On a regular week, the two-story hotel at 51 S. Ventu Park Road is open for six hours. The Stagecoach Inn Museum opens its doors Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children 5 to 12. That schedule doesn't leave much room. A working parent gets one Saturday afternoon a week to see the costumed docents, the stagecoaches and the forge, and there are no evening hours.
Starting this Saturday, the Conejo Valley Historical Society, which runs the museum, stretches that schedule. Between October 31 and December 5, the calendar adds a costume parade, a Sunday class that runs before the regular opening time, and two nights with the grounds lit up. If you've only driven past the Inn on Ventu Park, this is the easiest five weeks of the year to actually go in.
The Season at a Glance
| Date | Event | Hours | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Happy "Owl-O-Ween!" | 1–4 p.m. | Costume parade at 2, Hooting Owl Contest at 3 |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Acorns of Thanks to Our Veterans | 1–4 p.m. | Presented by the Conejo Valley Historical Society |
| Sun., Nov. 22 | Historical Trades at the Inn: Acorn Processing | 10 a.m.–2 p.m. | Limited to 15 people, $30 plus a $10 materials fee |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Holidays at the Inn: A Grand Reunion | 6:30–8:30 p.m. | Santa photos, tree lighting, carolers |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Holidays at the Inn: A Grand Reunion | 1–4 p.m. and 6:30–8:30 p.m. | Santa all day, live reindeer at night only |
The first two dates fall inside the museum's usual Saturday hours. The last three are where the schedule actually grows.
The Building Is a Fifty-Year-Old Rebuild of an 1876 Hotel
It helps to know what you're walking into. According to Ventura County's landmark listing for the Stagecoach Inn, the Grand Union Hotel was built in 1876 and later moved to make way for Highway 101 construction. The county dates the move to 1965, and the museum's own history gives 1966. A fire destroyed the building in April 1970. It was rebuilt to look like the original and reopened on July 4, 1976, and the second floor was finished in 1980.
So the Inn you tour this fall is the reconstruction, and 2026 makes fifty years since it reopened. The rooms are furnished to suggest the 1876 hotel. The dining room and upstairs bedrooms hold late-19th-century furnishings, and costumed docents lead the tours. The hotel is only one of several buildings on the site:
- Timber School, a replica of the one-room schoolhouse that served the Conejo Valley from 1888, with desks, blackboards, an organ and a woodstove
- Carriage House, where the stagecoaches are displayed
- Blacksmith Shop, with a working forge
- Tri-Village, which has a Newbury pioneer house, a Spanish adobe and a Chumash 'ap. The Chumash area also includes a bedrock mortar, a fossil dig and a ceremonial fire ring blessed by local Chumash members.
- Heritage rose garden and Heritage Oak Grove, along with short ridge, creekbed and farm trails across the museum's five acres
That layout explains why each event this fall is built the way it is. Halloween uses the grounds for games, the November class uses the Tri-Village's acorn tradition, and the December nights use the hotel itself as the decoration.
October 31: A Costume Parade Inside the Regular Hours
Owl-O-Ween runs in the museum's normal Saturday slot, 1 to 4 p.m., which makes it the easiest of the season's events to fit around trick-or-treating that night. The Conejo Valley Guide listing describes pine cone owls and mask-making, a Pumpkin Ring Toss, Pitch-A-Pumpkin and a Candy Corn guessing game, with live music and treats throughout. Bring a trick-or-treat bag. The Costume Parade starts at 2:00 and the Hooting Owl Contest at 3:00.
Neither the museum's event page nor the guide lists a separate Owl-O-Ween price. Regular admission is $10 for seniors, adults and teens, $5 for children 5 to 12, and free for children under 5. If you're planning around the parade, arriving before 2 gives younger kids time for a craft table first.
November: The Grounds Turn Into a Classroom
The museum's November calendar is quieter, and it connects more closely to the grounds than anything else this season.
Saturday, November 7. "Acorns of Thanks to Our Veterans" runs from 1 to 4 p.m. The museum's listing gives the title, the hours and the Conejo Valley Historical Society as presenter. The same afternoon, the Conejo Recreation & Park District holds its free, family-oriented Festival de los Muertos at Borchard Community Center, 190 N. Reino Road, from 4 to 8 p.m., with crafts, live music, vendors and food. The museum closes at 4, right as the festival opens, so both fit into one Newbury Park Saturday.
Sunday, November 22. This is the date that falls outside the museum's usual week. "Historical Trades at the Inn: Acorn Processing" runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on a Sunday, a day the museum normally doesn't open. The class covers gathering, shelling, grinding and leaching acorns. It's capped at 15 people and costs $30 plus a $10 materials fee. With a 15-person limit, it's the one event on this calendar that can sell out well before the day.
The class fits the site. The Tri-Village's Chumash area on the museum grounds has an 'ap and a bedrock mortar, and acorns are the material the class works with. For anyone who has only seen the mortar as a stop on a docent tour, the class shows what the processing actually involved.
December 4 and 5: Evenings at the Inn
Holidays at the Inn returns on the first weekend of December, and it brings the only evening hours on this fall's calendar. It isn't new. The museum held Holidays at the Inn in 2021 and again last December, on December 5 and 6, 2025. This year's theme is "A Grand Reunion."
The museum's listing describes halls and grounds decorated with historically inspired decor, a tree lighting ceremony, roving carolers singing classic holiday songs, children's crafts, and a Gift Emporium with seasonal items. The schedule has a few details to plan around:
- Friday, December 4, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. is evening only. Santa is there for photos.
- Saturday, December 5, 1 to 4 p.m. is the afternoon session. Santa is there all day Saturday.
- The museum closes from 4 to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday between sessions.
- Saturday, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. is the only time the live reindeer appear.
The Saturday ticket is the best deal of the weekend. If you come Saturday afternoon, you can come back Saturday night at no extra cost for the reindeer, the lights and the music. A family can do crafts and Santa photos in daylight, go home for dinner during the 4 to 6:30 break, and come back after dark on the same ticket.
Ticket prices for the holiday event aren't posted on the listing. Tickets are sold at the gate or online through the Stagecoach Inn Museum website. The museum suggests checking your spam or junk folder if an online confirmation doesn't show up right away.
After December 5
Once the reindeer leave, the museum returns to its Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, 1 to 4 p.m., at $10 per adult and $5 per child ages 5 to 12. Those are the hours for seeing the Timber School, the forge and the trails along the ridge and creekbed without a holiday crowd. You can reach the museum at 805.498.9441.
At McQueen & Associates, we follow the Newbury Park calendar as closely as the market, and we're glad to see the Inn's lights back on Ventu Park this December. If a December evening at the Inn has you wondering what your own Newbury Park home is worth right now, ask us for your home value and we'll walk you through it in person.
