Remember glamping? Well, just an hour south of San Francisco lies the private luxury campground of Costanoa. Described as an eco adventure resort, the seven-year old coastal retreat consists of a 40-room lodge, cabins, tent bungalows, campsites, and RV sites.
Costanoa offers all sorts of activities: hiking, mountain biking, music and art exhibits, educational lectures, kayaking, spa treatments, horseback riding, guided naturalist hiking, kayaking, surfing lessons, yoga classes. There's an onsite restaurant, too.
Prices range from $40 for a campsite to $130 for tent bungalows (with electricity, sliding windows, a locking door, and heated mattress pads -- but no bathrooms -- you trek to one of three "comfort stations" with restrooms, indoor hot showers, heated concrete floors, a 24-hour dry sauna and an outdoor fireplace) to $365 for a suite in the lodge.
The resort's quite proud of the fact that they're green. They use fluorescent bulbs, have their own water treatment plant, practice water conservation and recycling, use electric vehicles, and stock their general store with local goods. They also offer a discount to guests who arrive via bicycle or alternative fueled vehicle.
We've always been curious about Costanoa, so please let us know if you've been.
Costanoa is wonderful. I don't think the lodge rooms are worth the high rates, but the tent bungalows are amazing, with wonderful little touches like Aveda bath products and a down comforter. It can get cold at night though!
view Celeste's profile
beautiful place. there are discounts on the night of the full moon...50% off if i remember correctly.
view *kat's profile
This place was awesome! We stayed in a tent cabin - very cozy, super cute. Big enough for our pak-n-play for the toddler to sleep in. And right across Highway 1 from the beach! An awesome place for families.
I do feel kinda bad for the folks who had to listen to our toddler scream all night. But no one gave us dirty looks the next morning. Yeah!
view jake's mom's profile
i stayed in a lodge room a few years ago. and since i can't really rave about my experience here -- like celeste and jake's mom did -- i'm guessing the tent cabins really are the way to go.
view anh-minh's profile
I also stayed in the lodge. Great room with a woodburning fireplace. The sunsets here are to die for! A great way to get back to nature without sleeping on a blow-up mattress.
view JanT's profile
I stayed in a tent cabin and thought it someone was playing a joke on me. It was horrible. The tent was either airless or freezing. The grounds were more RV park than picturesque retreat. And it's downwind from a mushroom farm that is anything but pleasant. The bill for this pleasure: over $200.
If you really need to stay in something like this, the better options are treebones (yurts), or better yet, pitch a tent and support your local state and national parks.
view benben's profile
I loved the overall vibe of Costanoa, and esp. the beautiful landscapes. However, our tent cabin experience was weird. Everything looked nice, but when we woke up in the morning, there were tons of these shiny little beetles all over the down comforter and even on my boyfriend's face. I wasn't sure what they were at first, but then one moved. When I reported this to the front desk clerk, she looked at me blankly and charged us full price, without even offering to check it out. If I wanted bugs in my bed, I'd just sleep in a regular tent and bring my own down comforter!
view pottersquatter's profile
Great facility.
Lousy staff.
view rick@russianhill's profile