Whether it’s a beach bonfire for roasting s’mores under a starry sky, a sandcastle team-building exercise or simply meeting in a room that overlooks the sparkling Pacific, destinations and properties from British Columbia to Baja offer plenty of choices for gatherings that make the most of the coast.
The only potential downside to holding a meeting in a coastal setting is that attendees may itch to get outside. Planners use that as part of the draw, however, creating special events taking advantage of beaches, sand dunes and sunsets over the Pacific—all features of a waterfront location that sets it apart.
Orange Coast
According to Tom Bennett, senior vice president of sales for Visit Newport Beach, the natural attributes of California’s Orange County coastline are the ultimate sales tool for meetings.
“You take meeting planners from an area such as the Midwest and you’ve got them on a boat cruising around a harbor in the middle of winter and with 75 degree temperatures,” he says. “That’s certainly a big selling point.”
In Newport Beach, the harbor is a main attraction, with groups often opting for cocktail parties and events designed for mingling during boat rides, often on charming electric Duffy boats that cruise around the harbor, which is filled with elegant yachts and lined with stunning homes.
Newport Beach, with more than 2,900 guest rooms and 170,000 square feet of meeting space, draws small- to medium-size meetings and executive retreats.
Among its unique venues is Newport Dunes, a waterfront resort which works with local destination management companies for team-building exercises, water-based activities (kayaking, surfing, paddle boarding are among the most popular) and beachfront events.
A few miles north is another quintessential California beach town, Huntington Beach, where the Hyatt Regency, which is linked to the beach by a pedestrian bridge across the Pacific Coast Highway, uses its coastal location as much as possible.
“We’ve got the ability to promote the property with the beach,” said Angel Tassone, director of group sales. “We use it for groups for teambuilding, beach Olympics, sand-castle building, fitness camps and bonfires. There are eight miles of beach in front of us with a boardwalk and it’s easily accessible from our property.”
More often, however, meeting planners opt to use the resort’s public areas, which are designed for groups. Three of the property’s four ballrooms have ocean views.
“We’ve got courtyards around our large lagoon-style pool, with the beautiful backdrop of the ocean, where there is grass instead of sand and glass walls that break the breezes that come off the ocean,” Tassone says.
A new activity and water park area at the Hyatt features cabanas, bars and a cafe that can be used as events, including beach-themed parties with surfing simulators, custom-painted surfboards and bands performing songs from the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. In fact, entertainers can include Jan & Dean’s Dean Torrence who lives nearby and works with the Huntington Beach CVB in promoting his hometown.
The CVB’s “Surf City USA” is a useful tool for drawing in meetings and incentives, according to Tassone.
“Being a Southern California beachfront property is a very popular thing,” she says. “It conjures up a lifestyle that people can relate to. We’re the quintessential California beach town.”
San Diego
In San Diego, a waterfront setting does not necessarily mean strictly the Pacific Ocean, according to Margie Sitton, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the San Diego CVB.
“We have a variety of types of coasts,” she says “Furthest south, we’ve got Coronado Island, where one side of the island is a beautiful bay and the other side the ocean, the site of the historic Del Coronado hotel. That’s an absolutely breathtaking beach. Then we’ve got Big Bay in downtown San Diego.”
Among the most popular venues for groups is the aircraft carrier USS Midway, now a floating museum in the bay and available for events of up to 7,000 people, including on the historic flight deck. North along the coast is Mission Bay with six resorts, a sandy beach and areas for kayaking, surfing, beach volleyball and a path for bicycling and walking. The Bahia Belle, a Mississippi-style sternwheeler boat that cruises from resort to resort in the bay waters, is available for group meals and events.
In the posh San Diego enclaves of La Jolla and neighboring Torrey Pines are waterfront locations and resorts, including Torrey Pines Golf Course, site of the 2008 U.S. Open. The beach areas along this stretch of coast are prime surfing spots. Surf Divas is a company that can organize surfing lessons as a group activity.
The coastal vibe for meeting attendees starts as the plane is landing in San Diego, Sitton notes.
“When you arrive at our airport you see the water and you have the immediate coastal resort feeling,” she says. “When you step outside you get the smell of the ocean air and it puts you in the right mindset for a meeting. It’s part of our allure.”
Monterey Peninsula
Farther up the California Coast, the weather is cooler but the location no less picturesque or alluring.
On the Monterey Peninsula, coastal settings are renowned for their stunning beauty and the waters for fish and seafood.
“We’re known for our scenery and food and wine,” says John Ehlenfeldt, regional director for the Monterey County CVB. “We’ve got fresh seafood and Monterey County is the salad bowl capital of the world so we’ve got the freshest of lettuce. Food is such an important component and often meeting planners want menus to be green and sustainable. We can offer menus with everything grown and produced locally.”
Monterey is the home of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, itself a unique event venue and considered one of the top such aquariums in the world. It’s known for its research and promotion of sustainable fish and seafood consumption.
“We’ve got Asilomar, which is a conference center designed by Julia Morgan and in the middle of a state park with protected natural sand dunes right on the water,” Ehlenfeldt says. “You’re right next to the world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Course and more luxurious resorts. So, you’ve got properties with coastal settings in a variety of styles and prices.”
The Monterey Conference Center, with 61,000 square feet of meeting space, is within a short walk to the Monterey pier and harbor, where a stretch of beach can be cordoned off for private parties. Kayaking and whale watching expeditions are popular group options.
Victoria, British Columbia
One of the key selling points for holding a meeting along the coast of the Pacific Northwest, including Canada’s British Columbia province, is the dramatic beauty.
“You’ve got the stunning beauty, the old-growth forests, mountains and sweeping water views,” says Kelly Pitt, meetings and incentives sales manager for Tourism Victoria. “For meetings, the outdoors here play a big role.”
As with some other coastal locations, the experience of being on the water starts with arrival. In Victoria, there are several options.
“People can get here by ferry, float planes and water taxes,” Pitt says. “Our harbor is actually designated as an airport so we get quite a few people who are coming from Seattle or Vancouver by float plane, flying harbor to harbor.”
Almost all of the hotel properties in Victoria—including the renowned Fairmont Empress—face the city’s busy, vibrant harbor. One boutique hotel, the Inn at Laurel Point, features a ballroom with an adjacent outdoor terrace overlooking the waterfront.
Also on the harbor, the Royal BC Museum is one of Victoria’s largest venues, with space for 2,500 attendees. Board retreats can be conducted on the water in small vessels, such as glass-domed boats.
For meeting planners and incentive organizers looking for creative menus that highlight local products, Victoria has much to offer, according to Pitt.
“We’ve got a lot of new restaurants with well-known chefs moving here,” she says. “Salmon is huge here and crab, halibut and oysters are all fish and seafood that you can have on the menu.”
Pitt notes a trend for planners to highlight other culinary treats from the area in menus.
“It’s a given that we have fabulous seafood, but people may not know that we also have a lot of local farmers and honey and cheese makers,” she says.
One unique event venue, Sea Cider Farm, is a farmhouse alongside an organic apple orchard with views of the ocean. The handsome main building, renovated to offer reception space for groups of up, is where cider tastings take place. It’s been a surprisingly popular group activity, an alternative to wine tasting, according to Pitt.
“We’ve had groups in from California who didn’t want to do wine tasting so we’ve done these other unique types of tastings and the planners have raved about the experiences,” she says.
Mexico’s Los Cabos
Mexico’s beach destinations also offer meeting planners a variety of venues that take advantage of the coastal setting. In Baja California’s Los Cabos resort area, the weather plays an important role, with sunshine guaranteed most days of the year.
“It’s a meeting planners’ dream because the weather is so stable year round,” says Adrian Schjetnan, director of sales and marketing for the Los Cabos CVB. “You don’t have to have a backup plan, which can incur additional costs and double the work for a planner. If you want to bring a group in on Nov. 15, 2012, you know the weather is going to be 84 degrees and 72 degrees at night.”
Hotels in the area, which includes the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, are located along the waterfront and offer some unique settings for events and meetings.
“There are magnificent patios, terraces, beaches and meeting rooms with views,” Schjetnan says. “Many groups rent the central plaza at San Jose for an outdoor reception before a dine-around, with local artists displaying their art and mariachi music. We also have some canyons where people have held special events in natural settings, where the chairman of the board has entered by rappelling down a rock wall.”
More typical are evening events on the beach under the stars, Mexican fiestas and a new offering called lounge parties, which are exotic theme nights featuring white beach furniture, cabanas draped in white curtains, lighted palm trees, torches and bonfires.
“It’s really a very popular theme night,” Schjetman says. “And the company logo can be projected on the sand.”
Laura Del Rosso has been writing for travel industry magazines for over 20 years. She is the author of Great Escapes: Northern California.
