Cavallo Point Lodge: Golden Gate’s escape

City of many visions, cultures, and sights, San Francisco is intoxicatingly beautiful, making you want to come here again and again, every time exploring a new detail.

Commemorated in a multitude of movies, songs, and poems, it’s truly a golden handcuff with the key thrown away. Instead of spreading around, it grew up in the hills. Instead of assimilating immigrants, it preserved their communities. Recently San Francisco Bay Area also became a tech hub, proving yet again it’s got so much more to offer.

With so many marvelous spots and destinations, picking the right one to stay in the Bay Area was quite a challenge even for such travel addicts as ourselves. Out of all the variety of all possible options, we made our stop at Cavallo Point Lodge. With the intriguing sophisticated slogan “The Lodge at the Golden Gate” it truly triggered our attention.

Opened in the summer of 2008, Cavallo Point Lodge is an enchanting and truly exclusive place to stay in San Francisco. Located within Golden Gate National Parks at the foot of the famed Golden Gate Bridge, it once was the site of the Fort Baker military base. Cavallo Point features two types of rooms crafted with character and style.

The first type, Historic rooms & suites, once served as officers’ headquarters for Army personnel. There are 68 historic rooms at the hotel, featuring expansive foyers and staircases, authentic tin ceilings, fireplaces, panoramic windows, and spacious front porches. Architectural Resources Group was responsible for the restoration of the historical design, setting the architectural direction.

The second type of rooms Cavallo Point Lodge offers are 74 newly constructed Contemporary rooms and suites, and this is where we stayed. Set on a hillside, you can enjoy spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge through floor-to-ceiling windows. Waking up with the first sunlight, there is no better view in San Francisco.

Each room has a special collection of body care products by Cavallo Point Lodge, including body lotion, shampoo, and conditioner with 100% natural, exclusively formulated scent made with pure essential oils of organic eucalyptus and French lavender, as well as Cavallo Point Signature Lavender Eucalyptus Room Spritz.

Cavallo Point Lodge is not a hotel in the traditional meaning, but more like a resort town right by the Golden Gate. Additionally to stunning rooms, it also features multiple amenities, including several dining and spa options, and even Cooking School! 

Murray Circle restaurant features the French-inspired, ingredient-driven Northern California cuisine of award-winning Executive Chef, Justin Everett, and his talented culinary team. Chef Justin sources local, seasonal, farm-focused ingredients selected weekly from the area’s farmers and fishermen.

If you’re looking for a more casual bar menu in a clubhouse-like atmosphere you can always try the adjacent Farley Bar, which also features an outdoor terrace.

Another treasure of Cavallo Point Lodge is an 11,000-square-foot Healing Arts Center & Spa, ranked #4 Top Hotel Spa in the U.S., featuring 11 treatment rooms integrating the best cultural healing practices from around the world. Spa treatments include facials, massages, and body wraps, while healing arts services include herbal consultation, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, and shamanic journeys. A heated outdoor meditation pool is a focal point for guests, as well as the Tea Bar, featuring teas, snacks, and herbal tonics. Spa visitors can also enjoy Guided Meditation Evenings with Tarika Lovegarden. Based on her Stanford University meditation series, Tarika teaches how to become centered and receptive to your inner strengths and opportunities, as well as the people in your life.

The Cooking School run by Head Chef Tony Adams offers a range of afternoon and evening classes and demonstrations that focus on a variety of topics, such as an ingredient and a geographic region, a cooking technique or the season’s best picks at the farmers market, emphasizing local, seasonal ingredients and introducing well-known chefs, local producers, and vintners.

Located at the very heart of the Golden Gate National Parks, Cavallo Point Lodge grants guests unprecedented access to a multitude of activities, including hiking, biking, bird watching, and kayaking. Forming a spectacular 118-square-mile greenbelt stretching 80 miles north to south, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) encompasses more than 30 national park sites, including famous forts, rugged Pacific coastlines, verdant redwood forests and hundreds of miles of spectacular coastline trails. Muir Woods, Angel Island, Alcatraz, and the Marin Headlands are all easily accessible from Cavallo Point Lodge. The world-class attractions of San Francisco, Marin, Berkeley, and the fabled wine country of Napa and Sonoma are all a short distance away, and guests may enjoy local farm and vineyard tours, museums, concerts, shopping, and sightseeing. Whether you’re in San Francisco for leisure or business, Cavallo Point Lodge is undoubtedly one of the most exclusive spots to discover the city!

Top five things to do in San Francisco (in no particular order):

• Travel to Alcatraz Island:
• Pier 33, B201 Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA

Discover the site of the maximum security and most advanced U.S. prison of its time, which once became home to Al Capone and other ‘legendary’ figures. Rich in history, there is also a natural side to the Rock—gardens, tide pools, bird colonies, and bay views beyond compare.

• Explore Fisherman’s Wharf
• 165 Jefferson Street, Suite 2F, San Francisco, CA

One of the most famous waterfront attractions in the area, featuring hotels, specialty restaurants, famous attractions, unique shops, breathtaking scenery and entertainment for the whole family.

• Ride Cable Cars
• Throughout the city

Since 1873, cable cars have run up and down the hilly city, though, after the 1950s, these cars have been kept in operation more out of historic nostalgia. Seventeen miles of track remain and have been deemed a historical landmark.

• Drive-up (and down) Lombard Street
• 1070 Lombard Street, between Jones St and Hyde St, San Francisco, CA

Known as the most extreme street in San Francisco and the “most crookedest street in the world,” Lombard Street features grand Victorian mansions along the steep hills, and attracts millions of tourists each year.

• Visit Union Square
• 333 Post St, San Francisco, CA

Designated as a California Historical Landmark, it’s the heart of San Francisco. After a $25-million facelift in 2002, now it’s a truly cosmopolitan hub, boasting a huge amphitheater, granite pedestals where street entertainers perform, and a tree and flower-lined environment perfect to enjoy an espresso or an elegant meal.