Riverside's Mission Inn Hotel & Spa is a place I've read about in Sunset Magazine or travel websites year after year. "The lights are amazing! You have to go during the holidays," the articles would say.
It's something we've always wanted to do, but never have.
Well, this year we spontaneously arrived in Riverside the day after Thanksgiving for the Switch-On Ceremony. The Inn is pretty impressive without the lights switched on.
And we had no idea what to expect. We checked into the Hyatt Place hotel which is one street off Main (where all the action takes place). Then we walked the vendors and entertainment, taking a quick tour of the public spaces inside the Inn. We spotted the world's largest man-made mistletoe on the grounds.
But the real show was a few hours away from beginning and we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into. We found a spot to sit and planted ourselves there around 4pm. The big Switch-On was supposed to happen around 5:30pm. This was our view (look below for the same view after the switch on). The amount of people wasn't too overwhelming at that point.
We people-watched, shared gingerbread cookies and hot cocoa from the Gingerbread Shoppe. Tried some kettle corn and looked enviously at passers-by with buckets full of Mom's Mini-Donuts. I think that was the hot ticket item of the night!
Then the sun set.
And the magic began.
A breathtaking community event with wall-to-wall people! So many people were commenting on how this was better than any 4th of July fireworks they'd ever seen. This is the view from our spot at the end of the ceremony - when some of the people have already scattered. (Compare this to that daylight view above).
And this is the view of the back side of the Mission Inn. See all those people after the lights are on? (This is the same view as photo #2 in this post).
I'm so glad we went! It really put me in a festive spirit. It's just something you have to do once in a lifetime. Staying overnight in the hotel was a good move, because we had really convenient parking and could walk to everything.
Switch-On Tips:
- Stake your place out early. We were at the corner of Main and Mission Inn Avenue.
- Stay at either the Mission Inn, Hyatt Place or Mariott Riverside - because you can be within walking distance of all the fun.
- Have a buddy system and know where you are going. It's pretty packed and I heard stories of families getting separated.
- The Mission Inn Restaurant has a Switch-On Ceremony fancy buffet which would be an amazing way to top off the night. It's one of the few places you can get reservations. Otherwise it's generally a one to two hour wait at the sit-down restaurants.
- The fireworks DO NOT happen every night. Only during the Switch-On Ceremony. Mark your calendars for next year!
Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post! We decided to go too spontaneously to plan ahead.
