My best friend and I visited Hearst Castle during my birthday trip to Paso Robles, California and I can’t recommend touring this stunning home enough! One of my readers saw my tour stories and asked if I was at a Disney park. No, folks, places this magical occasionally exist outside of Disneyland!

What is Hearst Castle?

Perched high above the mountaintop overlooking the Pacific Ocean sits the “little something” that Hearst Publishing founder William Randolph Hearst built to house his vast collection of ancient artifacts on the land he loved so much in his youth. Originally built as his personal home to entertain golden age celebrities like Clark Gable and Walt Disney, today the property can be toured for guests of all ages to enjoy jaw-dropping views and a museum-worthy art collection. If you’re a history and/or art lover, you absolutely need to visit Hearst Castle.

Where is Hearst Castle?

Hearst Castle is located in San Simeon, California right on the coast in “SLO Cal” aka San Luise Obisbo. That’s about a 45-minute drive from Allegretto Vineyard Resort, making Hearst Castle a perfect day trip when you’re visiting Paso Robles.

Who built Hearst Castle?

I can’t fathom why Julia Morgan isn’t a household name. What an icon! She was one of only two female architects at the time. Kudos to William Randolph Hearst for choosing her to turn his dream into a reality. Julia also served as the general contractor and interior designer of the massive Estate. It took twenty-eight years to finish the project, which was under construction from 1919 to 1947.

Hearst Castle is in pristine condition today, even surviving a 6.5 hurricane with no structural damage thanks to the incredible design by Julia Morgan. The estate still has its original floors, upholstery, stairs, ceilings, everything. How lovely that it’s looked the same for its 40,000,000+ visitors over the years!

How do you get to Hearst Castle?

You must take a short 10-15 minute bus ride up to Hearst Castle. You’ll park at the visitors center and get whisked up the mountain as a group. Your tour ticket includes the bus ride.

Which Hearst Castle tour should I choose?

There are several tours to choose from. It was a tough decision but we chose the Grand Rooms Tour, since this is really the primary tour and therefore the best for those like me who are visiting for the first time. You get to walk the exquisite Grecco-Roman gardens and pools before entering the 55,000 square foot primary residence to tour the opulent Gothic dining room, cozy morning room, billiards room, movie theater, and more.

You walk on actual gold in the indoor pool for Pete’s sake! And yes, this is the very pool where Lady Gaga shot her G.U.Y. music video if it looks familiar.

Our tour guide Garrett was just wonderful and so knowledgeable about Hearst Castle! He had all sorts of fun facts. I especially love that he led us around as if we were guests of Hearst’s, painting a vivid picture of what it would have been like to visit at the same time as all the celebrity guests back in the day.

There’s also an upstairs tour where you can see the bedrooms, a cottages and kitchen tour, a Julia Morgan tour, and even a holiday twilight tour. Tours start at $30.

Note: Due to my bad knee, I was concerned about the 140 steps but I can assure you, the steps are quite low (I would go as far to call them half steps for modern standards) and didn’t both my knee at all. You also also get breaks; it’s not one straight 140 step staircase but rather mini staircases throughout the gardens. Hearst Castle also offers an ADA-friendly tour.

Hearst Castle Gardens

Garrett told us that there are over 200 species of roses on the grounds at Hearst Castle. Even in January, the gardens were stunning and some of the roses were even still blooming! I would absolutely love to visit in the springtime when the garden are in full bloom.

But the coolest thing in the garden has to be the fountain that Hearst commissioned using his 3,000+ year old Egyptian statues. The oldest piece on here is about 3,600 years old. How cool is that? If you see something that looks ancient at Hearst Castle, it is ancient.