The Wellstone Retreat

The Wellstone Center is just lovely and I felt compelled to write a review after having nothing but positive experiences there. The center offers retreats (writing, cooking, etc) and when they are not holding retreats, they rent out rooms in both the main estate as well as the various cabins on the property. I have stayed there three times in the last year and plan to return. The place is gorgeous: gardens, fruit trees, pool, hot tub, a trail through the redwood that adjoins the property. It has a nice balance of community (there’s a big shared kitchen) and privacy. It is perfect for a quiet getaway. I highly recommend the property.

I am sorry to say what a disappointing experience we had with the Wellstone Estate. We were very excited to spend the weekend there for my husband’s 40^th birthday. When looking at the property online it looked beautiful and perfect for a group of 6 adults and 3 children. The property was listed as a 3 bedroom, 3 bath house plus loft. I spoke with Dave, the owner, in advance and he was very nice and flexible about our stay. We sent in a deposit to hold the property 4 months in advance. As we got closer to the date of our stay I spoke with Dave to verify our stay and the actual beds available, he gave us more details and we realized that we would not actually be renting a house but a couple of smaller cabana type buildings on his property and a room in his house. This was not what we were expecting, we had been planning on a house with a proper kitchen, dining and living area so we could cook and spend time with out friends, turns out most of the common space available to guests is outdoors and while summers are nice in Santa Cruz sometimes they can be chilly or foggy at night. I explained to Dave that this wasn’t going to work for us and he said no problem he would send our deposit back. I checked back with him after about 3 weeks when we didn’t receive our deposit back, and he said he would have to keep a portion of it because he couldn’t rent out the property, I was disappointed but understood and said I would look for our deposit less 10% in the mail. After another month of not receiving my deposit I contacted him again via phone and email to no avail.
Basically, the property is misrepresented and Dave did not keep is word. I would be careful when considering renting from him. Again, I am sorry to have to give a bad review but people need to be aware of what they are dealing with.