Origin: In 1992, Mickey Muennig’s mega-eco-friendly design won over the tree-hugger contingent, and this became the first resort to be built on the coast in almost two decades.
What keeps them coming back: The biggest eyeful of vast, blue ocean you can imagine.

Defining Touches: Around here, luxury means that in place of TVs, rooms have a real wood-burning fireplace and instead of a golf course, there’s a web of nature trails.

The Crowd: Similar, though it embraces more of the thirtysomething banker and celeb set.

Room to roam: 1.6 acres per guest
Quirks: Don’t try wandering to the pool in your flip-flops—it’s way down in a valley, a hefty hike from the rooms.
On the shelf in the library: What Color Is Your Parachute?

The rooms: Every one of the 30 rooms is exactly the same size, but there’s nothing cookie-cutter about them. “Ocean houses” hide under a grassy curve of hillside, while “tree houses” stand tippy-toed on nine-foot stilts, their windows high up in the branches of a redwood grove.

Supper-time scene: All fancy seaside restaurants have a nice view, but Sierra Mar, hanging out over a cliff, has the granddaddy of them all. And the food is even better.

The spa experience: Look up from the massage table through the floor-to-ceiling window to see a massive redwood trunk shooting up toward the sky.

The big splurge: The five $935 ocean houses always go first. Why? Total privacy. Huge picture windows face nothing but ocean.

Deals to be had: November to April, midweek rates for mountain-view rooms are 40 percent off, which puts them at $300 and up. But the coveted ocean-view rooms are full price year-round.
The bottom line: Hands down the first choice for the don’t-trouble-me-with-the-bill set.

Want in?: (800) 527-2200, www.postranchinn.com.

Green House

Partington Point House