Before its transformation into the boutique hotel you know and love today, Hotel Ynez was a humble motor lodge originally known as the Meadowlark Inn.

In 2019, Nomada Hotel Group (the company behind the renovation at the iconic Skyview Motel in nearby Los Alamos) purchased the property with the intention of turning it into a secret-garden-like sanctuary. Like at Skyview, transforming the heart of the property from a former parking lot into a paradise was central to the vision.

Room-front parking spaces were turned into patios with hammocks, the driveway loop became a winding walking path, and the lawn beneath the branches of an old-growth White Oak became a lantern-lit landscape with fountains, fire pits, daybeds, picnic tables, and a bocce ball court.

Located just down the road from the Danish village of Solvang, it’s fitting that the experience at Hotel Ynez can now be captured in one simple Scandinavian phrase: hygge - which refers to “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being.”

Since its reintroduction as a Nomada property, Hotel Ynez’s transformation has been highlighted in acclaimed publications like Sunset Magazine, Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Vogue, and even an episode of Magnolia Network’s (RE)Motel — a series from famed flippers Chip & Joanna Gaines that celebrates unique, revitalized motels across the country.