SpaRatorHow SpaRator scores work
Treatments
Spa Facilities
Wellness Programs
Staff & Service
Experience
Value for Money
Spa Facilities
- Beauty Services
- Couples Treatments
- Fitness Center
- Full-Service Spa
- Hot Tub/Jacuzzi
- Pool Facilities
- Sauna
- Steam Room
- Wellness Programs
Hotel Facilities
- Air Conditioning
- Bar
- Bike Rentals
- Business Center
- Concierge Service
- Dry Cleaning
- EV Charging Stations
- Garden Areas
- Kids Club
- Pets Allowed
- Restaurant
- Valet Parking
- WIFI
Pricing & Availability
About
Rick Caruso spent twelve years and a reported half-billion dollars turning the derelict Miramar By The Sea into the resort that opened in March 2019 — and then it did something almost no new-build achieves: it collected Forbes Five-Star ratings for the hotel, the spa, and the restaurant, a triple only fifteen properties worldwide hold. Miramar is the market’s service ceiling, and it knows it.
Rick Caruso spent twelve years and a reported half-billion dollars turning the derelict Miramar By The Sea into the resort that opened in March 2019. Then it did something almost no new-build achieves: it collected Forbes Five-Star ratings for the hotel, the spa, and the restaurant, a triple only fifteen properties worldwide hold. Miramar is the market’s service ceiling, and it knows it.
The Spa, Specifically
Sense is small on purpose: five individual treatment rooms plus a double suite that connects to a private social suite for groups, backed by eucalyptus steam, sauna, outdoor cold plunges, and the corridor’s only co-ed relaxation lounge.
The menu is where the property’s ambition shows. Lost Remedies treatments (the $495 Montecito Sage Purification, the Undaria Seaweed Age-Defying Ritual) build on flora from the immediate coastline, while the skincare bench runs clinical: HydraFacial series to $2,475, JetPeel, exosome work, Epicutis. Massages hold at $330 to $495, with the couples format reaching $950 for 90 minutes.
A full hair salon and the indoor-outdoor fitness studio round out the building, with private sessions on the sand (beach boot camp, Pilates, guided hikes) at $240 per hour.
Two policies matter before you book. Non-guests can buy full facility access for $75, remarkable at a Forbes Five-Star spa, and cancellation is absolute: 100% inside 24 hours, no exceptions. The spa runs 18-and-over throughout, with no family carve-outs.
Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong
Book Miramar if service is the luxury you are buying: this is the most consistently delivered hospitality in the market, on the only real beach, with a Michelin-starred dining room fifty yards from the sand. Book elsewhere if the spa day is the point of the trip. Seven rooms and a three-element wet circuit cannot fill a day the way a destination facility can, and at $2,000-plus a night the gap matters. Families fit here; spa-first travelers outgrow it by mid-afternoon.
Where It Sits in the Market
The Ritz-Carlton Bacara is the benchmark property for the Santa Barbara market, and Miramar is its inversion: one-fifth the treatment rooms, roughly double the entry rate, and the service record Bacara has not rebuilt since its flag conversion. El Encanto shares Miramar’s boutique spa scale and undercuts its rates from the Riviera hillside, but holds no spa star and no beach. San Ysidro Ranch out-privates everyone with in-cottage treatments at still-higher rates. In a market split between scale and polish, Miramar owns the polish pole outright.
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What Guests Are Saying
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Location
Guest Experiences
Frequently Asked Questions:
Where is Rosewood Miramar Beach, and how far is the airport?
The resort is at 1759 South Jameson Lane in Montecito, directly on Miramar Beach, about 20 minutes from Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) and roughly two hours from Los Angeles International. Downtown Santa Barbara is a ten-minute drive; Coast Village Road's cafés and boutiques are five.
Can non-guests use the spa?
Yes — Sense sells spa facility day access at $75 per person, which covers the steam room, sauna, outdoor cold plunges, and relaxation lounges. That is one of the most accessible entry points to a Forbes Five-Star spa anywhere in California, and it makes Sense the market's best value for a facilities-only visit despite the resort's rates.
What does a massage cost?
Massages run $330 to $375 for 60 minutes and $475 to $495 for 90, with the couples format at $660 and $950. Facials span $330 to $495, and the Lost Remedies signature treatments — Montecito Sage Purification, Undaria Seaweed Ritual — are $495 for 90 minutes. Prices exclude gratuity.
What is the spa's cancellation policy?
Strict: 24 hours' notice or a 100% charge, and no-shows pay in full. Book treatments only when your plans are fixed.
Is there an age restriction at the spa?
Yes — spa facilities are limited to guests 18 and over. The resort itself is genuinely family-friendly, with a family pool and beach service; the adult and family zones are kept separate.
Do trains really run through the property?
Yes. The coastal rail line crosses the estate between the gardens and the beach, and Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner passes daily. The resort has engineered around it — landscaping, quiet-zone crossings — and most guests report it as character rather than nuisance, but light sleepers in garden-side rooms should mention it at booking.
How much does parking cost?
On-site parking is $50 per day. There is no free alternative on the property; street options in residential Montecito are effectively nonexistent.
Is the airport shuttle free?
No — the house car to Santa Barbara Airport runs $318 per vehicle each way, priced as a private transfer. A standard ride-share covers the same 20 minutes for a fraction of that; the shuttle buys the Rosewood arrival, not the distance.
What dining is on site?
Eight outlets, anchored by Caruso's, which holds both a Michelin star and a Michelin Green Star for sustainability — the only Michelin-starred restaurant in a Santa Barbara-area resort. Reservations at Caruso's book out well ahead of peak weekends.
Which is better: Miramar or the Ritz-Carlton Bacara?
They pull in opposite directions. Miramar delivers the Forbes triple Five-Star, a real swimming beach, and the market's most consistent service from a seven-room boutique spa. Bacara delivers 42,000 square feet, 36 treatment rooms, and thermal variety Miramar cannot approach, 25 minutes further from town. Choose Miramar for service and place, Bacara for the spa day itself.
When is the cheapest time to stay?
February and April generally price lowest, though "low" here means roughly $1,400 to $2,100 a night; summer bookings commonly run $2,100 to $3,900. Saturday is the most expensive night of the week, and the marine layer hangs over the beach on May and June mornings before burning off around midday.
How This Review Works
Every SpaRator score is built the same way: six equally weighted categories, scored from more than 40 documented data points per property through independent spa and hotel facility research and analysis of thousands of verified guest reviews, then averaged, never hand-tuned. The result is a consistent, comparable rating across every property we cover. How SpaRator works
Reviewed by James Sinclair, founder of Spa Hotel Finder and creator of the SpaRator methodology. This review reflects synthesized editorial analysis, not a first-hand visit.
Last updated August 2026
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