I booked this Guest House for a week-long personal retreat and *loved* it. It's only a 45min drive from downtown Redwood City, but it feels a world away: tucked in among towering redwoods and the rolling hills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with a peaceful brook that you can hear flowing from inside the house. It was the perfect spot for a week or writing, rest, meditation and hiking.
I appreciated how clean the Guest House was -- and I tend to be picky about cleanliness. It's a cozy and nicely decorated studio that also feels spacious. There are multiple skylights in the main room and one in the bathroom, and I *loved* these. Cabins in the woods can feel fairly dark during the day because of the tree cover, but the Guest House was bright and airy throughout the day. The deck was amazing, and I spent a ton of time out there. The house is stocked with kitchen essentials and plenty of bathroom supplies. The grill worked great. The 10in cast iron pan was in great shape. Appliances were clean and modern.
Lea (pronounced "Lee") was a great host, very responsive, but also never disturbed me during my stay. Even though the main house is ~20 feet away the guest house felt private and secluded in all the best ways. Most of the windows face away from the main house, and the two large glass sliding doors open directly onto the uninhabited woods and aforementioned brook.
A few things to know:
* The house is directly off of Hwy 84. During commute times you'll hear noisy cars/motorcycles every few minutes, but it quickly tapers off. At night you may hear a loud motorcycle every couple hours. I'm fairly sensitive to noise, but after a day I didn't really notice the road noise anymore. If you're a light sleeper consider bringing earplugs.
* The skylights are wonderful, and the house quickly fills with light right at sunrise. If you're intending to sleep past that time an eye mask is useful, borderline essential.
* Lea allowed me to charge my EV (a Tesla Model Y) from an outdoor 110v plug and reimburse her, and I got about 1% per hour which was good enough to recoup charge from my nearby hiking trips.
* The TV is fairly large and worked fine for movies. Video game consoles won't really work on it, though: there's a significant amount of input lag (~100-400ms) that I could not get rid of even after fiddling with the settings.
* The tap water is safe to drink (filtered, softened and tested) but I didn't enjoy the taste. I brought some store-bought purified water for drinking.
* California has a long wildfire season. The air was fresh and clear all the days I was there except one (but of course this can change). I'm sensitive to smoke and so I had brought a HEPA filter from home, and that was helpful for that day. Unit is roughly 500sq ft, and my one Coway AP-1512HH Mighty purifier worked great.
* The driveway is quite steep and a little unnerving the first (and second...) time, but was totally manageable.
Long story short: It's an incredible spot and I can't wait to get back there. Thank you, Lea!