Have been wanting to camp for a while and decided to start out with glamping. “If you start with glamping, you will never reach camping”, friends told me. What I look for in a camping/glamping trip is the immersion with the nature, waking up to the bird chirping/singing, listening to the rain drops on tent while chilling, reading in tent, enjoying beer or hot tea and smell the grass after rain… I achieved some in Mendocino this time, and hope to achieve other “dream” of camping in the future. As my first glamping trip, Mendocino Glamping was unexpectedly healing and energizing, a great break from work and recent travels.
Preparation:
- book tent ideally a few weeks ahead of time, especially if planning to glamp from May – October
- FOOD: prepare one day’s worth of food as there is no fridge on the camp site. But the nearby towns, either Mendocino or Fort Bragg 15mins up north have a variety of markets to shop at.
- CLOTHES: bring enough clothes, such as ultralight down jacket, beanie, gloves, scarf
- LIVE:
- bring mosquito or bug repellent, this time we barely see any mosquito but the site staff told us it depends on the temperature and weather
- bring yoga mat as there is free Yoga classes in the morning! Yoga mat is also provided but slightly on the thin side so knee might hurt a bit
- bring toothbrush, tooth paste, face wash, skin care. The glamp site provides shower towel shampoo, conditioner and shower gel!
Glamp site is really well managed
- a few days prior to reservation, the glamp site will send email informing activities (live music on the Friday we arrived), dinner available at the time of reservation and start to text your phone number as well; texting turns out to be the most convenient and fastest way to contact glamp site before, during and after your stay
- check-in process was smooth, we were provided a map of the site including highlight to reach our tent, common areas (where coffee & tea are, bonfire locations, playground, yoga class, trails, etc.)
- each tent is provided 1-2 parking spots. The site said only 1 parking per site, but our group tent for 4 people does have 2 parking spots.
- amenities outside and inside the tents: outside the tent, there is firepit surrounded by 1-2 chairs, wooden table and wooden bench; there are also 2 leather chairs. Inside the tent, there are 1-2 chairs, table, cabin for storage, cloth hanger, shower tower, a metal basket to put clothes in for bath house, bed with heated sleeping pads, lamps with charging outlets. Some tents, especially group tents, have gas grill near their tent, such as our group tent M4 right next to the common playground. It made it really easy for us to use both the gas grill and the firepit for cooking in a short time. On the contrary, our class tent for 2 does not have exclusive gas grill, and will need to share with a few other tents.
- food and beverage: in the morning, the site provides free breakfast (mainly coffee, cereal and different toppings), day-to-night free hot water and tea.
- cooking: if you need to buy firewood, help to light the firewood, need matches or light the gas grill, just text the glamp site number tell them your tent, they will reach you within 5mins and solve your problems. I think their texting system is REALLY convenient and advanced; I believe they associated our number with our booking and know where the request is coming from. For example, I asked if how would the firewood purchased be charged, they said it would be charged back to credit card at booking and attached the last 4 of my credit card as confirmation. The glamp site also answers questions such as advice on trails, markets, touring around, etc. It does give you the “human-centered design” and interaction, closeness feeling that really warms you up.
- restrooms and bath houses (incl. dry sauna!): around the whole glamp site, there are many very clean, stainless, mold-less restrooms. Almost all of their sinks have vases filled with fresh water and colorful flowers (at least in August when I went), that breeze of nature just surrounds you. Some sinks also have half a tree trunk as “stepping stone” for kids who cannot reach the sinks, again, very family friendly and it is the details that made you love this place. There are outdoor and indoor bathhouse. The outdoor bathhouse is still 2/3 covered on top, it might be a bit cold to take shower there at night, but the hot water runs immediately, you can hear the gas being lit up to heat the water as soon as you turn on the tap. Both indoor and outdoor bathhouse have chairs to sit on, hooks for clothes, and shampoo, conditioner, shower gel as mentioned before. Bathhouse down south has dry sauna (for free), there is also massage room (for fee). Overall I will advise taking shower in the daytime so you are not freezing..
classic tent 
common area with firepit 
“cafeteria” 
stepping wood for kids 
fresh flowers by the sink! 
outdoor bathhouse
Activities
On the campground
- if you are an early riser (I woke up at 6:45AM, 7:10AM regardless sleeping pass 1AM…), you can start your day joining yoga class at 8AM (45mins) or 9:30AM (60mins) at the lookout deck. There is heater at the center of the deck to keep us warm. When the class started at 9:30AM, there was fog and drizzles even, and in one hour, the fog was cleared, Mendocino town is visible and ravens were singing along to Yoga music. “Fog is clear in nature and in your heart/body!” my friend said after our yoga class.
- walk your way back to the common area, take a sip of hot coffee, tea, water and eat some cereal before heading out for other activities.
- if you decide to spend the day in the campgroud, there are a lot to explore and to do. There are volleyball playground along with a few playground I do not know the name of; there are swings for kids everywhere, some trees to climb up for, some quick trails including a loop trail, hammocks, look out with chairs, etc.
- as the sun gradually sinks, grab a bottle of cold beer from your icebox and head to lookouts facing the Pacific ocean, enjoy the magnificent sunset
- after bbq, take a dry sauna or order a massage
- as the light in tents go out, the campfire dwindles, head to the open space common area with warm clothing, and start star gazing. The site staff shared that meteor shower usually appears in the north west direction, he even pointed us to the north star and a few other planets. The Milky Way was so obvious right above our head. The longer you stay out, the clearer the stars are, the more meteor showers you catch, the higher likelihood you might catch a cold if not warm haha!
Outside the campground
If you decide to go out and explore the town, there are even more options:
- Sightseeing:
- Noyo Harbor for fishing, crabbing or whale watching
- the Mendocino Botanical Garden, highly recommend!
- need to get ticket ($15 for non-member adult) online prior to your visit. They have collections of a variety of flowers (their rose garden is amazing, filled with different colors, variety of roses), vegetables (vegetable garden, they supply a large amount of vegetables, fruits to the community, if interested, there are farm-to-table options in town), fern (fern trail), and a breathtaking coastal loop trail (0.6mile to get to the coastal trail from park entrance).
- We also saw a wedding in the garden if you are looking for a wedding venue!
- There are also plants for sale, and a cafรฉ by the entrance if you need to wait for other friends who are still in the garden.
- the Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. Although when I went in 2016, there weren’t that many colorful glass pieces anymore..
- Fern canyon trail (recommended by a friend, I have not been yet)
- Railbikes (also recommended by others)
- Point Cabrillo Lighthouse State Park (closes at 4PM)
- Mendocino Headlands State Park
- Farms, Brewery and Vineyards
- Originally planned to visit the Penny Royal Farm which has a farm tour, cheese and wine pairing and tasting and lunch on farm. However, since pets are only allowed in the kitchen/dining area, we did not visit this time, maybe in the future!
- North Coast Brewery & the Pub: a variety of beer selection from the world, from light to dark beer, to cocktail made with both beer and liquor. If you want to try different beers, order the flight and choose your own beers~We really like the beer here and bought packs back!
North Coast Brewery Beer Flight
- Eating
- Luna Tratorria (Mendocino): really close to the glamp site, and famous for providing delicious and large portion italian delish. Since they are popular for locals and tourists/campers, you might want to reach and reserve ahead of time for dining at 5PM or 7PM by calling, texting or emailing them.
- Noyo Fish Company (Fort Bragg): Right by the Noyo Harbor,Noyo Fish Company also provides very fresh, delicious fish (cod) & chips, PRAWN & CHIPS (winner in our group), fish & prawn & salmon tacos, clam chowder, daily special such as shrimp ceviche. The prawn and fish are fried in a very airy way, and of course could be oily if you are not ordering a salad ๐
- Good Cafe (Mendocino): recommended by others
- Egghead Cafe (Fort Bragg): recommended by others
fish&prawn combo chips 
prawn tacos, A+++ 
shrimp ceviche 
clam chowder 
fishing boat coming back 
Noyo Harbor
Highlights of My Trip
I really like the sound of nature, I used to record rain on my dorm window, in my car, the cracking leaves when I stepped on them on Berkeley campus right outside RSF on the way to VLSB building; even it is not raining outside, when I need to concentrate, I play rain sound on tent audio from YouTube as white noise. That being said, a lot of my highlights were indeed related to sounds
- sizzling of the lamb right when I grilled it on fire
- taste of onion and mushroom sweetness especially when cooked in beef, lamb oil.. I never know they could be so “sweet”!
- crackling of the fire while we were enjoying the feast and drinking beer
- sit against the remaining, small firepit in the common area while star gazing, talking with friends on random, silly topics
- capturing the Milky Way and thousands of star after finally adjusting my camera for the right setting and focus…
- waking up to bird chirping first, although at 6:45AM, then accompanying by kids running around laughing (our tent’s pro is super close to the common area where the restroom and hot tea are at, con would be also close to the common area where you can hear early activities if you are light sleeper)
- the second day, it must have rained at night, as in the morning, I heard “rain dropsโ on my tent for 10 seconds! At first I thought “oh god my dream just comes true! it is raining on my tent LIVE!”, then the rain drops stopped and I realized it might be just water falling from leaves in the breeze of wind
- doing yoga in the forest. By the time class ended, I felt relief of muscle tension and definitely had a good rest on my mat. Later of the day, I can feel yoga stretched a lot of muscle I did not think of and I actually felt the “pain”! Good workout, good stretch and good heal for mind
Next time back to Mendocino Grove, I need to take that beer to lookout and enjoy sunset, rather than rushing to cook as I am getting hangry! And to explore the camp site more, stay on the camp ground, and hike more nearby trails. We will be back!
