Getaways

You’ll find this underrated little town where Route 46, which traverses some seriously majestic Steinbeck country, meets Highway 1. It’s technically in San Louis Obispo county, but situated almost right at the border with Monterey, so puts you in striking distance of San Simeon (gorgeous walking beaches, sea lion breeding sites and, of course, Hearst Castle) and, beyond, the lower reaches of Big Sur. Not that Cambria’s own surrounds won’t provide the nature hits: long, flat, wind-whipped Moonstone Beach has a mile-long boardwalk, and Fiscalini Ranch Preserve has 430 acres of rare Monterey pine woods, meadows, and high oceanside bluffs for exploring (wildflower season in April and May can be a proper spectacle here). Cambria, long a retreat for artists and LA and San Francisco escapees, evinces a bit of Carmel’s weird Tudor-twee aesthetic in its shops, cafés and galleries; but more of it is Old California hitching-post style, which is what you want. Stay at White Water Cambria on Moonstone Beach, whose 25 lovely rooms are the work of Nina Freudenberger, an interiors and book editor (see Surf Shack: Laid-Back Living by the Water, Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books), who aptly describes the vibe she’s created here as “Danish seaside”. whitewatercambria.com, from $329

The Outer Cape, and specifically Wellfleet, has long been a semi-secret retreat for New Yorkers – writers, artists and museum directors, a disproportionate number of psychoanalysts – who eschew the social obligations of more famous Eastern Seaboard summer destinations in favour of solitude and nature (Francesca Amfitheatrof, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of watches and jewellery and an Outer Cape regular, once described it in HTSI as “the most extraordinary time warp”). As part of the 44,600-acre Cape Cod National Seashore (its singular light may be familiar from the works of Edward Hopper, who used to paint here), the landscape is totally protected. Wellfleet’s flea markets, coffee shops and lobster shacks are the anti-Hamptons. The holiday draw is the collection of four 20th-century modern houses available to let through the Cape Cod Modern House Trust (which come up all too rarely, so book in advance, or off season). They look out onto woods, beaches or one of the 20 or so kettle ponds across the seashore, and are totally dreamy, right down to the last vintage Fiestaware bowl. Just note the “slow to decent internet” designations. ccmht.org

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