Thanks to my cousin who recommended Deetjen’s we stayed here.It is so charming and you really have the chance to relax-no cell phones,no TV,no internet….here is some history:
Before Highway One was completed in 1937, Castro Canyon was a traditional stopover for travelers along the coastal wagon road. When Helmuth and Helen Deetjen began welcoming guests in the 1930’s, Deetjens Inn was born.Over the years Deetjen built Norwegian-style rooms and gave each of them a name. All work was done by Grandpa Deetjen and friends using locally milled,scavenged redwood.
Today the Big Sur Inn is on the National Register of Historic Places, offering visitors simple luxuries in the rooms and fabulous dining in the award-winning restaurant. Year round, the Inn’s well-tended gardens bloom and the Castro Canyon waterfall splashes into the creek. Their guests often say that a visit to Deetjens feels like coming home-there is a guestbook in each room and it was fun to read the entries in our room! We noticed that many people make a yearly trek to Deetjen’s.
Lauren Huyett Interiors 
My first visit was in the summer of 1968, which was when I had the distinct honor of having dinner with Grandpa Deetjen — and other guests — at the main dining room table. I had no idea who this iconoclast of a man was at the time, but he held court like a king; and, I can assure you that “silence” at the table was not an option. By the time I departed, I knew the history of the Deetjens and the Big Sur Inn, and understood why everybody freely called him “Grandpa.”