Time to Get Fit in Style at Rancho La Puerta

If you haven’t kept your New Year’s resolution to be healthy and fit, here is your solution all wrapped up in a week of splendor. And it is waiting for you just over the San Diego border at Rancho La Puerta, a 3,000-acre healthy-living paradise with flowering meadows, landscaped gardens and breathtaking vistas all nestled at the foot of Mount Kuchumaa, also known as Sacred Mountain.

The one-of-a-kind resort has been family-owned and-operated since 1940 when Edmond Szekely and his wife Deborah welcomed their first guests to a “health camp” in a mountain-ringed valley 45-miles from San Diego. The cost? $17.50 for a week of hiking, rustic vegetarian meals, exercise and a daily lecture by Edmond Szekely, a health pioneer with an international reputation for his natural living theories. Campers were asked to bring their own tent.

Today, the prices –and the offerings—at Rancho La Puerta have been upped, but the resort continues to change lives with its focus on complete mind, body and spirit renewal. Appropriately referred to as a “camp” for adults, the all-inclusive Rancho La Puerta welcomes just 140 guests at a time and is practically guaranteed to renew your entire being. Guests are known to return year after year to both rejuvenate and kick start a healthy way of life. I met couples, fathers and sons and lots of single women—all bonding in the need to look at life a little better, whether to get stronger, healthier, more fit or just commune with nature instead of technology.

Easy access

Guests arrive from all over the country at Rancho La Puerta for one-week stays via a ranch shuttle bus that picks them up at one of several terminals at San Diego International Airport. A 45-minute trip that enters Mexico over the Tecate border is swift and effortless. Upon arrival at the resort, guests are escorted along meandering paths lined with abundant nature to their deluxe cottages situated privately about the grounds. Hand-carved furniture, fireplaces and private patios perfect for birdwatching or sunbathing provide a relaxed ambience totally ensconced in nature.

Create your personal “symphony” each day

Rancho La Puerta’s secure and tranquil estate includes gardens, hiking trails, an organic farm, several pools, extensive spa and fitness facilities, a salon, a spacious dining hall, gift shop and an intimate library — as well as numerous inviting lounges and conference rooms. Activities, classes and spa delights abound on a daily basis, with lots of special lectures and classes tossed in. Most activities do not require a reservation—just drop in if you feel like it. Guests pretty much do as little or as much as they like.

Everything, other than spa treatments and cooking classes, is included in the stay including three gourmet spa meals and snacks, use of all fitness and recreational facilities, spa and library, as well as scheduled group classes (approximately 50 different classes each day, with up to five choices every hour), guided hikes and walks, activities and workshops. Also included are evening programs and entertainment. Tipping is always optional.

Classes, overseen by a staff of more than 20 full-time instructors, are held in large, newly renovated gyms equipped with the latest low-impact floors; water aerobics are very popular. Self-awareness classes, from yoga to Tai Chi are plentiful, as well as daily hikes, from strolling a meadow to a demanding 11-mile trek. Importantly, there is something for all levels of stamina and ability.

Kitchen that “sings”

More than seven decades of culinary creativity, using freshly picked produce from their own organic garden and natural foods, has resulted in the ranch’s recipes that are low in fat, sodium and refined flour and sugar, while being high in energy, fiber and complex carbohydrates that keep you going during the most strenuous fitness classes. No starving here—portions are plentiful thanks to the menu’s low-calorie content and your activity-abundant days. The semi-vegetarian fare employs lots of fresh seafood from nearby Ensenada; gluten-free diets can be accommodated. Although not a weight-loss facility, many guests lose weight just due to the healthy diet combined with the bounty of exercise choices.

La Cocina Que Canta (The Kitchen that Sings) has much to croon about. The culinary center at the ranch opened in 2007 and serves as Rancho La Puerta’s home to visiting chefs who demonstrate and teach interested guests. With the Cocina situated high on a hill, a favorite guest activity is the breakfast hike to the kitchen that is rewarded with a breakfast fresh from the adjacent organic garden. Twice a year, the ranch hosts a week-long culinary program with a long list of famed chefs and cooking classes for all interests. One of founder Deborah Szekely’s long-time friends is Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame.

Reserve your spot

Rancho La Puerta welcomes both men and women from all over the world. However, many visitors are from California. Although the majority of guests are female, couples and single men are prevalent. Meals are served around communal tables, so making new friends is a plus. Partial week stays are also available at the ranch. Check the website for a schedule of planned classes and special events during your “journey to wellness.”

Photos courtesy of Rancho La Puerta.