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Mar Vista Cottages - Press Comment
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Where Women Create Business
"Renata T. Dorn is a renegade, a bit of a brat. The spoiled youngest of five siblings, and now the spoiled wife of the eldest of five siblings, she always has to have things her way, a trait not uncharacteristic of an entrepreneur! The article goes on for twelve very interesting pages. One of the conclusions she draws from her experience is that one should "create a business that distinguishes you from your competitors in significant ways."
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SF Gate
Beat the Rush to Point Arena
by John Flinn
The strangest, coolest and most obscure national monument in California just got less strange and whole lot cooler, and it's about to become considerably less obscure. Even among outdoor enthusiasts, few had ever heard of the California Coastal National Monument. Made up of more than 20,000 offshore rocks, exposed reefs and sea stacks from Oregon to Mexico, its visitors consisted almost exclusively of humpback whales, sea lions, cormorants and the occasional tufted puffin.
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Really experience a stay in Mendocino County
By Ann Tatko-Peterson
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The roaring surf of Anchor Bay stood as a backdrop visible from our cottage's bay window. On the table sat steaming omelets I had cooked using the fresh hen eggs left on our doorstep the night before and tomatoes, spinach, broccoli and herbs I had collected that morning in the vegetable garden. My husband and I dug into breakfast, enjoying the peace, quiet and gorgeous ocean view, when suddenly, a pair of goats strolled past our window. We laughed long and hard. We hadn't banked on finding a slice of farm life, but that, and more, is what we uncovered at Mar Vista Cottages in Gualala.
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French Country Style
Cooks Paradise
An eight page spread with fabulous imagery.
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Martha Stewart Living's
THE BEST LIST
HOTELS
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2012 California Official State Visitor's Guide
We are proud to be included in the first of the dozen
featured articles in this years official state visitor's guide!
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Living With Intention
This year we flew into San Francisco, drove north to Marin County
and then up the coast to Shelter Cover, almost to Eureka. Each
place had its unique charm. Of all the places, Mar Vista Cottages
in Mendocino County was the most memorable. It was an
immersion in conscious living.
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Design Ingenuity
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The rains haven't quite left us in Northern California, but it didn't dampen my enthusiasm for a little getaway this week to one of my favorite places, Mar Vista Cottages in Anchor Bay, which is about an hour away from Mendocino and far less touristy, if not just as scenic.
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Green Plum Design Blog
And did I mention its my favorite place ever?
Two whole days and two whole nights&
by myself&.in my favorite place ever&
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Sunset
Peaceful Winter Getaways
According to Sunset, Mar Vista Cottages is "one of ten Hideaways
that press the pause button on the end of the year whirl."
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Lonely Planet Magazine
"Total Escape"
"WHERE TO STAY
Mar Vista Cottages' 1930s style defines seaside simplicity.
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Delicious Baby
"A Visit to Mar Vista with Kids"
A mom never wants to see her children cry but...
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San Francisco Magazine
"Privacy, Please"
"My personal favorite is Mar Vista Cottages..."
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TravelSmith's TravelCenter
"Mar Vista offers an enchanting cluster of Shaker-style cabins, an
organic veggie garden, and a chicken coop for fresh morning eggs."
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National Geographic Traveller
"129 Hotels We Love"
"The hotels on our Stay List 2009 don't just reflect their surroundings
they help define them. What they all have in common is a transcendent
vision that goes beyond traditional hotel-keeping."
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Sunset
Top 25 Trips with a Twist
Pluck some veggies from the organic garden, pick up the basket of freshly laid eggs at your cottage door, and enjoy a picnic dinner on the lawn watching the sun disappear into the Pacific.
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Contra Costa Times
"A cozy seaside cottage has always been in my mind not too far from home, close to the ocean, with room to breathe. Mar Vista Cottages fits my picture perfectly."
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Organic Gardening
The vacation retreats natural setting is certainly a draw for visitors, but the propertys most compelling feature is a fantastic organic kitchen garden that Mar Vista proprietors, Tom and Renata Dorn, plant for their guests.
The kitchen garden is also filled with U-Pick flowers ,including incredibly fragrant sweet peas that guests are encouraged to cut for impromptu centerpieces and bouquets.
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Coastal Living
the haze of night slowly gives way to the warmth of first light. Its time to rise. Shuffling into the kitchen, a sleepy vacationer sees a flyer under the door. It reads, Still-warm eggs just out of the nest are waiting for you on the broom peg on your porch! Enjoy. As promised, a small basket brims with eggs of varying pastel hues. The cottages at Mar Vista offer the freshest wake-up call along the West Coast.
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Press Democrat
"The Simple Life"
Before they arrive, guests receive a list of seasonal goodies that will be
ready to pick and prepare. Renata keeps a few cookbooks and recipes on hand
but the timid are reminded that most veggies don't need to be dressed in
culinary finery. It's amazing what a little garlic and olive oil will do.
While other newlyweds indulge in room-service and Zagat-rated restaurant
meals capped by three-figure bills, this San Francisco couple chose to ease
into married life in a cozy cottage at Anchor Bay along the unhurried coast
of southern Mendocino County.
Each day of their recent honeymoon, Paul Riley and Katie Petrucione engaged
in one of the more sensuous chores of everyday life: They cooked together, a
cooperative ritual of quality time spent quietly conversing over tempting
aromas.
There was fresh rosemary and chives for steak marinade. Salads of bitter
greens like arugula tossed with sorrel and vibrantly colored radicchio.
Mashed potatoes with sweet scallions. A bunch of sweet peas coiling up among
the vegetables in the garden made a fragrant flower arrangement by their
bed.
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Fodors Travel Book
Escape to Nature Without Roughing It
Tom and Renata Dorn, whose background is in luxury hotels, have put the fundamentals of a typical high end lodging into a low key property. Every bed has a top quality mattress, high thread count cotton sheets, a down comforter, and a fresh duvet cover; bathrooms have thick terry towels, and every room is spotless, right down to the windows, a rarity in coastal California. Neither the furniture in your living room nor the dishes in your kitchen match, but like a second home thats been in the family for generations, the place exudes happiness and calm.
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Mendocino Country Life Cover Feature
Farm Vacation at Mar Vista Cottages
Youve heard of Agritourism -- Farms adding lodging to diversify. Well, here is a story about lodging adding a farm! Throughout their stay Mar Vista guests are encouraged to self harvest in the gardens and enjoy the just laid eggs from Renata and Toms small flock of hens. The whole experience is extraordinarily pleasurable because it draws the guests back to the heart of the simple life, which after all the layers have been peeled away, is astonishingly intense!
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The Napa Valley Register
"Coasting with Kids"
Before dinner . . . the kids had experienced a moment of disorientation
looking around the cottage: "Mommy, where's the TV?" Katy pretended to
look around and then pointed out the window, overlooking the garden, and
said, "It's right here. It's on the Garden Channel now." This became a
theme throughout our stay. Our three nights there gave two weary parents a
chance to relax away from computers and phones, and to see our children with fresh eyes.
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San Francisco Magazine, first time
Sensational Beach Getaways
The carefully restored 1930s Mar Vista Cottages feel like a better version of their old selves, with big windows and down-covered beds. An unmarked beach down the hill ... is a slice of he North Coast the way it used to be.
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San Francisco Magazine, second time
Great Escapes, Spectacular Ways to Leave the World Behind
Mar Vista Cottages where a weekend stay in a sweet little fishing shack with a picture window looking out ot the ocean, will make you aspire to a simpler life.
San Francisco Magazine third time,
Going Coastal, 33+ spectacular & undiscovered getaways
Our managing editor, who does double duty as travel editor: There was one place we already knew would make the cut for our getaways guide. I disappear to Mar Vista Cottages a couple times a year just to read and cook and stare at the ocean. The cottages are the simplest thing you could imagine, but I have a soft spot for their retro details--and the hens that lay eggs for my breakfast every morning.
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Sunset Magazine
Sonoma Escape
The rugged stretch of land that runs along Sonoma County's coast inspires grand passions. From the pocket coves of Bodega Bay and windswept bluffs of Sea Ranch to inland pine-covered peaks and ocean-carved sea stacks, the area is marked by layers of fog, gulls, sweetgrass, and wildness.
It's a place where you can tidepool for hours in precious solitude or ride thrilling, frigid waves; a place where delicious wine and cheese are made carefully, lovingly, by hand.
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Diablo Magazine
Let the Fur Fly
No Time for Paris? Here are four local lodges
thatll roll out the Red Carpet for your Hound
Former fishing cabins in the banana belt of the Mendo coast, co-owned by a veteran of the Four Seasons and Mankas, Mar Vista has an open door policy for dogs of all sizes and 12 kitchen equipped retro crash pads that are cleaner than clean.
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Sunset Magazine Best of the West
Fresh for the Picking
The joys of the harvest arent just for farmers anymore. Mar Vista Cottages on Californias Mendocino Coast, has a 2,500 square foot organic vegetable garden nestled among guest cottages equipped with kitchens. Visitors pick to their hearts content then prepare their own meals with the bounty.
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