Our tent cabin

On the spur of the moment, K. and I took a trip during our Thanksgiving break to Costanoa, what we’re calling a “fancy camping” resort, about half an hour south of Half Moon Bay on Highway 1. We drove in Saturday afternoon, stayed Saturday and Sunday nights, and then got up seriously early on Monday to get back to work. This was a really spontaneous trip, much more spontaneity than I can usually manage; it was all K.’s idea. Thanks to C. for making it possible by watching the hounds at the last minute.

We stayed in a “Cypress Village” tent cabin, which was very cute. It wasn’t heated, which meant that it was about the same temperature inside the cabin as it was outside, and it wasn’t a particularly warm weekend, with lows hovering around 40 degrees. However, in our queen-sized bed with the heated mattress pad, things were warm and toasty. And we didn’t need a refrigerator to chill our white wine to the proper drinking temperature. (A tip: Turn on your heated mattress pad early and tuck your PJs under the covers for awhile, so they’ll be nice and warm when you’re ready to change into them.)

There’s no indoor plumbing in any of their cabins, but they do have nice comfort stations, which have heated showers, saunas and a fireplace in the middle. It seems a little strange to bring a bottle of wine to fireplace nestled between two bathrooms, but it’s actually quite pleasant. There was a hot tub that we took advantage of, and another nice fireplace outside the lodge with a great view.

We also had a great dinner on Sunday night at the Cascade restaurant at the resort, although the breakfast buffet there wasn’t stellar. On Saturday night we drove 10 miles into Pescadero and ate dinner at the local favorite Duarte’s (pronounced DOO-arts, apparently). Our Sunday lunch was also in Pescadero, at a gas station/taqueria, actually, and very tasty.

We took a couple of nice hikes right around Costanoa itself; there’s apparently some other good hiking areas close. There’s a lighthouse nearby with a hostel for lower-budget experiences; we may try to check that out soon as well. It’s also very close to elephant seal habitat, which we’ll visit on a later trip. We saw deer and even a bobcat (that’s a bobcat, right?) while we were exploring the resort. It felt very out of the way and remote.

It was a totally great way to wind up the holiday. Here’s our big set of pictures from this trip.