Today I want to share my Hearst Castle tour reviews with you. There are a number of tours you can take at this famous castle in San Simeon, California, and I took two of them. Here’s how they went.
Hearst Castle Tour Reviews
If you made millions as a media mogul, how would you spend your fortune? Would you buy a private jet and travel the world? Use it to live the life you’ve always wanted? Give it all to charity?
If you were William Randolph Hearst, you would build a castle. Hearst Castle.
Hearst Castle History
Back in 1919, Hearst, who was best known for building a newspaper empire founded on yellow journalism, hired famous architect Julia Morgan to help him build “a little something” on his family’s land on the Central Coast of California between LA and San Francisco.
His “something” turned into a 28-year long project that was never actually completed. But even in its unfinished state, Hearst Castle—as it came to be known—was by no means unimpressive.
Hearst not only leveraged Julia Morgan’s architectural talents, but also the fact that the European economy was devastated after World War I.
He bought sculptural facades from Spanish cathedrals, giant fireplaces from French chateaux, beautiful tapestries from the Netherlands, and ceiling after ceiling from all the great countries in the Old World.
Bit by bit, he brought them all to Hearst Castle, and Morgan deftly interwove them into the design of the estate.
The end result was an eclectic mansion with the facade of a church from Ronda, Spain on land modeled after a Spanish village. It was complete with a tile plaza, flowering gardens, and guest houses that resembled village buildings.
Hearst wasted no time in inviting the who’s who of Hollywood to parties and weekend getaways in his San Simeon home, which at its peak also featured one of America’s largest private zoos.
Guests would come to admire the art, swim in the two dazzling pools, and watch the latest films in Hearst Castle’s impressive private movie theater.
When Hearst died in 1951, the estate wasn’t finished, but his heirs were done paying the maintenance fees, which—like those of British stately homes—were astronomical.
They offloaded it to the government, and to this day it’s run as a California state park.
Hearst Castle Tours
Naturally, this means there are Hearst Castle tours that take visitors through the rooms and grounds, giving them a glimpse into its owner’s life and style.
Today I’m one of those visitors. After a great time in Paso Robles, I head to San Simon with my mother and sign up for two of the many tours of Hearst Castle on offer.
Grand Rooms Tour
The first is the classic 45-minute Grand Rooms Tour. We board a bus at the visitor center, and on the winding drive up the hill we listen as TV game show host Alex Trebek tells us all about the history of Hearst Castle.
When we get to the top, we meet our tour guide, who gives us some additional information about the estate—which really does look like a Spanish cathedral from the outside—before taking us inside.
The interiors of Hearst Castle are like nothing I’ve ever seen. The whole of the last seven millennia of European art is assembled in an eclectic amalgamation of sculptures, furniture, ceilings, mantelpieces, and even choir stalls.
Every inch of every room was once part of some European church or chateau, empire or republic, and my head spins in wonder at how so many centuries of art are packed into such a relatively small space.
As our Hearst Castle tour progresses, we visit the Assembly Room, Refectory, Billiard Room, and several other spaces before ending up in the movie theater to watch some footage of Hearst and his guests back in the day.
Overall I enjoy the Hearst Castle tour, although I’m a bit disappointed that it focuses on the life of Hearst and his guests at the expense of the history of the art and architecture.
Maybe I’m the only one interested in the latter, but I’m very interested in it.
Upstairs Suites Tour
Things balance out a bit on my second tour of Hearst Castle, the 45-minute Upstairs Suites Tour. The castle has 165 rooms in total, and we see a good number of the bedrooms on this tour.
As we walk through rooms with historic painted church confessional doors on their bathrooms and French Baroque beds with beautifully carved posts, the guide gives us information about the history even as she tells us about who stayed there and when.
Eventually we get to Hearst’s own bedroom, which is smaller than I would have guessed.
But next door Julia Morgan built him the most beautiful study I’ve ever seen. It’s part church and part library, and I want to take this cathedral of books home and make it my office.
Nearby is the actual library, which is full of first editions and lined with ancient Greek vases.
My brain is on sensory overload as it tries to process all the priceless history and antiquities in the room, and I continue to feel as if I’m traveling through both space and time within the walls of a single building.
If the interior of Hearst Castle is impressive, the grounds are spectacular.
Ancient sarcophagi line the walkways like billionaires’ garden gnomes, and the smell of fresh spring flowers is so sweet that I almost wonder if the staff is pumping perfume into the air.
The iconic outdoor Neptune Pool glows turquoise in front of its Roman temple backdrop while deep blue mosaics and alabaster lamps light the indoor pool in a magical midnight scene.
The Roman Pool just might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever beheld, and I’m glad my Hearst Castle tour ends here, because anything else would be a bit of an anticlimax.
Hearst Castle Tours: The Verdict
As the shuttle winds back down the hill, Alex Trebek again explains the facts and figures behind Hearst Castle.
He even mentions the special evening tours that are given at certain times of year, when the staff dresses in period costumes and guests can pretend they’re Hearst himself.
And perhaps that’s as close to millionaire media moguls as most of us will ever get. But if the A Lady in London blog ever makes me a fortune (you never know!), I wouldn’t mind having a castle like Hearst’s. Now to find my Julia Morgan…
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14 Comments on Lady’s Hearst Castle Tour Reviews
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Fantastic………there was a a time when I would loved to have livedei n a place like that but now am content to live in a small flat with access to the internet,TVradio etc. When I was younger I always had a large house some with up to 11 rooms but as I get older my needs are somewhat basic.
Yeah, needs definitely change over time!
I think if you walk away from Hearst Castle feeling the dizziness of a cultural explosion, as you have, then you’ve read the Castle right. In a way, the Castle, standing virtually by itself perched on the shores of the blue Pacific – grand and alone is the paradigm for California culture: “everything, all the time”.
Good point!
I can’t get over that pool!!!!!
Me neither!
That Roman Pool looks like something out of a dream – amazing!
Hearst Castle looks so interesting. I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of it before. If I’m ever in the area, I’ll definitely make a visit!
Yeah, the Roman Pool was really beautiful! I hope you get a chance to visit if you get out to California someday. It’s definitely worth it!
How very grand and over the top. You have to love the lifestyles of the robber barons — they knew how to live!
Yeah!
Okay, I really need to drive myself almost 4 hours and visit Hearst Castle once and for all! I remember reading that each tour is $20? Seems a bit steep for only 45 minutes but it looks absolutely incredible. If I had a study like that (or pool!), I’d never leave my house. Thanks for sharing!
Happy travels 🙂
Yeah, you should definitely visit. The tours are $25, but you get access to the grounds and it’s worth it to see all of the art.
I toured Hearst Castle years ago and was gobsmacked by the splendor! I’d love to go back and take an evening tour – I’m a sucker for period costumes!
Yeah, the evening tour sounds like a lot of fun!