Going Away to a Spot That Soothes the Soul

To get away from home for a few days yet still feel safe and secure, where do you go? In other words, if meatloaf or macaroni and cheese or ice cream is your comfort food, where are your comfort destinations?

For me, one answer is Baja California, the beachfront La Mision area just north of Ensenada, where my wife and I have been joining friends for weekend getaways since the 1980s. We typically rent a house in the American colony there, drive about 60 miles south of San Diego, laze on the beach, cheat at Scrabble, go out to dinner one night at La Fonda near Rosarito Beach, and otherwise feed and amuse ourselves.

Another answer is Carpinteria, at the southern edge of Santa Barbara County, where Mary Frances and I once lived. Strolling on the main drag of Linden Avenue, with the coastal mountains behind you and “the world’s safest beach” ahead (so named by local boosters years ago, because of the shoreline’s minuscule waves), it’s usually easy to persuade yourself that all’s right with the world. It can also be cheap, if you eat dinner at Guadalajara restaurant on Linden and stay, as we’ve done more than once, at one of the two Motel 6 locations.

Here, gathered from a scattering of sources in and near the travel industry, are several other ideas for these uncertain days:

* Ed Perkins, former editor of Consumer Reports Travel Letter, consumer advocate for the American Society of Travel Agents and now semi-retired in Ashland, Ore.:

“A couple of weeks ago, we [he and his wife, Eleanor] went over to the Oregon coast for a week, just north of Lincoln City, a little place called Neskowin. Beautiful beach. If you want ‘em, a couple of nice golf courses. But mainly, it’s the kind of the place you go when you really don’t want to do much of anything but hang out.”

* Solomon Herbert, publisher and editor in chief of Black Meetings & Tourism, an 8-year-old magazine in Canoga Park:

“In Oxnard, there’s a place called Mandalay [Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort, Internet https://www.embassymandalay.com]. It’s a beautiful facility. It’s been a few years since I’ve been there, but the beaches were always fairly deserted, and it’s only 30 minutes from where we [he and his wife, Gloria] are in the Valley. It’s great if you want to get away and you don’t want to be around a lot of crowds.”

Farther afield but still inside the U.S., Herbert likes Hilton Head Island (https://www.hiltonheadisland.org), a South Carolina resort he visited about two years ago. “A lot of tennis and golf, and beaches. For the most part it’s kind of laid-back, a lot of Victorian homes and nice scenery where you can spend some quiet time.”

* Michael Hannan, owner of San Marin Travel, Novato, Calif.:

“This is going to sound really unimaginative: Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii, and nothing is in second place.” Hannan and his wife, Bea, like to stay in Waikiki, combining beach time with shopping and leisurely meals in landmark properties. Among their favorite activities: a drink at the Banyan Court of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel (https://www.moana-surfrider.com), which Hannan first visited in 1961; and casual lunch at the open-air House Without a Key restaurant in the Halekulani Hotel.

For lodgings, Hannan favors the Outrigger hotels in Waikiki (the Outrigger Waikiki and the Outrigger Reef) and the Hilton Hawaiian Village, also in Waikiki.

* Priscilla Ulene, owner of the Traveler’s Bookcase, a bookshop at 8375 W. 3rd St. in Los Angeles:

“Utah. Park City and Deer Valley. We were there [recently]. We usually just kind of hang out. Summertime in the mountains is one of the most beautiful times. Even though it’s a ski resort, it’s totally quiet. The streets are practically dead, and it’s just fun to go hiking and not have any television. If you drive from Los Angeles, it takes you about 12 hours.” Once in Park City, Ulene and her husband, Art, like to eat in restaurants where tables are hard to get in winter, among them Zoom, Grappa and Chimayo.

* Randy Petersen, publisher and editor of Inside Flyer magazine in Colorado Springs, Colo.:

“San Francisco. I never get tired of San Francisco. It’s not overbearing; it can be anything that you want.” In comfort-food terms, Petersen said, “it is like macaroni and cheese.” (Although when he eats in San Francisco, Petersen leans toward dim sum in Chinatown or “foo-foo” restaurants such as Postrio or Stars.)

* Sandra Gustafson, San Diego-based author of the “Great Eats” and “Great Cheap Sleeps” guidebook series (known until this year as “Cheap Eats” and “Cheap Sleeps”):

“I’d go to the Mission Ranch in Carmel [telephone (800) 538-8221]. I like it because it’s in Carmel, but it’s not right downtown. The rooms are a little old-fashioned, so it makes me feel like home, and you can take long walks. Or if I were feeling totally plush, I’d go to Rancho la Puerta [https://www.rancholapuerta.com, a spa-hotel near Tecate, Baja California]. I go there after a long trip when I need to ... recover from all that rich food [in Europe].”

In fact, Gustafson travels so often in Europe that she has adopted her own comfort destination across the Atlantic: Dunain Park Hotel (https://www.dunainparkhotel .co.uk), in Inverness, Scotland.

“It’s a manor home,” Gustafson said. Dinner, bed and breakfast are included. Furnishings are antiques, rooms are large, and the grounds include a swimming pool, wandering sheep and bountiful flowers. The nearest town is a pleasant mile-long walk away. “You feel like you could just snuggle right in and never want to leave,” she said.

* Don George, Oakland-based travel editor for Lonely Planet Publications:

“One would be Connecticut, because that’s where I grew up,” George said. Another is Yosemite, where George and his wife, Kuniko, take their son and daughter hiking every July. But George’s third comfort spot may be the most striking: the Japanese island of Shikoku, where his wife grew up.

“There are four principal Japanese islands, and it’s the smallest,” he said.

“It’s a very unspoiled, rural place, with lots of traditional Japanese architecture--farmhouses, rice fields, green mountains that just slope right down to the sea....It’s a very peaceful place, very warm-hearted, and it’s also a place of traditional [Buddhist] pilgrimage. There’s this route of 88 temples that people come from all over Japan to do.... We go there every two years. I’ve been there 10 times at least.”

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Christopher Reynolds welcomes suggestions, but he cannot respond individually to letters and telephone calls. Address comments to Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012; e-mail chris.reynolds@latimes.com.