In the Santa Ynez Valley, one of California's newest award-winning wine regions, a small town called Los Olivos retains its country atmosphere and lifestyle. The former stagecoach stop has no traffic lights and only one hotel, Fess Parker's Wine Country Inn & Spa.

Guests arrive less than an hour's drive north of the coastal city of Santa Barbara, finding Fess Parker's romantic four-diamond boutique hotel in the midst of vineyards, old-growth oaks, and nights as quiet as a whisper.

Parker long ago traded in his coonskin cap and role as Daniel Boone for a vintner's hat, and his Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard waits just minutes up a two-lane road from the inn. Parker himself makes his home in the area and often visits both the hotel and the winery, meeting guests and signing bottles of his award-winning vintages.

The owner's well-known friendliness pervades the inn even when he's busy choosing grapes or planting vines with his son Eli. From the moment guests enter the comfortable lobby, with its fireplace and overstuffed chairs, they feel like one of the family.

Decorated in French country style, each of the inn's 21 spacious rooms features a cozy fireplace, wet bar, down comforter, and painted tile work. Select rooms even boast Jacuzzi tubs. The lavish Remington Suite takes the luxury one step further, providing a generous living area, king-size bed, and two bathrooms.

The inn sets a gracious stage for wine-country weddings, banquets, and corporate meetings, though it also specializes in catering off-site events both locally and in the Santa Barbara area. Larger groups can select the 992-square-foot Los Olivos Room, but the inn also offers the more intimate Garden and Board Rooms plus Le Saloon, a bar area ideal for private wine tastings. For the ultimate in wine-country atmosphere, meetings and meals can also be held in the Wine Cellar.

Guests know they've truly arrived, though, upon visiting the spa. In addition to massage from certified therapists, it offers a variety of luxurious body therapies. Guests also find renewal and relaxation in the outdoor pool and Jacuzzi.

In keeping with the inn's home-style intimacy, the four-star Vintage Room restaurant offers California cuisine infused with international influences and based around the freshest local produce and finest local wines. The restaurant's gourmet picnic lunches feature prominently on many an excursion along the valley's picturesque wine trails.

Guests may also choose to spend the day touring the many tasting rooms and art galleries in Los Olivos, exploring the nearby Danish town of Solvang, or playing golf at the valley's San Marcos Golf Course, an 18-hole challenge designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. Or, just 25 minutes away, horseback rides lead to scenic views of the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara.

Whatever they choose, visitors know that when they return to the inn, a generous helping of down-home hospitality awaits. Fess Parker may have left his persona as King of the Wild Frontier in Hollywood, but in Los Olivos, his unflagging warmth continues to make a fan out of every new guest.