Costanoa Ride

This morning, I decided to take a challenging ride. I had not ridden since last Sunday and would not get another chance to ride until early next week. So I decided to ride up the coast on Highway 1. I would ride along Swanton Road and over the hill on Swanton. Then I would continue up Highway 1 to Costanoa Resort. This is about 25 miles from Santa Cruz. At Costanoa, I would stop for a meal and then return home back down Highway 1. In total, the ride would be just over 51 miles of riding with 2300 feet of climbing.

Two years ago, I went on a bike ride up the coast with my friend Steve. During that trip, he suggested that we make a breakfast stop at Costanoa. He and his wife discovered the resort on a geo-caching trip. (For those unfamiliar with geo-caching, this is a sport where you use a portable GPS unit to find a previously hidden cache. You will be given GPS coordinates of the cache and then you use the portable GPS unit to guide you to the location. More info on geo-caching can be found at this website.)

Anyway, I had forgotten about Costanoa over the last two years. However, I noticed the resort as I rode past it on some of my previous rides to Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Pescadero. I have also been concerned about getting enough food during my rides and decided that Costanoa would make a good rest/food stop.

As I mentioned earlier, I had not ridden for a few days, so my legs were pretty fresh. Since this would be one of my longer rides, I kept to a fairly slow pace for the first half of the ride (13MPH). Swanton Hill was a challenge as always, but I was in good shape to make the climb. By the time that I got to Costanoa, my legs were beginning to tire, so I was ready for a rest stop.

This building holds the Cascade Restaurant that provides meals for the resort. The restaurant mainly caters to people staying at the resort, however they were happy to sell me a breakfast. It is served buffet style with scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, toast, muffins, juices, milk, coffee, etc. I had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, potatoes, toast and orange juice. They also had a free paper available, so I read the morning news and ate my breakfast for about 30 minutes. The meal really hit the spot.

Before leaving, I decided to ride around the resort a little bit. I found a general store, a lodge, standalone cabins, tent cabins, tent sites and even RV sites. It's an interesting place that I did not know much about. This evening I have spent some time looking at the web site. I found that the lodge has 40 rooms/suites which can cost up to $365 per night. On the other hand the tent and RV sites can be rented for $40 per night.

Costanoa is being advertised as a "Luxury Camping" resort. On the website, they even post a mission statement: "Costanoa is an eco adventure resort where our guests can simply retreat from the chaos of everyday life and discover the pace of nature. We are committed to providing genuine service, unique accommodations, California coastal cuisine, as well as a variety of spa and adventure activities using sustainable methods to create a quality experience for our guests in a natural environment. Through sustainable wealth, we foster joy and wellness while sharing our unique resort."

The activities include: horseback rides, pony rides for kids, guided hikes, a full spa, kayak trips, kids camp, yoga classes, hot tubs, saunas, mountain biking, and surfing lessons. The resort is located close to 4 state parks that provide 30,000 acres of hiking trails. They also provide trips to Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Ano Nuevo State Park which are both nearby.

Here is a picture of one of the cabins. It is interesting that no TV's are provided in any of the rooms. However, there is wireless internet provided throughout the resort. Outside of the lodge, there are no private baths in any of the units. "Instead, all lodge guests share comfort stations -- not the latrines of your childhood, but sleek retreats with saunas, indoor and outdoor showers and heated floors. Courtyards with fireplaces become impromptu social clubs while guests wait for family members." This quote comes from a review done by the SF Chronicle.

It was an interesting place and I am glad that I stopped to have breakfast and to explore the grounds. I felt really good on the way home and I had a good wind at my back. I rode the return 25 miles at a 16MPH pace. This is is a very good pace for me, especially since it was the last half of a 50-mile ride. I still felt strong at the end of the ride.

Costanoa's web site can be found here. A SF Chronicle review of the resort can be found here. A few weeks ago, I created a post on unusual hotels. Costanoa is actually listed on the website of unusual hotels of the world. More of my pictures from Costanoa can be found here.