Updating a Hot Tubber’s Fave

AVILA BEACH, Calif. —  I somehow managed to grow up in California without ever setting foot in a hot tub until we stumbled onto Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort near the community of Avila Beach on the outskirts of San Luis Obispo. Hot tubs had always sounded too sybaritic or something. But on one visit to the Central Coast, we found our normal budget-priced motel was full and, over my pious objections, stayed at this resort.

We found that each of the 27 rooms came with a hot tub just outside the door, enclosed in a private little patio or balcony. Instructions posted next to the tub said that the water was from an artesian well. “It is a sulfur based mineral water and comes out of the well 108 degrees-110 degrees F.” Well, that sounded intriguing.

It also said you could add cold water if you found it too hot, which seemed unlikely, because we were there in the middle of winter, and it was raining. But sitting in naturally hot, slightly stinky water with the rain beating on my head actually sounded fun. I took the plunge.

We’ve been back many times since, in all seasons, but winter and early spring remain our favorites. To celebrate the completion of a months-long home remodel, we splurged this time and booked one of the new two-room suites several weeks in advance (a good idea), and headed north on a wintry Saturday recently.

It had rained the day before and eerie, ground-hugging clouds filled all the little valleys as we traveled over the Conejo Pass on U.S. 101. The sun was just glancing off the tops of the bluffs as we went through that stretch of coast called the Rincon. By the time we reached Summerland, just south of Santa Barbara, it was sunny and warm, and time for breakfast.

At the Summerland Beach Cafe we sipped fresh-squeezed orange juice on a sun-splashed porch outside a turn-of-the-century house, a nice start for the weekend. Our hills are green at this time of the year, but on the other side of Gaviota Pass, they get at least three shades greener. It also went from sunny to socked-in on the other side of the pass--dark gray clouds obscured the hilltops--then back to sunny by Arroyo Grande.

The green hills and the puffy gray clouds are two reasons we like to travel up the coast at this time of year.

East Branch Street, just off the 101 in Arroyo Grande, is lined with antique malls and shops, often housed in historic old buildings, some made of cut stone or covered with cast-iron facades. A year-round stream runs behind Branch Street, bordered by a park and parking. Several old bridges cross this deep, fast-running creek, including a bouncy pedestrian suspension bridge that was first built in 1875 to connect the two sides of town. It must have been really exciting to cross before they added sides in 1902.

There is a map to all the antique shops that you can pick up in any one of them, and we managed to kill a few hours exploring several. The find of the day was a little celluloid sombrero that says “I’ll hang my hat in Los Angeles and Read the Los Angeles Times,” probably given away as an advertising gimmick in the 1920s, though now I had to buy it back for the princely sum of $19.95.

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We had lunch (actually good coffee and a sweet snack) at the Cafe Andreini on Branch, in a remarkable building made of cut-sandstone blocks with chiseled granite columns. As it was almost check-in time (3 p.m.), and we didn’t want to miss a minute of our stay, we headed for Sycamore Mineral Springs, which is only a few exits farther on the 101 on Avila Beach Drive.

Check in early and you can get three good soaks out of a one-night stay. As you unpack, fill the tub for soak No. 1.

Hopping in and out, we can stand about an hour of tubbing. By then we are so relaxed, we can barely stand upright, so a sobering walk is in order.

Unlike many places that call themselves sycamore-something, Sycamore Springs actually is in a forest of white-barked California sycamores, some of the biggest I’ve seen. Underneath, the proprietors have planted a very interesting garden, like they used to do at turn-of-the-century resorts. Many of the plants are even labeled, though this is not their best time of the year.

In spring, they are showy but must compete with the wildflowers that grow on the property, including a stand of the dainty and uncommon Mariposa tulips that grow just outside the upper Harmony Building.

Have I mentioned that there are no room numbers here, just room names such as Utopia, Whimsical, Tickle, Bodacious and Zany? We stayed in Virtue.

All the rooms (standard weekend price, $125 to $150) are nice, but the suites (weekend price $215) are deluxe. They have elegant cherry paneling and furniture (you can even buy the furniture at the gift shop), a gas-log fireplace, two TVs and a shower with two nozzles that I didn’t quite figure out how to use to best advantage. French doors open onto the spa.

We dined that night at the resort’s restaurant, the Gardens of Avila. It actually does look out onto a patio garden surrounded by tall rock walls covered with ferns and moss, and the food is excellent. We started with Mediterranean crab cakes covered with tart olives and goat cheese, and I was torn between penne pasta with shrimp, calamari, mussels and scallops ($15.95), or blackened salmon on a gumbo base ($17.95). My wife quickly chose the tiger shrimp ($14.95).

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A short time later, we were back in the tub for soak No. 2. At night, it’s really a magical experience. Lights illumine the oak trees overhead and the occasional bat. The sky is very black and filled with stars, and you can hear frogs down in the creek.

In the morning, there’s time for soak No. 3 before breakfast, only now the steam from the tub rises like smoke from a Southern California brush fire and the water feels deliciously warm in the cold morning air. Overhead, scrub jays and chickadees have replaced the nocturnal bats.

A $12 breakfast voucher comes with the suite, so we ate at the Gardens again, my wife going for the Greek omelet and me trying to finish a big Caribbean jerk-sauce breakfast burrito.

Squeezing in three soakings and getting a nearly free breakfast makes the suite seem more affordable. There are wood hot tubs up on the hill that non-guests can rent for $12.50 an hour per person on weekends. I tried to do the math at breakfast to see how much I was saving by staying here. Let’s see, free breakfast, two of us using a tub three times . . . Why, it’s almost free!

Actually, the real bargain is the midweek winter special that includes a $12 voucher toward breakfast and $40 toward dinner. That “Romantic Getaway” package, which we have taken advantage of before, rents a regular room for $149 a night and a suite for $189. If you deduct the cost of meals from the room, it goes for less than $100.

One drawback to the new suites, though some might see it as a plus, is that they are on their own well, which is hot but seems to have few minerals. The tubs at the other rooms and the ones on the hill stink of sulfur and the smell lingers on your skin for a week, becoming a souvenir of your stay.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Budget for Two

Sycamore Springs suite: $234.35

Breakfast, Summerland Cafe: 18.96

Coffee, snacks, Andreini Cafe: 6.25

Dinner, Gardens of Avila: 49.23

Breakfast, Gardens of Avila: 4.28

Lunch, Twin Oaks: 14.88

FINAL TAB: $327.95

Sycamore Mineral Springs, 1215 Avila Beach Drive, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405; tel. (800) 234-5831.