Room service: Post Ranch Inn, Big sur, California

Post ranch inn, big sur, California

The sign in front of the restaurant read, "Star-gazing tonight". All sharp angles, wooden beams and slate floors, the Sierra Mar restaurant perches precariously on the cliffs that plunge down to the Pacific Ocean. Sitting at a candlelit table beside the floor-to-ceiling windows, we were enveloped by the night sky. It was too tantalising. Outside on the deck a young Mexican astronomer, bundled up in bright yellow oilskins to keep out the brisk night air, was stoically manning a 10-inch Meade tracking telescope. The night was clear. Pointing the lens skywards, the pock-marked craters on the moon's surface flew towards us, while Jupiter and Sirius turned from tiny dots into a mass of burning colours.

The Post Ranch Inn on California's Big Sur, 90-miles of dramatic coastline, is not a hotel in the traditional sense. There are just 30 rooms in a collection of architecturally distinctive wooden tree houses and designer log cabins, bedded into the cliffs or strung aloft in the trees behind.

No cars (or under-18s) are allowed past the reception building at the foot of the hill to disturb the tranquillity. There's a basking pool for soaking beneath the stars, the ocean crashing far below you. The spa treatment rooms have panoramic views out over the mountains beyond. Tiny deer forage on the cliffs at breakfast, while along the wilderness trails that thread the property, baskets of bottled water have been placed to refresh you. The only sound is birdsong and wind whispering in the redwoods.

Location, location, location

The Post Ranch Inn is set in a 98-acre estate just off Highway 1, Big Sur, Monterey County, CA 93920 (001 831 667 2200, www.postranchinn.com), 28 miles south of Monterey. Book direct or through Small Luxury Hotels (freephone 00 800 525 48000, www.slh.com).

Time to international airport: reckon on two hours if your driver knows the way to San Jose, an additional hour or two to San Francisco International Airport depending on traffic.

Are you lying comfortably?

Just a little too comfortably. Most people never want to leave. You can choose between an ocean house, coast house, tree house, mountain house or butterfly house. The ocean houses, on the cliff edge, have wooden roofs covered with grass and wildflowers. Each room is named after a Big Sur explorer or pioneer. We were in the Frank Post room, a vision of wooden curves, slate and glass. Post was a 19th-century rancher who built the road to the Point Sur lighthouse in 1886. He kept a journal, much of which was used to piece together the history of Big Sur. A coast house with tree and ocean view, the room was aromatic, permeated with woodsmoke from the open fire. Through the French windows, on the verandah, were two wooden slatted sun loungers scattered with cushions. The tops of fir trees waved in the breeze; through the branches lay the ocean. In the centre of the room a giant bed – mounted on a huge wooden base, was topped with a soft, sage green comforter and downy feather pillows.

Freebies: yoga classes, tai chi and Qigong, as well as guided walks with Bill Post, the great-grandson of the original homesteaders. A bottle of red and white wine and all the soft drinks and snacks in the fridge. A packet of Californian wild flower seeds. Bathroom toiletries: sea kelp shampoo and conditioner, handmade lavender soap and lavender bath salts. The bathroom also opens on to the verandah so you can sit in your deep slate tub (also a whirlpool) looking out at the ocean.

Keeping in touch: There's a music system but no television. There's one direct-dial telephone (phone calls charged at cost; remarkably, not marked up).

The bottom line

You might have to take out a second mortgage – but it's worth it. Rooms start at $535 (£340.75) per night including a gourmet buffet breakfast.

I'm not paying that: Big Sur River Inn (001 831 667 2700, www.bigsurriverinn.com) has doubles from $138 (£88).