A Poor Woman’s Priceless Vacation

In pursuit of a remedy for a parent-less Parents’ Weekend, some friends and I jumped at the chance to escape Claradise, with the aim to fill our weekend with the cheapest extravagant getaway attainable.

Beach fanatics may know Pigeon Point’s Lighthouse as a distant beacon you pass on the way to Bean Hollow, a peripheral blip on the landscape. Some may also recollect the location as a stop in the pursuit of Half Moon Bay’s ethereal chowder (the best of which, in my opinion, can be found at Half Moon Bay Brewing Company). Though in some circles, Pigeon Point, and the State Park it’s located in, is a well-known stop–The New York Times endorses the beacon as “a lighthouse to call your own.”

Photos by Samantha Drumm

One of the lighthouses’ walls bears a cutout from a different article guaranteeing a trip to the lighthouse can be made a semi-pricey–yet priceless–getaway. This piece, which I haphazardly glanced at on my way to lay on the beach adjacent to the hostel that resides in the lighthouse, takes into account $600 spent on flights, and other erroneous travel costs, all amounting to somewhere upwards of $1,200 for the “priceless” trip.

But if you’re a Santa Clara student or hail from a bordering area, many of these costs can be disregarded–Pigeon Point is less than an hour and a half away by car. And what’s better–this thousand-plus-dollar trip can be accessible to you for a number easily under $200.

The appeal of staying in a hostel may be lost on some who lack the desire to be cramped up with fellow visitors and wake to the scent of their over-cheesed breakfast quesadillas wafting from the kitchen (you could almost see the tendrils of the scent drifting out like an old cartoon). Still, in the wake of some friends and my study abroad European experiments, we were curious about what the United State’s hostel scene had to offer.

Compared with some of the comfortably rickety places I’d made do with across the pond, waking up sandwiched between two beaches, stumbling out at sunrise to watch seals popping through the foam and scavenging the shoreline for abalone wasn’t too bad.

Hi Pigeon Point’s nightly rent starts at $40 a night (a friend proudly calculates that a month living in the lighthouse summates to less than a month in the Benton apartments). The hostel is also equipped with Tempurpedic mattresses and a cliffside hot tub, which charges users $10 for a half-hour to enjoy a secluded vantage point of the coastal view. The beaches, a short stumble from where we slept, offer a haven for sipping beers with books cradled in our laps.

Cruising up Highway 1, Pescadaro is situated about an hour from Santa Cruz, and twenty minutes before half moon bay Half Moon Bay.

Pescadero itself–an old and tightly knit coastal community–doesn’t have the same hustle and bustle as more popular stops up the coast. The old fishing town has achieved quirky-small-town status reminiscent of upstate mountainous regions in New England, dotted with small businesses, a thrillingly cheap thrift spot, a gas station/taco stand two-in-one and an almost ramshackle church that provides opportune free parking against a backdrop of rolling green hills.

In the two days we spent in Pescadero, we visited Arcangeli Grocery three times. Employees drift out with the scent of a new freshly baked good in fifteen-minute increments; within every twenty minutes, there’ll be a newly replenished warm stack of their famous freshly baked artichoke bread–a warm pocket of seasoned crispy crust stuffed with artichoke and olive oil. The sandwiches are served on freshly baked bread, the most famous of which is Arcangeli’s take on an Italian: The Godfather. I’m told that this sandwich can move mountains. Arcangeli supplements their extraordinary skills in the deli department with an array of sauces and spices made in-house, drinks made–some brewed–locally and shirts and totes bearing the words “I got half-baked at Arcangeli Deli” (a nod to their half-baked bread, which patrons can purchase to go and save for up to three months before preparing at home).

Mercado de Taqueria De Amigos, while irkingly accepting cash only, is also a notable food stop in the area for fresh Mexican. The Sunshine, the area's downtown coffee spot, is an archetypal overpriced coffee shop, stocked with health foods and overpriced vintage, teeming with records and reeking of perfectly steeped coffee concoctions.

The area also boasts the South Coast Children’s Thrift Shop–in my opinion, the ideal variant of a second-hand shop. The thrift offers a wide selection of junk and hidden gems alike, is untouched by the hands of greedy college-aged secondhand shoppers and is seemingly half-off every day. After spending a discounted $10 on three items on my first day in Pescadero, it was impossible to resist revisiting South Coast Thrift on our second day and, to our delight, finding the same deal offered once again.

Pescadero’s erroneous independent stores make for a perfect day of meandering.

In doing so, we stumbled into handmade art gallery Luna Sea, home to two adorable Bernedoodles who switched between frolicking around the back garden and curling up against our legs while we chatted with the owner. Luna Sea is manned by a Pescadaro native, Janice Keen, who spent some time manning Hi Pigeon Point’s hostel herself. Keen spent a handful of months in New Zealand and traveled further with the intent of whale watching–though she was disappointed and delighted to find that, after concluding her travels, she was able to spot all the whale species she’d desired from the comfort of Hi Pigeon Point.

Keen asserts that while the town is slowly evolving to meet more with the times, Pescadero is certainly clinging to its laid-back nature, ensuring that by 6 o’clock I’d still have no trouble rolling a bowling ball down the middle street. From here, Keen sends us to our final stop of the trip: Harley Goat Farm.

Who knew it was baby goat season? Harley Goat Farm offers a variety of artisanal cheeses, beverages, soaps and creams, most of which are made from goat dairy products, and all of which exceed my price range. But no need to worry, meeting the farm's baby goats, their mommas and llamas is free of charge. Before setting back down the coast, we fawned over the three-day-old babies stumbling through their enclosure and let them nibble on our fingers.

The drive, both there and back, offers a host of coastal stops, new California beaches to explore, crumbling forts overlooking the sea and trails winding up into the mountains. A priceless–but not too pricey–weekend getaway. This entire excursion could probably be done for under $100, if willing to commit to neglecting restaurant recommendations, shopping and buying booze to sip in the sand.