Battle II pillbox gun turret from when the constructing fashioned a part of the nation’s coastal protection.

La Sala

On the road aspect of the foyer, La Sala is designed to really feel like a comfy solarium with jade-green chinoiserie wallpaper adorned with blossoming timber and a palm-shaped brass and crystal chandelier overhead. Visitors and guests can cease in for barista-made espresso and tea drinks, cocktails and lightweight bites all through the day and night.

Alter Ego

Moodily lit and adorned with emerald velvet chairs and Henri Rousseau-like floral prints on the partitions, Alter Ego is situated simply off the foyer. There will probably be reside jazz most nights to accompany inventive twists on basic cocktails, together with updates on the daiquiri and the soiled martini.

The drinks to order, although, are the specialty Previous-Fashioneds, together with one impressed by California’s redwoods with Previous Forester bourbon, numerous house-made botanical tinctures, “campfire” bitters, a smoky mist and even an edible pine cone ($23).

Facilities and repair at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside

On the japanese finish of the bottom flooring, the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside has a small health middle and a bi-level spa.

The health middle has a plethora of window-facing Technogym cardio machines, together with treadmills and stationary bikes, plus racks of weights, resistance bands, kettlebells and stability balls, amongst different gear. There’s additionally a water dispenser so you possibly can refill your individual bottle.

Subsequent door, the Fairmont Spa has an ethereal reception space replete with cream-colored marble and up to date brushed brass lighting fixtures, plus loads of counter area to show the merchandise included into the therapies, together with objects from Biologique Recherche, Venn and Lola’s Apothecary.

There are separate males’s and ladies’s locker rooms with steam rooms and bathe amenities, in addition to a pre- or post-treatment lounge space with blond timber partitions and chaise-style seats separated by diaphanous curtains.

The remedy menu consists of intriguing choices like a Venn supercharged facial (60 minutes for $260) and the signature Breakers therapeutic massage which you can tailor to your preferences (60 minutes for $220).

Up on the third flooring, the resort now includes a small out of doors pool and deck with loads of lounge chairs, some seating vignettes and a pool bar (although it was not open throughout our keep).

Service on the resort couldn’t have been hotter or extra enthusiastic. There have been just a few opening-week hiccups, reminiscent of a server bringing the improper dish or a sure glass of wine on the menu not being accessible, however these have doubtless been ironed out by now.

Out and about

For these not acquainted with the world, there may be a lot to see and do in Lengthy Seaside.

Households may need to stroll to the Aquarium of the Pacific and the waterfront the place harbor cruises and ferries to Catalina depart. The close by Terrace Theater hosts performances all year long, and numerous seashores in addition to the Lengthy Seaside Museum of Artwork are fast drives away. There’s additionally outlet buying, plus the impartial boutiques of Retro Row, close by. As for enterprise vacationers on the town for conferences or conferences, the Lengthy Seaside Conference & Leisure Heart is conveniently located subsequent door.

Accessibility at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside

Previous motels, particularly these with landmark standing that prohibits drastic modifications to their infrastructure, can generally be hit and miss with regards to accessibility, however the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seaside has included loads of accessible options into its renovation.

The resort’s fundamental entrance and floor flooring are step-free, so these in wheelchairs can entry all of the areas. There are additionally elevators to each flooring, together with a small wheelchair carry as much as the pool deck from the third flooring. Talking of the pool, it has a chairlift at one finish to help of us with restricted mobility into the water. The spa additionally has wheelchair-accessible showers in its locker rooms.

The resort’s hallways are all broad sufficient to accommodate wheelchairs, and there are seven room and suite classes with mobility- and hearing-accessible amenities. They embody bathroom and bathe seize bars, and closet rods, towel racks and viewports lower than 48 inches excessive. These designed for hearing-impaired visitors embody visible alarms and doorbells.

Trying out