Spot Cat / 02 May 2013 / Categories: Historical Interest and Stately Homes

Hearst Castle

MAKE SURE TO VISIT HEARST CASTLE

It’s not a castle in the traditional sense. Although in Hollywood style, the home of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst could be described as a Californian Castle and is definitely worth taking a look. Even the ride up is fun and the views tough to beat.

The most exciting part of checking out this interesting estate is the history of the Hollywood icon’s Heart entertained here, the likes of Chaplin, Garbo, Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Jean Harlow and those are the one’s I remember off the top of my head. It was a long list.

They drank cocktails and waited for their hosts entrance via a private lift in the pretty amazing and extremely grand drawing room.

It’s definitely not a stately home, walking around it feels like a real home, like you could move in tomorrow. It’s intimate. You can imagine very cool parties happening, the ghosts linger and the movie theater feels ready to slip a reel on the projector so long as someone’s ready to dish out the popcorn.

The grounds are expansive, over spilling with bird of paradise and tropical hibiscus flowers, and equipped with enough guest cottages to accommodate duelling divas and philanderers not wishing to get caught in opposite corners but the piece de resistance is the fantastic and outlandish outdoor swimming pool complete with full sized Grecian statues, naked, fig leafed and grape strewn. I know it sounds tasteless and crass, not at all. The indoor one is pretty beautiful too.

The completely “over the top ness”, strangely, actually works.

For adults it’s 25 buck to get in, 12 bucks for kids which may sound expensive. Personally I really enjoyed it, an experience I’m not sure I’ll ever need to repeat coz I know I could never forget it, it's just that kind of place, out of this world.