Solvang Trip : Sideways Inn

Sideways Inn

We were going a little stir crazy sitting at home so much since the COVID-19 pandemic “lockdown” began here in Los Angeles in the middle of March.  We decided to take a little holiday out of town to get a change of scenery.  The weekend of my boyfriend’s birthday in July was the perfect weekend to take a mini-vacation.  We decided on Solvang, California as our destination because I had never been there, and it had been approximately thirty years since the boyfriend had been there (and that was only a stop for a few hours.)   Our plan was to find a comfortable hotel where we could sit by a pool or sit in our room and read a book or two.   Working from home has us on our computers all day long, we wanted to “unplug” from technology as much as possible. 

I booked a room at a hotel called the Sideways Inn in Beullton, California, which is located less than four (4) miles from Solvang.  While looking at the map of the area, I also saw the Ostrichland USA so that was something we could do outside to kill an hour or two.  I booked our room via Expedia, and the Expedia prices were too good to pass up.  I’m guessing the room rates were low due to the current pandemic.  After reading a few reviews I understood that the hotel had undergone a renovation in the past five or so years.  I booked a King room with balcony for our trip. 

King Balcony Room

Sideways Inn was featured in the film Sideways and was called the “Windmill Inn” in the film.  At the time of filming the actual hotel was a Days Inn.  The room was decorated with historical photographs donated/loaned by the Santa Ynez Historical Museum. 

 

The Sideways Inn is located next to Highway 101, and the door of our room faced the highway.  There wasn’t any discernible highway noise from inside the room even with the hotel doors consisting of large windows. 

Room door

The Sideways Inn is currently owned by Highway West Vacations.  All of the rooms at the Sideways Inn have microwaves, refrigerators, and Keurig coffee makers.  They also offer a continental breakfast whose service was adjusted for the pandemic.  There was a card in the room where we fill out our room number, the number of people in the room, select the items we wanted for breakfast, and the time 30-minute window you would like your breakfast delivered.  The completed cards needed to be hung from the clip attached to the door before 2:00am.  Breakfast was delivered in a paper shopping bag at the time you requested.  A new order card would also be included if you were staying multiple nights.

            The toiletries are bottle dispensers to reduce plastic waste.  I was not a fan of the heavily scented products, and I really dislike the smell of lavender so I regretted not bringing my own toiletries on this trip.  This was the first time not bringing my own shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, and it was because I needed space in my suitcase for the books I was planning on reading.  I really liked the dark blue/black washcloth they provided specifically to remove makeup.  I always use cleanser cloths when traveling to reduce the makeup marking up the white hotel washcloths, but I inevitably leave some makeup on the towels when drying my face.  I still used my cleansing cloths, but I used the makeup washcloth to dry my face.

Toiletry Dispensers

Makeup Washcloth

The balcony had a small bistro table and two chairs, which was a nice place to eat dinner and enjoy the fresh air.  Since we arrived on a Friday we were able to take advantage of the barbecue dinner available at The Campfire Café located at the neighboring Flying Flags Campground.  The Sideways Inn and The Flying Flags Campground are both owned by Highway West Vacations so we were able to use their pool and other amenities as well as those open for use at the Sideways Inn.  We both chose the Land Lovers meal, and it was so much food even with the tiny portions of sides.  I highly recommend the barbecue if you happened to be there when they offer it.

Many of the amenities at the Sideways Inn such as the fitness center, fire pits, and lounge were closed.  The pool was open for reduced hours, and it was very crowded so we didn’t go near the pool area.  We would definitely love to stay at the Sideways Inn again.