Laguna Beach, the canyon way.

Credit where due: Montage Laguna Beach is the postcard — the grand Craftsman-style resort spread along the bluff above Treasure Island, and one of the most photographed hotel settings in California. Go for a drink on the bluff lawn at sunset; it earns the fuss. But it's also where everyone else is, at prices set accordingly — and Laguna's real magic trick is hiding two miles south, in a canyon most visitors drive right past.

Turn off Pacific Coast Highway at Aliso Creek and the road slips between the walls of Aliso and Wood Canyons — 87 acres that were Laguna's first homestead, reborn as The Ranch at Laguna Beach by a group of Laguna locals who understood exactly what they had. It's 97 cottage-style rooms in a green canyon bottom, a farm-to-table restaurant fed by the property's own half-acre biodynamic farm, and the kind of quiet the blufftops can't buy. It was the first hotel in California admitted to National Geographic's Unique Lodges of the World, and the canyon does something the coast highway doesn't: the air stays genuinely cool here even on a hot day, sea breeze funneling between the walls while the rest of Southern California bakes.

And the beach is not a compromise: Aliso Beach sits directly across PCH, a couple of minutes by the resort's shuttle — with the Ranch's own Lost Pier Café on the sand for fish tacos and a cold beer, palm fronds and Pacific included.

Here's the part almost nobody expects: The Ranch holds the only golf course in Laguna Beach — Ben Brown's, a nine-hole, par-32 walk laid out along Aliso Creek in the 1950s, with canyon walls rising on every side and mule deer strolling the greens like members. Don't let the scorecard fool you; Golf Advisor has ranked it among the top short courses in America, and the creek collects balls from anyone who takes it lightly. It's golf reduced to the good parts — an easy walk, real shots, absurd scenery — and the vibe is pure Laguna: they run barefoot three-club tournaments. Play it in the morning, then spend the afternoon at the pool's palapa bar or on the bocce court beside it, which is exactly the right amount of competition for a beach day.

Evenings sort themselves: dinner at Harvest, the farm-to-table room overlooking the first fairway, then The Porch — seven firepits, live music most nights, and the canyon going dark overhead.