Travel Diaries: Rancho Valencia, Rancho Santa Fe, CA

Wow. Now, does that or does that not look like some sort of real life jungle-zen-Buddha oasis?

I was fortunate enough to spend the first half of my Easter break with my entire family, which was such a treat since my little bb sister is now off at college in SoCal and I hardly ever get to see her!

After I caught a 3:30 am flight out of Boston and a connection in Houston, I landed in San Diego. We stayed in Rancho Santa Fe and stayed at the Rancho Valencia. And oh, was it incredible.

It felt so incredibly private with all of the lush greenery and the size of the grounds. It was peaceful and calm all throughout the resort. There is a fantastic spa, multiple pools and hot tubs, and the most incredible range of fitness offerings. In addition to having lovely tennis and golf courts, Rancho Valencia has several fitness instructors to teach spin classes, Pilates, yoga, and bootcamp.

In addition to taking a semi-private reformer Pilates class with my mum and sister, I took a barre class as well as a super intense part HIIT, part bootcamp, part yoga cardio class. The instructor was beyond ripped, didn’t take a break throughout the entire hour long session. She called us “babies” and said we were her “heroes.” It made me feel like a little warrior, I won’t lie.

There are two separate pools, two hot tubs, and a plunge pool. My sister, the little weirdo, told me she sat in the plunge pool for seven minutes.

Additionally, most of the rooms (which are essentially Bachelor Fantasy Suite in style and size) have their own private hot tub.

And the biggest bathroom you’ve ever seen, with a giant tub and shower in the morning. And almost full size samples of their amazing line of shampoo and conditioner from the spa.

This beautiful place is filled with secret spots and cozy seating areas, making exploring a ton of fun. If you hate fireplaces, don’t come here, because there are fireplaces every freaking where. (That’s a joke, everybody loooooves fireplaces)

Now, it wouldn’t be right of me to not rave about and share some pictures of the food. Rancho Valencia has two restaurants on the grounds, The Pony Room and Veladora. Pony Room is more casual, serving rustic American cuisine served on trendy things like wine barrel boards and cast iron. Veladora serves ultra fresh, coastal inspired cuisine. They also had bomb dot com bread. Like ohmigod this bread. It was warm, soft, chewy. It had sea salt sprinkled on top and creamy, melty butter to take advantage of. Being the bread lover that I am, it was a good moment.

LIKE OKAY BREAD. You do you.

I got the grilled octopus for my starter and the vegan entree for my main (I’m a pescetarian). It was a mixture of veggies like eggplant and asparagus, and the most delicious creamy coconut curry sauce. Vegetables were a little boring and plain for my taste (the edible green mystery foam was fun though), but the rice was phenom.

Quick story about dessert: We ordered the bread pudding (my FAVE) and there was a mix-up in the kitchen, so they made us both the bread pudding AND the chocolate souffle. It was what you might call a magical moment. I could have cried.

I balanced out all the yummy sweet treats with lots of fun workout classes and healthy meals throughout the day. That’s my go to trick when I’m on vacation- I find it harder to make good choices at night, so my tradeoff is to make a better than usual effort during the day!

Egg white souffle with goat cheese, spinach, red pepper, zucchini, and hot sauce

Pitaya bowl with blended bananas and berries, topped with nana coins, fruit, raisins, coconut, house made granola

DIY Oatmeal bar!! OMG! I went ham with the nut butter and sliced fruit. I also put on a dollop of jam! So fun and fresh and dare I say flirty??

Apple, Beet, Carrot juice, and omelette with avocado and pico de gallo, grainy toast with almond butter, fruit cup with tiny diced pineapple, banana, and walnuts (surprisingly amazing combo)

I mainly munched on yummy salads for lunch during this trip and would always have a snack later. The suite came with free snacks like 18 Rabbits granola bars (highly recommend), coconut water (my sister loves the chocolate flavored one), and gourmet truffle popcorn. On this day I sat at the pool and had these beautiful carrots with a dijon mustard hummus!

In addition to eating at the resort, we also had a great dinner at Searsucker in Del Mar, and George’s at the Cove in La Jolla (try the faro salad with grilled salmon and the hummus plate!) We explored the beach towns of La Jolla and Del Mar and went hiking at the Torrey Pines State National Reserve. We also had a blast at a local mall (California kicks ass with its malls) and I went to Lemonade for the first time! Everything was amazing, especially my cucumber mint lemonade and crab stuffed avocado. Life. changing.