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Hearst castle | Hearst San Simeon State Park | Introduction
Hearst Castle, also known as Hearst Castle, is located between Los Angeles andSan FranciscoThe San Simeon neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. Hearst Castle, the former mansion of media mogul William Hearst, is claimed to be the largest private mansion in the world, and is therefore one of the most important places in the world to visit.California Highway 1It is one of the famous must-visit attractions on the
There should be a lot of people who have heard of Hearst Castle, but...Hearst San Simeon State ParkNot many people know about it. In fact, Hearst Castle is owned by the State of California and managed by Hearst San Simeon State Park, along with the 20 miles of beautiful coastline around it. If you still have some time left after seeing Hearst Castle, it's worth taking a walk along this stretch of coastline to see some of the neighboring scenic spots and the Coastal Trail. For lodging, the nearest town, Cambria, is a 20-minute drive away, or you can camp in the park's campgrounds.
Compare prices for hotels in Cambria?
Camping | San Simeon Creek Campground
- Comfort: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Space: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Cleanliness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Convenience: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We came here to camp at Hearst San Simeon State Park. This campground is a good size, with about three tents and good facilities. The better part of the park is the coastline, so there is not much special scenery in the campgrounds near the inland, so it's just pure camping here. In fact, this location is very convenient transportation, to Hearst Castle or looking for restaurants are quite close.
California Coast | Hearst Castle
To visit Hearst Castle, you have to buy a ticket to join the tour, and you can only drive to the huge parking lot at the entrance of the Visitor center, which is just at the foot of Hearst Castle, and the tour will take us up the hill. Just good, this side of the guide has several kinds, visit the room is not quite the same, usually the first time to come are to participate in the Grand rooms tour, every ten minutes there will be a scene, not too worried about buying tickets, and even on-site purchase of tickets can be saved hand renewal fee is cheaper than the Internet booking, more information interested in can be to the the official websiteAsked above.
Tour tickets also include a 30-minute movie, played in the museum next to the Visitor center, the film itself is quite interesting, the museum content is also rich, after visiting the time do not forget to go and take a look.
The castle is built on a hill and covers a large area, so you have to take a 20-minute ride up the hill from where the ticket office is located. After buying the ticket, you can take the bus up the hill at the designated time. The tour is actually quite informative for $30 per person. In addition to the guided tour at Hearst Castle, there is also a radio broadcasting many stories on the bus, and the overall design is considered to be heartfelt. The ride up the mountain takes about 15 minutes, so it's not boring to listen to the stories. The scenery of this section of the road is quite good. It is said that William Randolph Hearst, the owner of the mansion, also took this road up the hill when he first came here.
(Note: As Hearst Castle has strict rules on the use of photos, those who are interested in the interior of Hearst Castle can visit the website atSearch, only textual insights are shared below.)
You can't come to Hearst Castle without knowing a little bit about the life of the owner, William Randolph Hearst, a media mogul who owned a number of newspapers in the early 20th century. William Randolph Hearst was a media mogul in the early twentieth century, owning a number of newspapers, and was not only very rich but also very influential at that time. William Randolph Hearst did not start from nothing, his father George Hearst dug up silver mines in California in the early days, and the Hearst family owned this piece of land as early as 1865, when George Hearst, William's father, bought the land in San Simeon, which was originally a farmhouse. The land in San Simeon was originally a farmhouse, and even his first newspaper was purchased by his father after losing a bet. But he inherited the newspaper and ran it successfully, becoming a media mogul.
Hearst Castle is not really a castle, but a mansion that William built in 1919 when he inherited the farm. He found the famous architect Julia Gorden to build this house, this architect is not an ordinary person, in addition to being the first female architect, has designed a lot of important buildings in San Francisco, Hearst Castle is actually her weekend project....
In fact, in the early 20th century, San Simeon's location was so inconvenient that William Hearst, who lived here, had to ask his staff to fly his typewritten newspapers to him every day for his office, which cost a lot of money. William Hearst chose to build his dream home here because he loved the San Simeon's scenery. At the beginning of the tour, we could see this beautiful view of the mountains and the sea from the square terrace in front of the main building.
In addition to the scenery, William Hearst also had very strict and varied requirements for the overall design, perhaps because he was the second generation of the rich, William was also a spendthrift. After moving into the house, it was extended and remodeled over the years, and the current building was still being completed until 1957, after William's death. Unable to afford the high taxes, the Hearst family eventually chose to donate the entire castle and grounds to the State of California.
The Netpune pool is one of the most famous symbols of the building, there are three pools in Hearst Castle, this one alone has been torn down and rebuilt about three or four times, but it is really very beautiful. The guide said that if you want to enjoy it, you can pay for a two-hour swim here, the price is USD$1450.
After seeing the Neptune pool, we visited the garden and the outdoor, we could see that Hearst Castle is quite European style. It is said that Willim Hearst fell in love with Europe after going there with his mom when he was young, so his dream house is also in European style.
Although it is very impressive and gorgeous, the whole Hearst Castle is not completely finished, of course, this is partly due to the fact that the owner has new ideas all the time. In the corner of the wall, we can see part of the outer wall is still unfinished.
Entering the rooms, the Grand Rooms, where many famous politicians and businessmen have been entertained, each room is gilded in splendor, with ornately carved ceilings and wall decorations, Hearst's own collection of artwork being impressively extensive. The dining room is particularly stunning, with a variety of antique furniture, tapestries, paintings, and a very long dining table, just like any other room, so that guests can enjoy the castle and enjoy the food. William Hearst liked to buy his favorite objects from Europe and asked the architects to put them into the design, not only the furniture or ordinary furnishings, but also the design of the large pieces, such as a church in the dining room, for example. The architects were really good at incorporating these things into the design, not just furniture or ordinary furnishings, but also large items such as a church wall or a metal door in the dining room, and so on.
We visited once in 2014 for an evening tour, plus a visit to William's study and private room where he worked. At that time, the tour was themed, and the plot was that visitors were invited to experience the mansion in its former glory as guests. In order to make visitors feel like they were there, in addition to the detailed explanations by the tour guide and the realistic furnishings, there were also actors in each room to re-create the scenes of William's guests and servants in the house in those years. In one of the rooms, someone is making a business call. As William was a newspaper tycoon, it was only natural that his guests would be prominent people. Apart from this room, every room on the tour has a different plot. For example, one of the largest party rooms in the castle is filled with people drinking, eating, playing pool, and so on. However, it will be gone by the time we arrive in 2022, probably because of the epidemic.
The tour concludes with a visit to Hearst Castle's famous Roman Pool, a huge indoor swimming pool that is itself a work of art made of gorgeous ceramic tiles. The tour lasted about two hours.
By the end of the episode, you should have realized that William Hearst is really good at spending money. I can't help but wonder if he won't spend all his money. In fact, he did. During the Great Depression, his finances were so tight because of his long period of squandering that most of his real estate and many of his valuable artworks were auctioned off by his lawyer to raise money, including the 100 or so animals he had kept on his farm, which were all donated. ...
Hearst San Simeon Bay | Coastal Trail
Elephant Seal Boardwalk
The Elephant seal boardwalk slightly north of Hearst Castle is a coastal walkway that I think is worth a stop. You can see the Elephant seal and the intertidal zone, but if you just want to see the animals, you don't need to walk, just park your car in the parking lot and walk up to the boardwalk, the beach is the place where they gather. Elephant seals are more common from December to March, but we came here in September and there were still a lot of them gathering on the beach.
Boucher Trail
The Boucher Trail is right next to the Elepahant Seal Boardwalk, and if you continue on it, you will pick it up. The scenery along the coast as you continue down the trail is not bad, and there aren't too many people.
Moonstone Beach Boardwalk
Moonstone Beach Boardwalk is just south of Hearst Castle, next to Cambria. The Sea Chest Restaurant & Oyster Bar is right across the street, so it is quite crowded. It's a nice place to walk around after having a meal in the neighborhood.
Cambria Gourmet | Sea Chest Restaurant & Oyster Bar
Sea Chest Restaurant & Oyster Bar is just across the Moonstone Beach Boardwalk and is one of the top 3 restaurants in the Cambria neighborhood. We think the taste of this restaurant is not bad, but you can't make a reservation, you can only queue up, no SMS notification, or cash only. 2022, there are not many restaurants that can still insist on doing business without the aid of technology. However, the business is really good, we came to eat dinner to wait for quite a long time, about 6:00 or so, after registration, the waiter suggested that we come back at 7:45. After checking in, the waiter suggested we come back at 7:45pm. We had to wait a little bit longer, but we were able to order a bottle of Field day's White blend to go with the seafood at the bar inside.
Although it is called Oyster Bar, the main attraction is the seafood entrees. This time, we ordered the Sea Bass and the Calamari Steak, which is quite popular on the internet, and both were quite good. The Calamari Steak, in particular, although it doesn't look very pretty, the two large pieces of Calamari were unexpectedly delicious, and it's a signature dish worth trying, while the Oyster wasn't quite as impressive. The Oyster options here are East Coast or West Coast Oyster, and we ordered half a dozen of Raw and half a dozen of Rockfeller, which tasted just fine.
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