My daughter and I keep going back to Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, and she loves this place every bit as much as I do. There’s something about the two of us pulling off the highway and watching the world slow down mile by mile that never gets old. Ojai itself is such a special part of California — only an hour and a half from Los Angeles, yet it feels like an entirely different world, the ultimate wellness destination tucked into the mountains, with a deep sense of indigenous history running through the whole valley. The Chumash people have called this valley home for thousands of years, and there’s a stillness here, a reverence for the land, that you can feel the moment you arrive.
Ojai Valley Inn and Spa is the most exquisite hotel in it: absolute deluxe luxury, Spanish hacienda architecture draped in bougainvillea, oak trees that look as though they’ve been standing since the beginning of time. But the thing that takes it to the next level, the thing that keeps pulling us back, is the spa.
The History of Ojai Valley Inn and Spa
The resort dates back to 1923, when glass industrialist Edward Libbey built a private country club and golf course here, hiring the architect Wallace Neff to design its Spanish Colonial clubhouse. Over the decades, it grew into the beloved Ojai Valley Inn and Spa we know today, still carefully preserving that original architecture even through a $90 million renovation that added the Artist Cottage, a redesigned pool, and the stunning Spa Ojai facility. You feel that history everywhere — in the thick adobe-style walls, the hand-painted tile, the way the whole property seems to have grown organically out of the valley rather than been dropped into it.
The Spa at Ojai Valley Inn and Spa
Spa Ojai is one of the best spas I’ve ever been to, full stop. From the moment you walk in, there’s a hush to the place, a sense that everyone working there genuinely wants you to leave feeling restored rather than simply pampered. The level of service, and particularly the massages, is next level — absolutely sublime. I’ve had a few different massages there over the years, with different therapists, and every single one has been extraordinary. This isn’t a one-off impression from a single lucky booking; I’ve been back to this particular spa many times, and the quality never wavers, which tells you everything about how well it’s run.
There’s a real sense of ritual to a day at Spa Ojai — moving between treatment rooms, courtyards, and quiet corners designed for exactly the kind of unhurried stillness that’s so hard to find in ordinary life. You emerge feeling like a different person than the one who walked in.
The Gardens at Ojai Valley Inn and Spa
The resort itself is so beautiful, true California at its best. I think one of the loveliest times to visit is May or June, when the gardens are absolutely full of roses and lavender, huge eucalyptus trees swaying overhead in the breeze, and salvia everywhere you look, humming with bees. The whole property smells intoxicating — that particular combination of dry California heat, eucalyptus, and rose that you only really get in this part of the world.
The style of it all is just so incredible — every corner considered, nothing left to chance. Down at the Artist Cottage, you can actually make your own little aromatherapy products, blending oils and scents to take home with you, which feels like exactly the right kind of souvenir from a place built around slowing down and reconnecting with your senses. Between the gardens, the pool, and the golf course winding through it all, Ojai Valley Inn and Spa has a way of making 220 acres feel intimate rather than sprawling.
Dining at Ojai Valley Inn and Spa
There were lots of really lovely plant-based options, more than I expected going in. A vegan bowl piled high with quinoa, falafel, crisp vegetables, and a bright tahini dressing was one of my favorite lunches on the whole trip. A roasted cabbage wedge, deeply caramelized and served over a silky white bean purée with crispy kale, was another standout — the kind of dish that makes you forget you’re eating vegetables at all. And then there was the lavender lemonade, garnished with fresh daisies, which might be the prettiest drink I’ve had all year and tasted exactly as good as it looked. Dining at Ojai Valley Inn and Spa always feels tied to the land around it — much of what lands on the plate seems to echo the same valley you can see out the window.
Evenings by the Fire at Ojai Valley Inn and Spa
The thing that’s truly magical about Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, more than the spa, more than the gardens, more than any single meal, is sitting out in the evenings by the little fires. You look out over the golf course with its huge, centuries-old oak trees, strung with Moroccan lanterns that flicker on as the light fades, eucalyptus trees swaying just beyond, and the mountains rising up dark and quiet behind it all. It is pure magic, every single time — the kind of scene that makes you go quiet for a moment and just take it in.
Whether it’s just my daughter and me, or the two of us with a glass of wine and nowhere to be, those evenings by the fire are what I think of first when I think of Ojai. It’s the kind of place that reminds you why slowing down, even for a few days, matters so much.
If you’re building out a list of beautiful wellness escapes, I’ve also written about Lime Wood in the New Forest and Thyme in the Cotswolds — two of my favorite British country retreats.