Fresh air. Birds singing. All that crap.

October 17, 2015 1:58 PM

Ideas for a relaxing lakeside vacation in California (and surrounding areas)?

I moved away from the town I grew up in over a decade ago and aside from occasional trips home for holidays, I haven’t had a vacation since then. And I need one. So I want to change that but I’m not quite sure where to go. It’ll just be me traveling solo and I’m thinking someplace like a cabin by a lake would be nice and relaxing. 5-7 days. Someplace relatively secluded. I have an image in my mind of sitting on a deck in a comfortable chair reading a book while watching the sun set over the lake. Maybe taking a quick swim now and then. Nothing fancy and no real need for "activities". Where can I find that within a (potentially long) day’s drive of Los Angeles? Since it's just me, I don't really have a date in mind. I would like to avoid spending a ton of money if possible though.

posted by downtohisturtles to Travel & Transportation around California (6 answers total)

I stayed at a cabin on Lake Mary in Mammoth Lakes that more or less fits your description (it's not all that secluded, the whole lakeshore is lined with cabins and campgrounds.)
posted by contraption at 2:09 PM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I frequently mention June Lake on here but there are a bunch of little lakes on the Eastern side of the Sierras including Lake Mary mentioned by contraption above. Still reasonably priced (although I can't attest to pricing during ski season)
posted by janey47 at 2:52 PM on October 17, 2015

Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear are about 3 hours from LA. The road gets pretty twisty-turny on the way, which may be a consideration if you get motion sickness or vertigo, though.
posted by mogget at 3:45 PM on October 17, 2015

I have a friend with a cabin in Big Bear and it's definitely possible to spend time in the local ski areas without dealing with much of people or civilization but you may need to go the Airbnb route, even tough it's not ski season. (As contraption mentioned, the infrastructure is there even if all the skiers aren't.) Mammoth is also great, although I only know it as a place to ski. (It's also probably twice as far as Big Bear, fwiw.)

Tip: I got a gnarly sunburn the last time I drove back from Big Bear, and that was during the snow-on-the-ground part of the year.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:46 PM on October 17, 2015

Maybe you don't want a cabin by a lake so much as a deck chair next to a giant swimming pool in a secluded Palm Springs resort.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:48 PM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

We rented a house through HomeAway in Running Springs over the summer for this kind of thing (though a mountain side rather than a lake.) Incredible vistas on the roads around us and in the summer off-season we did not have a lot of company, even close to the town. Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead have lakes but you would have more company, and I believe Lake Arrowhead has more restrictions on access to the lake itself. If immediate access to the lake is less essential, that whole area has wonderful cabins with various degrees of seclusion and in a variety of price points. It was lovely.
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:03 PM on October 17, 2015