The Capistrano Coast House

We had a great experience at El Caminante! The location is excellent and only steps away from the sand. The renovated and refurbished interior and exterior are clean and new, but they keep the vintage Spanish character of the original. Customer service was on point and our breakfast quesadillas were delicious! Highly recommend.

We stayed here for a few nights before our wedding and I could not picture a more perfect place! The staff is exceptional. The grounds are beautiful. And the location is unbeatable. The food and drinks are amazing. Everything about this place is a 10/10. Definitely recommend to anyone and everyone!!!

Andateci!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Niente

The staff and team are very inviting and friendly people, definitely will be back very soon! Thank you so much guys for making this an excellent stay!

I stayed here for a friend’s wedding during this past Labor Day weekend and was shocked by the lack of accountability and basic hospitality. While my friends dealt with serious issues in their room and were dismissed, another couple staying at the same time was fully comped for far less. Watching management pick and choose who they take care of makes it clear that consistency and fairness are not priorities here. Since our stay, their response has been surface-level apologies with no action. They publicly say they are “reviewing concerns,” but privately nothing has been resolved. Promises to address the situation mean nothing if there is no follow-through. For the prices they charge, guests should expect professionalism, care, and fairness. Instead, what we experienced was dismissiveness, poor communication, and a lack of integrity. Nice views can’t make up for management that doesn’t value its guests equally.

Staff was incredibly friendly, the room was immaculately clean, and the waves crashing and trains going by were perfect nighttime ambiance. We loved everything about El Caminante and look forward to coming back!

The location is amazing, right across from Capo Beach. Parking is easy. Staff members were friendly and accommodating. The hotel itself is not a huge room, but plenty of room for 2. Very romantic. The dining area has a small menu and unique drinks. Overall, our stay for our anniversary was perfect and we would come back again. Highly recommend for a romantic getaway!

Neighbor upstairs was clacking around (nothing the hotel did wrong) but the walls are kind of thin, considering we could hear others TV and upstairs.

Want to start off by saying that we have been loyal customers to El Caminante since August of 2024. None of this matters to El Caminante, unfortunately, and for that we will never be staying here again. We have had several communication issues with them in the past, all which we had given them a pass and the benefit of the doubt time and time again. Unfortunately after this weekend, we will not be giving them a pass, our wedding weekend. We had several issues with our room, right off the bat. The biggest room and most expensive room on the premises, mind you. Half our room did not have electricity, the TV was not working, the internet was spotty, and when we had asked for the room to be refreshed several times with no one ever showing up other than to give us clean towels. My foot was black from how unclean the floors in our room were. Despite that again, I was willing to push forward and give them the benefit of the doubt. Last thing I needed on an already stressful weekend was arguing over nonsense. A wedding weekend that they never acknowledged or ever congratulated us for, by the way. Now comes the kicker, we had a huge wedding party coming over to utilize the bar and when we arrived on a Friday night, they were closed at right at 10pm and were turning us away despite our room being right above. We had a huge misunderstanding happen with our coordinator and the hotel management which was completely not their fault, however, the way it was handled was extremely lacking hospitality and customer service. Instead of being understanding that a ton of our wedding guest have arrived willing to pay for drinks, they told us there was nothing that could be done because we did not have a contract to keep them open later. We had no idea that this was the case and again, they did not one ounce of understanding that we were just as confused as they were. Thankfully the staff who we inconvenienced allowed us to stay in the patio and purchased pizza and wings for our guests. The managers of the establishment, however, couldn’t even muster an apology without me sending an angry email, yet they let their staff take the brute of the punishment and the staff pay out of their pockets for the food that they so kindly provided because THEY felt bad, not the management team, the staff. We tipped the staff generously and apologized profusely for our misunderstanding of the situation. Come the next day and again, no apologies from everyone yet, the couple next door to us, however, who complained about noise were fully comped their room weekend stay. Because of noise. Yet, us who were lacking in several of the hotels amenities have been turned away now on several emails and phone calls. Claiming that they did what they could for us which was give us pizza and wings, pizza and wings that the staff paid out of their pocket. That we paid them back for. Lol. El Caminante does not know the first thing about hospitality and for that, they do not deserve your money or anyone’s money. They do not deserve any recognition for anything other than having nice rooms that semi-function and a view of the ocean. If you’re fully prepared to be exceptionally ignored, dismissed, and having to pull teeth just to get a semblance of good service, I would not recommend you come here. They clearly only care about your money here and not about providing you with an experience of a lifetime. I would also like to point out that their room fees are extremely shady and always hidden. The price you pay for your nightly room fee is not going to be the final price and would highly recommend asking them for an invoice after your visit. They won’t send you a final invoice without asking for one either, they will just endlessly charge your card. If you happen to be lucky enough to get them on the phone or emails (which they rarely answer), ask them for an invoice right away or ask them for one before you check out so you don’t have to deal with the headache of getting someone to provide an inkling of service. Lastly, we recommended this place to all our friends and family and listed them first on our wedding website. Something that we wish we could take back at this point. We were so excited to finally stay on the Ocean View Balcony Suite since we had only ever stayed at the bungalows next door. We had 3 other rooms booked out by our recommendation that weekend, but of course, they do not care about that. All they care about is collecting your money and getting you the hell out of there ASAP. Once they get that, you’ll never hear from them again.

Has an Air Bnb feel but provides the quality service of a Hotel. The check in bar area feels like you are lounging at a friend’s cottage and outside has ocean views to relax. I was surprised by the delicious food and portion size. The drinks were tasty. The high end bedding provided a comfy restful sleep. Just so many attention to details. I also love that they provide E-bikes to explore the town nearby,