Blue Lantern Inn, A Four Sisters Inn — Hotel in Dana Point

Well, a bit of a mixed review here. 1) If you get the 2 queen balcony, you will have a nice view of most of the the harbor, but you also have a large view of the boarded up restaurant next door. All boarded up, depressing looking. 2) Stan is the best customer service person there and should be promoted. The ladies at the front desk were grumpy, not real friendly to us, not sure why. 3) Oh my gosh, if you don't like huge huge hard pillows, bring a pillow. I literally couldn't sleep because the pillows hurt me (they were all huge and hard). They really should put a mixture of pillows on the bed. The first morning, I even went with a gentleman to find a pillow, and he took me downstairs to the linen room in the basement, to look for a pillow. And there was no variety. I am being truthful. The gentleman was nice and said sorry. 3) Breakfast very nice, but this is not a B&B, so breakfast starting @ 8 am is really unfair to the guests, esp with limited daylight time in fall/winter, and traffic issues to get to places like the airports. 4) If your room has the shower we had, you will literally have to crawl out of the shower, because the shower and bathroom jacuzzi is all together, so it is very very deep to get into and out of. Glad I could crawl out. 5) Appetizers in evening are very nice, but for nondrinkers, they really ought to put out some nonalcoholic drinks. We felt like we were subsidizing the drinkers, as we paid a lot for our stay. Also, appetizers are set out for only about 1-1/2 hours, so if you are not there in the set window (like 4 to 5:30? be sure to check on that), you don't get anything. (I promise, no sodas or juices or nonalcoholic bubbly were set out. I even asked the lady at the front desk for non-alcoholic beverages, and she said "sorry no," that is the only thing she said. Maybe coffee and tea were there, but that's all. We were there 2 evenings, and no sodas or juices or nonalcoholic bubblys were set out. That is the truth. 6) Dana Point is lovely. Just not a lot to do there (compared to other towns we stay at on the coast). 7) The Inn is at a dead end of kind of a residential area, and there's a gazebo but it is all fenced off, so you can't go to the gazebo, probably because the clilff there is unstable? 8) Try the bread at Beach Harbor Pizza. Yum. 9) Nice and quiet, and safe location. 10) Great parking lot. 11) Small fitness room in basement. I used it to stretch, had to move a piece of equipment to have room to set out the mat (they have a couple mats) and stretch. 11) Carpet in room needs a shampoo for sure, but otherwise the room is good. No sofa in the double queen room, but some chairs. 12) I can't believe anyone saying the Inn is walking distance to anything. Unless you are really fit and can walk a distance, the Inn is up on the cliff, and so there's walking up and down the hill, and nothing is really closeby as this is a residential area. The harbor is below. I didn't see anyone walking to places or using the cruiser bikes. Have to drive, unless you are doing a workout jog/walk in morning or something.||Well, if breakfast time changed and I brought my pillow and I maybe stayed in another room that cannot see the boarded up restaurant right next door (or try to ignore the ugly sight; it's not the Inn's fault, just ruins the ambience, and the Inn really should put on the website that certain rooms will face a boarded up restaurant next door, that a large part of your view will be that (because we pay for the view, and they tout the harbor view, so let's be honest about the whole view). In any event, we maybe would stay here again, not sure....

Well, a bit of a mixed review here. 1) If you get the 2 queen balcony, you will have a nice view of most of the the harbor, but you also have a large view of the boarded up restaurant next door. All boarded up, depressing looking. 2) Stan is the best customer service person there and should be promoted. The ladies at the front desk were grumpy, not real friendly to us, not sure why. 3) Oh my gosh, if you don't like huge huge hard pillows, bring a pillow. I couldn't sleep the first night because the pillows hurt me. They really should put a mixture of pillows on the bed. 3) Breakfast very nice, but this is not a B&B, so breakfast starting @ 8 am is really unfair to the guests, esp with limited daylight time in fall/winter, and traffic issues to get to places like the airports. 4) If your room has the shower we had, you will literally have to crawl out of the shower, because the shower and bathroom jacuzzi is all together, so it is very very deep to get into and out of. Glad I could crawl out. 5) Appetizers in evening are very nice, but for nondrinkers, they really ought to put out some nonalcoholic drinks. We felt like we were subsidizing the drinkers, as we paid a lot for our stay. Also, appetizers only for like 1-1/2 hours, so if you are not there in the window (like 4 to 5:30? check on that), you don't get anything. 6) Dana Point is nice. Just not a lot to do there. 7) The Inn is at a dead end of kind of a residential area, and there's a gazebo but it is all fenced off, so you can't go to the gazebo, probably because the clilff there is unstable? 8) Try the bread at Beach Harbor Pizza. Yum. 9) Nice and quiet, and safe location. 10) Great parking lot. 11) Small fitness room in basement. I used it to stretch, had to move a piece of equipment to have room to set out the mat (they have a couple mats) and stretch. 11) Carpet in room needs a shampoo for sure, but otherwise the room is good. No sofa in the double queen room, but some chairs. 12) I can't believe anyone saying the Inn is walking distance to anything. Unless you are really fit and can walk a distance, the Inn is up on the cliff, and so there's walking up and down the hill, and nothing is really closeby as this is a residential area. The harbor is below. I didn't see anyone walking to places or using their cruiser bikes. Have to drive, unless you are doing a workout jog/walk in morning or something. Well, if breakfast time changed and I brought my pillow and I maybe stayed in another room that cannot see the boarded up restaurant next door, I maybe would stay here again, not sure. Mixed feelings. Despite the response by the Inn, it is not really walkable. And despite the response, no sodas or juices were set out. The response is false. I even asked front desk for non-alcoholic beverages, and she said "sorry no," is the only thing she said. Maybe coffee and tea were there, but that's all. We were there 2 evenings, and absolutely no sodas or juices or nonalcoholic bubblys were set out. Also, on the pillow, the response is not correct. I even went with a gentleman the first morning to find a pillow, and he took me downstairs into the linen room in the basement, to look for a pillow. And there are not the variety mentioned. And despite what the response says, I did not say we were disappointed with the area. We thought it was lovely in Dana Point. Just ignore the boarded up restaurant next door. Yuck, but that's not the Inn's fault, just ruins...

We used to live in Dana Point and would look up at the Blue Lantern Inn from the harbor and my husband always said he wanted to stay there one day as the views must be spectacular. They are. We moved to Oregon a few years ago and wanted to visit Dana Point again. We are so happy we chose the Blue Lantern Inn. It's more a small boutique hotel than a B&B. The rooms are really well done, the breakfast is amazing, and the views are to die for. The hotel does service really well -- yes you still get daily housekeeping without having to beg for it like at the bigger hotels. There are just a lot of nice little touches and the rooms are spacious and with thoughtful design so you have plenty of room to spread out. Even the balcony -- in the room if you have offers one -- has nice teak furniture with cushions and not plastic junk furniture. My only complaint -- which has nothing to do with the hotel -- is how inconsiderate some people are. They stand outside in front of the hotel at 6 am supposedly looking at the sunrise, but talking really loudly on their cell phone so everyone hears it! Don't want to disturb their own party, but it's okay for everyone else? I also had a next door neighbor doing a video call at 6:30 am on her patio! Why not inside so the rest of us didn't have to be bothered. But that's not the hotel's fault -- that is just people who have zero situational awareness. I highly recommend this property if you want peace and quiet (for the most part) and great views. And it's so conveniently located to anywhere you want to be and a number of restaurants are walkable. The staff is friendly and accommodating and they even packed muffins for us on the day we left because our departure was before breakfast. Almost felt like we were staying...