More time for what matters
It usually starts with a practical reason. A kitchen remodel runs past its schedule. A sale closes before the next house is ready. A new job means a move to Southern California, and the right neighborhood takes time to find. A work assignment runs for months, not days. Or there's simply a season that deserves more than a long weekend by the ocean.
Whatever the reason, the usual choices fall short. A furnished rental means learning someone else's appliances and someone else's rules. A hotel suite means weeks spent living out of a closet. Neither feels much like home.
Extended stays at Terranea offer a different way through the in-between. It sits on 102 acres at the southwestern tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For some guests, that's a few miles from the life they already have. For others, it's their first address in Los Angeles.
The First Evening
The casita is ready before you arrive: furnished, stocked with linens, with the utilities already running. Depending on the size of the household, that means one, two or three bedrooms and between 1,100 and 2,040 square feet. A designated parking spot is right at the door, so unloading the car doesn't mean a trip across the garage.
The first things you notice are the ordinary ones. The kitchen has a full four-burner gas range, so the first dinner can be something you actually cook. A washer and dryer means laundry doesn't have to leave the house. A private balcony or patio gives the evening somewhere to go once the bags are down.
Behind it all is a private gatehouse with security on duty around the clock. For anyone who has just left their own front door behind, that matters more than it sounds.
The First Week
Settling in is mostly a matter of discovering what's close. Sea Beans, by the front drive, opens early for espresso and pastries from the pastry kitchen, and it quickly becomes the stop on the way out each morning. The fitness center and movement studio are part of the stay, with a class schedule that runs through yoga, Pilates, seaside cycling and Nature's Gym, an outdoor boot camp. Within a few days, the class you meant to try once has become the one you don't miss.
All four pools are included, and each has its own pace. The Resort Pool is built for families. Kids move between the 140-foot water slide, the splash pad and the poolside games, while parents settle into a cabana and The Grill brings light bites and cold drinks to the chair. The Spa Pool, for guests 18 and over, is the quiet one, with a 25-meter lane along the ocean for laps early and late, and fire pits and private cabanas for the hours in between. Vista Pool, for 13 and over, faces due west over the Pacific, with saltwater and a hot tub, and afternoons there stretch as the light shifts toward sunset. Cielo Point, for adults 21 and over, sits above the water with the island on the horizon. It's the pool that feels most like a weekend away, even on a Tuesday.
By the end of the first week, the question is no longer where things are but when to fit them in.
An Ordinary Weekday, Rearranged
Extended stays change how you use the place. Most visitors treat Terranea as an occasion. Stay a few weeks and it becomes part of the routine.
Mornings often begin on the bluff. Only about a quarter of the property is built on. The remaining 75-plus acres are kept as coastal landscape, planted with species native to Palos Verdes and the Channel Islands. Naturalist-led walks follow the Discovery Trail and point out plants like the California crabapple, which grows nowhere else but the Peninsula and Catalina. Gray and blue whales pass about 50 yards offshore for much of the year, and telescopes along the bluff make it easy to stop and watch.
After that, the workday unfolds as it would anywhere else: meetings, calls, the school pickup. What changes is the evening.
The Links at Terranea is a 9-hole, par-3 course above the water, with a multi-tiered short-game practice area and chipping and putting greens. A round fits neatly between the last call and dinner, and at 10% off tee times, a season of evening rounds adds up.
The Spa at Terranea covers 50,000 square feet on the same stretch of coast, with treatments that draw on sound, sea minerals and skin science. Extended stay guests save 10% on services, which tends to come in handy after a week of moving boxes or managing contractors.
When Nobody Feels Like Cooking
The casita kitchen handles most nights. For the others, dinner is a short walk away, and 10% off food and beverage applies across the table.
- Mar'sel is set into the hillside above the water. The menu reads California through Spain and France, cooked to the season from a garden a few steps from the door, with a sommelier pouring by the glass.
- Bashi cooks Japanese with sushi cut to order, dishes from the wok as they're ready, and a sake list worth taking time over.
- Catalina Kitchen turns out coastal cooking, with tables that look toward the island as it sharpens or fades with the weather.
- Nelson's sits on the bluff where the land drops to the sea, and fills up as the sun heads for the water.
- The Lobby Bar and Terrace has a fireside lounge inside, a terrace over the water, and live music daily.
- Solviva, the spa café, cooks with nutrient-dense, locally grown produce, which makes it an easy lunch between calls.
Extended Stays for the Whole Family
A long stay away from home can be hard on children, and Terranea gives them a calendar of their own.
At Kids Club, the Peninsula is the curriculum: outdoor games and coastal athletics, arts and crafts drawn from the landscape, and hands-on science shaped by the tide pools and the night sky. Extended stay families receive 15% off Kids Club and 15% off resort activities.
Weekends on the Coast
Weekends are when the stay starts to feel like its own season rather than a waiting period.
On the water, the options include:
- Ocean kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding
- Tide pooling
- Snorkel tours and leopard shark tours
- Kayak fishing
On land, there's falconry, archery, coastal hikes, and resin board workshops. At night, stargazing and outdoor movie nights take over.
Most families find a favorite early and come back to it. For some, it's the Saturday kayak. For others, it's movie night on the lawn.
What's Included
Every extended stay comes with:
- All utilities
- Resort fee and overnight parking waived
- Access to the fitness center, movement studio, and wellness classes
- Access to all four pools
Extended stay guests also receive:
- 10% off food and beverage
- 10% off tee times at The Links
- 10% off services at The Spa at Terranea
- 15% off Kids Club
- 15% off resort activities
- 15% off dry cleaning
When It's Time to Go
Eventually the contractor finishes, the new house is ready or the assignment wraps up. What guests tend to keep from the stay is the routine it gave them in the meantime: the morning coffee, the swim before the day starts, the whales off the bluff.
To plan a longer stay, contact Emily Halverson, Extended Stay Sales Manager at ehalverson@terranea.com or 310-698-1450.