Big Sur Stone House

Celebrating a big birthday and what to give someone that really wants nothing, but absolutely adores ocean views? A vacation at the Big Sur Stone House! What a WONDERFUL time we had. Ana met us at the house, provided us with a nice bottle of wine and gave us a thorough tour and told us to make sure we, «made ourselves at home». Mark’s extensive album collection (that would be LP’s to us old folks!) was absolutely amazing. That’s what my partner keyed in on and for the next 3 days played so many albums and was just in 7^th heaven! Then there are the views! Seating everywhere, ocean views from everywhere on the property and sitting in a chair with a fine glass of Cabernet, watching the sun set over the glistening waters of the Pacific Ocean, listing to vintage Beatles… well, there just isn’t anything better!
I also arranged for massages to be given out on one of the landings on the property, and listening to the waves crash against the rocks, the birds tweeting about how much THEY loved the area and just relaxing, as the world passed us by! Ahhhhhh. And if that weren’t enough, each morning and evening, we ran ourselves a steamy bath in the OUTDOOR soaking tub and sat there (again) watching the ocean and (in the evening only mind you), nursing that lovely glass of Cabernet as the sun set beneath the ridge line. Again, did I mention, ahhhhhhhh.
Thank you Ana and Mark for such a lovely time and money well spent at your home away from home… the Big Sur Stone House. We will see you again!

I really can’t say enough about how awesome this place is. The vistas are jaw dropping gorgeous, you can see the ocean from every room in the house. The house is well appointed and very comfortable. The grounds are also truly stunning. The best part is you really feel like you are in your own private kingdom as it is a large piece of land with no immediate neighbors.
It was perfect for me, my wife, and our two small children. It really is a perfect slice of paradise.

I actually thanked the owner and she said «no…thank you». From the moment i stepped foot on the property, and the owner showed us around, it was spellbinding.
My husband and I were celebrating our anniversary and this home was perfect,. Gorgeous, secluded, with an herb and orchard garden, deers, birds, eagles… And a wonderful patio setting to take it all in. We planned to leave the property and hike (which we love to do) and there is a trail head at the bottom of the driveway, but we enjoyed the setting and house so much we just opened bottles of wine and drank in the beauty of the place.
There is a great record collection with a turntable that had us pulling out old albums and remembering when we last heard them — as well as played one a turntable. That was fun.
We are definitely coming back! Like any Big Sur property, as the area is remote, bring provisions — we love to cook and hike so we brought food/​wine and gear for both. This home is a great launching pad for hiking, the beach, etc… and has all the ammenties. So enjoy it. We planned to trek but were so happy at the home we just stayed there but next time, we may just venture down to that trailhead… :)

My fiancé and I just got home from an amazing weekend at the stone house to celebrate our engagement.
From the moment we arrived, the hospitality (hand-​written note, fresh flowers in several rooms, complimentary wine, etc etc) was unparalleled. We have never rented a home that felt more comfortable.
The views from this property are AMAZING!!! The property will not disappoint.
The house itself is completely off the grid, but you wouldn’t know it. All utilities worked great.
There are multiple hiking trails very close to the property that offer spectacular views and a good workout for those looking for a little more adventure.
Ana is truly a sweetheart. She even came equipped with her iPad full of research for our honeymoon on Sunday when it was time to check out and even offered us a couple books from her library to study for our trip, which although we didn’t accept her gracious offer — the fact that she was so sweet meant the world.
I highly recommend this property. Ana and the home are absolutely wonderful and its hard to imagine a better overall experience.

Amazing Views, Lovely House… Creepy Surveillance & High Unexpected Fee’s.
If you are looking to write, read or relax, this is the perfect place for you… as long as you don’t mind that there’s several surveillance camera’s around the property, easily seen over the front doors and elsewhere. I have no reason to believe that we were filmed inside. If you have a guest over for dinner or light a candle on a cupcake, I would worry that this would be entitled an «event» and you may get charged a fee.
Here’s our story; maybe it will help you decide if this is the right place for you.
We rented the Big Sur Stone House for three days in August 2012, for four of us. The rental fee per night was significantly higher than their posted rate because there were four people instead of two, and it included the cleaning fee. We planned to have a private wedding ceremony at the beach on a Monday, with our dear friend and her partner officiating and witnessing our simple ceremony, but knew we’d have to figure that out after we got there as we weren’t familiar with the area. We let one of the owners know that we were planning on getting married, but came to find out, she didn’t understand we would actually exchange our vows in Big Sur. When an out of town relative reached out to her, asking for an address to send congratulatory flowers, we received a stern email that stated if any of our guests showed up on the property for our wedding ‘event,’ even to use the telephone, we would be charged an additional day use fee per person. (Because of legalities, I won’t tell you the amount of the fee, but it rhymes with «Haiti»).
When we arrived the owner was there to greet us and she was nice and gave us a lovely bottle of wine and had small flowers arrangements throughout the rooms as a welcome and congratulatory gift. Once we settled in, we observed that there were several little cameras around the house and knew that much of what we did was most likely being captured on video. There was no written or verbal notice prior or during our stay that we were being recorded, only our visual observation that there were cameras installed. We also realized that there was no way easy or quick way to walk to the beach (no shoulder on the busy road) and even if we drove there, there was a steep hike down to the beach. Logistically, it made sense to have our ceremony on the patio facing the ocean.
Besides us four (paying) guests, we were fortunate to have a couple that live part-​time in Big Sur join us for the ceremony and a post ceremony toast. We understood that we’d have to pay «the per guest day use fee”(even though they were there less than two hours and didn’t even enter the actual house). Our ceremony was perfect, exactly what we wanted. Six people, 15 minutes and a memorably heartwarming toast with wine and cheese. Our local friends departed and we had a lovely dinner with the four of us.
About a week after we had ended our stay, we received an email from the owners thanking us for the «truly excellent work you did on cleaning the house before you left; everything was spotless which is above the call of duty, and quite wonderful» and then stating that they had reviewed the video and that, since we had an «event» at their property, we would be charged an event fee. (Again, because of legalities, I won’t say the amount, but it’s the same amount as the title of the movie where Gerard Butler yells «We Are Sparta!») This would be on top of the «day use fee» for the two guest and that we would receive the remaining balance of our deposit by mail. We asked them to reconsider charging us for what we considered excessive fees, an additional 60% of another, very expensive, nights stay, but they flatly refused and stated that, in their opinion, we had perpetrated fraud (even though we didn’t try and cover the cameras or put a stop payment on our security deposit check) and we should be happy that we got out of it with only paying such a small fee.
We’re pretty simple folks and renting this home was a splurge for us. Small fee. Really? Well, I guess if you compare it to the thousands of dollars that we had already paid for the rental fee, then maybe it could be considered small.
Our wedding ceremony was beautiful and nothing can mar that. While we will absolutely return to Big Sur to celebrate anniversaries, we will never return to or recommend the Big Sur Stone House, which is really a shame, as we probably would have if things had turned out differently.
So, that’s it, I will let you decide, as a potential renter, if this is the right property for you. Good luck.
PS…For view and location, it would have received 5 stars.
UPDATE: It’s so funny, I finally got my review up on Home Away… the owner (Ana T.) tries to make it sound like they only observe things from the security gate camera (you can’t see it from the house & it points to the street) but there are more than one on the house itself. Fyi, Steve & I wrote the review together.