I Went on a 2,500-Mile Search for the Greatest Motels in California. Here’s What I Found

The Mo-Tel began as a combination of motor and hotel.

The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California. Alex Madonna drew on his Swiss background and gave the inn a mountain-chalet look. Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS

By Christopher Reynolds Los Angeles Times

Listen. That’s the low hum of the highway you hear behind me, offset by the rumble of the ice machine down the breezeway. We gather today to celebrate the motel, a uniquely American creature, conceived in California through the unholy embrace of the automobile and the hotel.