Redwoods, Hot Tubs, and Besties: The Perfect Getaway in Mendocino

An annual mother-daughter girls' trip graduates from room service and Taylor Swift to redwoods, hot tubs, and a gloriously remote inn on the Mendocino coast.

For this year’s annual girls’ trip with my 11-year-old daughter, Ruby, her best friend Amelia, and her mom, Alison, we landed on two nights in Mendocino — and it was magic.

I’d been wanting to visit The Inn at Newport Ranch for a while, but it always seemed like a real schlep to get to this remote corner of Northern California from our home in Los Angeles. I’d heard it was gorgeous but also potentially boring.

Our earlier trips had been much lighter lifts: weekends at The Langham Huntington in Pasadena and Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, both less than an hour away. Back then, the girls were dazzled by the idea that they could stay in the room — alone — and order room service while Alison and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Then we upped the ante considerably and went to see Taylor Swift in Seattle, which involved a lot more money and effort but was obviously very exciting, despite the fact that Amelia wanted to wear headphones and Ruby fell asleep by 10 p.m. during the very long, though amazing, show.

Last year, our winter plans were thwarted by flus and sports commitments, so this summer we decided to keep things relatively simple: two nights before school started, somewhere that felt exotic but didn’t require crossing an ocean.

Hence Mendocino.

Sure, we had to fly, but it would be a short and sweet hop from Burbank. Upon arrival at the tiny Sonoma County airport, we walked across the street to pick up our rental car and headed north. That's when we realized the drive would be another two-and-a-half hours, much of it on winding roads.

Things improved considerably when we realized we could stop in Healdsburg for lunch at one of many great, casual options. The drive itself was beautiful, often featuring redwood forests and ocean views. After all, it’s the journey, right? We even stopped along the way for an hour of canoeing through a quiet estuary filled with birds, which made us feel virtuous enough to offset screen time later.

It was late afternoon when we finally pulled into the inn. There were no valets or bellmen to greet us. It was like we were visiting a cool friend who’d studied architecture, made a fortune in tech, and now wanted to live off the grid.

Stepping through the pretty wooden front door, with its stained-glass window, felt like leaving the land of logistics behind and entering a place where one could spend hours playing chess and sipping tea. Our hosts seemed like the type to let their kids play only with wooden toys and eat organic berries, and by the time we checked out, we’d probably be ready to join whatever cult they were building.

Still, we immediately asked about dinner because we’re a pretty food-motivated group.

Now, to be fair, they had emailed us extremely specific instructions explaining that dinner had to be booked 24 hours in advance and that they needed to know about dietary restrictions. We had, in fact, followed these instructions — for the following night.

Still, we assumed there had to be some kind of snack-bar situation.

There was not.

The Inn at Newport Ranch does not really do menus. Or snack bars. Or anything generic. It is, quite literally, bespoke. So much so that the inn is featured in episode three of the HBO series Bespoke Inns. The descriptor applies to pretty much everything there, from the food to the beds to the benches.

As we began to panic about dinner — we wanted to get into the rooftop hot tub, not climb back into the car — a staffer offered to drive 25 minutes to Fort Bragg to pick up pizza. This was incredibly nice but not especially enticing, particularly because Ruby is gluten-free.

Eventually, they offered to put together some simple things from the kitchen. Alison and I were also reassured to learn that the full bar was always available. The dinner they rounded up was a kind of “hot girl dinner” — charcuterie, cheeses, and salads — and we were thrilled with it. The cocktails were fresh and inventive, and they poured wines from local wineries I’d love to visit without the kids.

The inn has accommodations spread across four distinctive buildings, but we had adjoining rooms in the main inn. Every room is — you got it — bespoke. The rooms have all the modern amenities but still feel rustic and elemental, with features like eucalyptus tree trunks, stone fireplaces, and huge windows. The owner’s house, Sea Drum, sleeps ten and would be an incredible place for an extended family trip. You can also rent out the entire inn, a popular option for weddings. We arrived the day after a large wedding that we were told involved a lot of models. So many gorgeous people in such a stunning setting would surely have broken the internet had the hosts been less committed to keeping the whole thing private.

Ruby and I shared a king-size bed in the Captain’s Quarters, which has a nautical theme complete with a giant compass and an undulating built-in wooden bench. Nearly every wall is covered in enormous windows looking out over the ocean and bluffs. Reading in bed has never been so beautiful.

After our first rooftop hot-tub session, we headed out for a walk along the bluffs. It was the most spectacular bluff walk I'd ever taken, and I'm a big bluff-walking enthusiast.

Will Jackson, the 97-year-old retired Wall Street investment manager and conservationist who owns the inn, likes to say that he’s in the business of providing views, and he really delivers. Scattered across the 2,200-acre property (it has seven microclimates!) are wooden benches positioned so you can sit and take in the dramatically gorgeous landscape. There are fields where cows roam at the base of mountains, but the real drama is the ocean.

The water is rough enough that swimming is discouraged (though apparently another wedding party of cliff jumpers really went for it). Enormous waves crash onto empty beaches, through sea caves and over rocks where seals and birds lounge on calmer days. The sky constantly shifts from bright blue to gray and misty, making the place feel mystical.

It was August, and we were walking around in puffy jackets, hiding from the wind and feeling extremely smug about escaping sweltering Los Angeles. You don’t go to Mendocino expecting beach weather. You go for the beauty and calm.

After a great night’s sleep, we sat down to a very Newport Ranch breakfast. Plates simply started appearing: eggs dotted with wildflowers, fire-roasted bacon, homemade yogurt and granola, fresh sourdough, jams and fruit, and even more exotic offerings like pine syrup for French toast.

A UTV arrived to pick us up, along with a lovely and extremely knowledgeable local guide who took us around the property for — yes — a bespoke tour. We walked through the redwoods on a trail he had built himself and planted a few trees. He showed us where they forage for mushrooms, herbs, and berries, offering us little tastes along the way. He indicated a sweat lodge up on a hill, a six-hour experience I’d like to use to detox on my future wine-tasting adventure.

When he deposited us in a clearing overlooking the landscape, we found the picnic we had ordered several days earlier waiting for us — Italian chopped salads for the moms, a pulled pork sandwich for Amelia, and a cheese and charcuterie plate for Ruby that looked a lot like dinner the previous night, but she couldn’t have cared less. We would have tried the Fermented Nettle Green Goddess Sandwich had we known the nettles were plucked from our path.

When we got back to the inn, we hit the hot tub again and wandered the bluffs some more. Neither activity gets old.

Later, we signed up for a “sound healing experience,” one of the inn’s many wellness offerings. It was an hour that was part sound bath, part meditation, and part tarot card reading. Everyone found it relaxing; some of us may also have napped.

That night, we finally sat down for our pre-ordered dinner, made with ingredients foraged and farmed on the land: ranch lettuces with smoked tomato, alder-smoked pork loin with pine jus, potatoes with sea palm chili crisp, and grilled cabbage with fermented garlic. For dessert, peaches and custard with fig leaf. Even picky-eater Amelia devoured everything.

The next morning, on the way to back to the airport, we went through Mendocino and wandered through the cute shops and bought snacks at the bakery. We stopped for fantastic burgers at the local institutionJumbo’s Win Win in Philo and bought bags of apples and pears from an orchard nearby to take home.

It wasn’t as spectacular as Taylor Swift, and it was hardly as easy as Pasadena. But Mendocino was relaxing and fun and just adventurous enough. It was a stunning place to get a little bored, a little inspired, and spend a few days with your besties before real life starts up again.

Which, as it turns out, is pretty much the perfect girls’ trip.

Plan Your Trip

How to Get There: Fly intoSonoma County Airport and rent a car. Or enjoy a longer, scenic drive from San Francisco or Los Angeles.

What to Pack: There is zero reason to look fashionable. Instead, bring warm layers, comfy clothes, sneakers, a sweatsuit, and swimsuits. Hiking boots if you plan to really go for it. You could bring wine and snacks, a refillable water bottle, a deck of cards, and some good books. They have a chessboard and yoga mats, but no gym.

Enjoy the Ride:

• Rent a canoe, kayak, or bike on the way there at Catch a Canoe.
• Shop and dine in Mendocino and Healdsburg. Note that many restaurants and shops don’t open until 11 a.m.
• Stop for burgers at Jumbo’s Win Win in Philo.