Tours4fun sent our Travels4Fun Team on the exciting 3-Day San Francisco, Hearst Castle, Yosemite Tour! Enjoy their adventure as they chronicle day 1 of the trip and their visit to Hearst Castle!

A little history: Hearst Castle took just under three decades (28 years, to be exact) to complete. William Randolph Hearst worked closely with architect Julia Morgan to design a Spanish Revival-inspired estate. As a child, Hearst traveled through Europe with his mother, and inspiration from his travels can be found throughout the castle grounds. The towers of the main house are modeled after a church in Ronda, in the Spanish province of Malaga.

During the 1920s & 1930s Hollywood stars and important political figures would eagerly accept coveted invitations to Hearst Castle – known simply as “The Ranch.” Franklin Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and Winston Churchill all spent days playing tennis and pool on the lavish grounds. Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin, and Cary Grant would spend their days lounging by the pool and their evenings entertaining William Hearst with stories at dinner and impromptu theater performances before bed. Carol Lombard gained quite a reputation as a pool shark; usually winning everyone’s money during an evening spent playing billiards.

After Hearst’s death, in 1951, the property was given to the state of California to be kept as a State Park. William Hearst and Hearst Castle were the main source of inspiration for the Orson Welles film Citizen Kane. Other highlights include the outdoor Neptune pool and the indoor Roman pool. During its heyday, there was a zoo on the grounds, with several exotic animals, including: polar bears, and zebras – which still roam the area in herds.

Follow along with Anna & Nina on their next adventure: San Francisco!