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Montage Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach, California, United States · Montage · Grand Luxury
Montage Laguna Beach opened in February 2003 on a South Laguna bluff that had been the Treasure Island mobile-home park, 248 rooms drawn by Hill Glazier Architects in the California Craftsman tradition. It became the first Forbes Five-Star house in the Montage portfolio in 2012 and still holds that star, plus AAA Five Diamond and MICHELIN Two Keys, with Studio in a cliffside dining room over the Pacific.
- 248 rooms
- Opened 2003
- Neighborhood: South Laguna
- Architect: Hill Glazier Architects
- Interiors: Studio Munge
About Montage Laguna Beach
- Until the late 1990s the bluff was the Treasure Island mobile-home park. Montage opened the 30-acre resort in February 2003.
- Hill Glazier Architects drew the 248 rooms in the California Craftsman tradition.
- In 2012 it became the first Forbes Five-Star house in the Montage portfolio, and it still holds that star plus AAA Five Diamond and MICHELIN Two Keys.
- Studio, the cliffside dining room, looks over the Pacific.
History
The land on which Montage Laguna Beach stands was, until the late 1990s, a mobile-home park on a coastal bluff in South Laguna — a fact that makes the story of its transformation one of the more remarkable in California real estate history. The bluff in question, overlooking the Pacific from a height that gives commanding views in every direction, was a site whose potential had long been constrained by the modest uses to which it had been put. When Montage acquired and entitled the property, transforming it into the thirty-acre oceanfront resort that opened in February 2003, it realized a vision of Southern California coastal luxury that had simply not existed in this form before.
Hill Glazier Architects designed the resort in the California Craftsman tradition — a style that drew on the early-twentieth-century Arts and Crafts movement in ways that felt authentically Californian: natural materials, handcrafted detail, dark wood, and a visual language rooted in the relationship between interior and exterior space. The architecture sits quietly on the bluff rather than announcing itself, allowing the landscape to remain dominant. The hotel opened with 248 guestrooms and suites, beachfront bungalows and villas, and the Studio restaurant in a cliffside room where the Pacific fills every window.
Montage Laguna Beach was the first Forbes Five-Star property in Montage's portfolio — an honor it received in 2012 and has held continuously since — and it was the property that established the Montage brand's identity as a serious, California-rooted luxury hotel company. In a market saturated with resort claims, the combination of the oceanfront bluff, the Craftsman architecture, and the culinary seriousness of Studio created something that reviews consistently described as irreplaceable. The Loft cheese-and-wine destination, the 21-treatment-room spa, and the three pools — including an oceanfront pool with cabanas directly above the Pacific — reinforced the sense of a resort that had thought seriously about every element of the guest experience.
Studio Munge later oversaw renovation work that refreshed the interiors while preserving the Craftsman sensibility. The hotel holds AAA Five Diamond recognition alongside the Forbes Five-Star and MICHELIN Two Keys. On the thirty-acre bluff above South Laguna, looking west over the ocean, it remains what it set out to be in 2003: the flagship of California coastal luxury.
The setting
Treasure Island, a former mobile-home park on a coastal bluff that became one of California's most coveted hotel sites after Montage acquired and entitled it in the late 1990s.
Restaurants and bars
- Studio — Restaurant
- The Loft — Restaurant
- Mosaic Bar & Grille — Poolside
Amenities
- Spa Montage
- Pools
- Beach access
- Tennis
- Sauna
- Hot tub
- Fitness center
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- AAA Five Diamond (2026)
- Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star (2026)
- MICHELIN Two Keys (2026)
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