There are so many places that I want to visit, from countries to cities, and even, in this case, hotels. The Madonna Inn is quite possibly the kitschest place on Earth, located in San Luis Obispo, a city between Los Angeles and San Francisco on California’s coastline. The inn was created by a self-made real estate developer, Alex Madonna, and his wife in 1958. The exterior of the inn has the styling of a Swiss chalet, but the real magnificence of this motel lies inside the 110 uniquely themed bedrooms, super amazingly kitsch restaurants and – one of favourite bits – multi-coloured poolside furniture.
Image from the Madonna Inn website
The Rooms
With 110 unique bedrooms there’s an absolute myriad of kitschness to choose from, some of them a little more extreme than others. Each room has it’s own theme carried through the decor, one of my favourites is room 206, the ‘Old Mill’ room. It has a working mini water wheel with characters that zoom around… amazing!
Certain rooms also feature rock waterfall showers, and massive chunks of rock clad on the walls. Quite a lot of the rooms look like they’re straight out of the playboy mansion, too (in fact, did you ever catch that episode of ‘Girls Next Door’ where they stayed in the Madonna Inn? they probably felt right at home!).
Others rooms that are neat:
- Cabin Still – a room dedicated to moonshine & prohibition
- Caveman – got a thing for Fred or Wilma?
- Golfers room – like living on the green
- Traveler’s Suite – look at that fireplace.. wow
Other things
Check out the bar & steakhouse. The colours! The decor!
And this poolside furniture, I want this for my garden. (has anyone seen multi-colour lawn furniture like this available? I super love it!)
It’s also worth noting that the Madonna Inn has a rock waterfall urinal, how lucky for you fellas! There’s also a spa and a fitness suite, but who cares? I’d spend all day basking in the glory of kitsch (let’s not even get started on what the gift shops might offer!).
The Madonna Inn is definitely, definitely on my list of places to stay the next time we visit California, I can’t think of a better place to stay on that long drive between San Francisco and LA, can you?! The rates are pretty decent, too, with rooms starting at little over $209.
- The Madonna Inn website
- The Madonna Inn wikipedia page
- Flickr results for ‘Madonna Inn’
- Trip advisor ratings and reviews for The Madonna Inn
Has anyone stayed here? What was it like?!
I'm Kim, a 27 year old English designer type who lives with two mad kitties and one astrophysicist. I own 
I tried to book a room there once, but it gets booked out really quickly, especially in summer. It’s probably the best reason to stay in San Luis Obispo, except maybe the big old rock in the harbour. There’s not much else to see around there in comparison to the rest of the coastal route.
I have actually been twice! It is exactly as amazingly kitsch as you’d think it would be. I would agree with booking a room early, but if you don’t stay it’s still worth stopping by. Second time I visited we just had tea and scones in the cafe. (With pink sugar in the tea – you don’t realise how much pink they manage to get into this place.)
I quite like the town of San Luis Obispo too, if you feel like spending a few chill days in a nice-looking, quiet little town. The hostel there is super nice, too – the rest of the town was a little spendy.
Ha. It is very pleasing that someone shares in the Madonna Inn fandom.
Amazing, I’m ridiculously jealous!
I think we’re planning another California road-trip thing within the next few years, and will undoubtedly be making the same trek from San Francisco-LA, which means that our central stop off point might well be the Madonna Inn!
Pink sugar!! ah! amazing!
Which room did you stay in when you were there? There’s so much kitsch to choose from!