Single room
Your own room and a queen bed, with a kitchen. Air conditioning, private bathroom, a flat screen TV, and a garden or town view.
San Clemente, California
The Cali
Camp
Trestles, 15 minutes southTwo sessions a dayYou don’t need a car
Place
San Clemente, Orange County
Hotel
11 rooms, West Coast Surf & Stay
Camp
Up to 20 guests
From
$558 USD per person
The Place
Your unique California surf experience.
Discover public and secret surf spots from locals, have great food, and take trips around Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego. San Clemente sits between the two, and the hotel sits five minutes from the beach, the restaurants and the surf shops.
You do not need a car. You do not have to hunt for a decent place to stay. Great atmosphere, guides who know the coast, and a clean camp.
Bikes are for hire on site too, e-bikes or regular, with surfboard racks on them, by the half day, the day or the week.
When to come
September and October. The secret season.
If there is one time of year Californians keep for themselves it is the fall. Golden sunrises, warm dry weather, light winds, and offshore conditions most mornings.
Whether it is your first week on a board or you have been surfing for twenty years, these are the conditions that make either one work. Point breaks and beach breaks both on offer, and beginner waves are easy to find.
Six days in the secret season starts at $1,194 \u00b7 You heard it here
Offshore winds nearly every morning
North and south swell arriving at the same time
Moderate tide swings, so the sessions can run all day
Summer is over, so the lineup is yours
Warmer than summer, around 80 to 90F, and the roads are empty
Stay
A hotel for surfers, nice people, surfing families and travellers.
West Coast Surf & Stay is the eleven room hotel on El Camino Real where the camp is based. Air conditioning, private bathrooms, fast WiFi, and parking you do not pay for. Five minutes from the sand.
Shared room
Split the room and the cost, with the same kitchen and the same five minute run to the sand.
Four bed room
Two bunk beds, a good shower, and a living room of its own on top of that.
Point Break Day
Surf in the
morning.
Skydive after
lunch.
8:00
Pickup at the camp
Morning
South toward San Diego, chasing the best waves of the day
Midday
Two hours in the water, then lunch
Afternoon
Skydiving over the coast
Sunset
BBQ
One day of the week runs like this. Book it when you arrive, or skip it and surf twice instead.
The rest of it
We know you came to surf.
You also came a very long way, so a day or two off the waves is built into the week rather than apologised for. The guides who read the swell run the rest of it too.
The harbour
Ten minutes away, run with their friends on the docks. Whale watching in season, and fishing charters, diving, jet skis and SUP all year. An ocean amusement park.
City tours
Take a small wave day and go see the places you have only seen on television. The guides run the cultural city and coastal tours themselves, which is the point. Tour guides are boring. Surf guides are not.
Yoga and massage
Both available through the stay, booked by asking. Between two sessions a day for a week, your body will want at least one of them.
Sport, comedy and live music
Big arena nights and small gigs. They will find whatever is on while you are there.
Nights out
Hollywood, San Diego, the OC. They organise the outing, the transport and the way in. Then you set the alarm for the morning session anyway.
On film
California surfing at its best.
The week
Three ways to do it.
Every price is per person and covers the bed, the equipment, the driving and the guiding. What changes is how much of the guide you get to yourself.
Surf trip with a friend
$1,116
per person, 5 days / 4 nights
Two of you, sharing the guiding. The cheapest way in, and the one most people book.
Join the surf crew
$1,836
per person, 5 days / 4 nights
Solo. You get folded into the crew that week and guided with everyone else.
Private surf guiding
$2,396
up to 2 people, 5 days / 4 nights
Individual performance coaching. The guide works on your surfing, not just the drive to the spot.
By the night
| Nights | With a friend | Solo | Private |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | $558 | $918 | $1,198 |
| 3 | $837 | $1,377 | $1,797 |
| 4 | $1,116 | $1,836 | $2,396 |
| 5 | $1,395 | $2,295 | $2,995 |
| 6 | $1,674 | $2,754 | $3,594 |
| 7 | $1,953 | $3,213 | $4,193 |
Runs the same way out to 21 nights. Ask for the long stay rate.
In every price
- Airport transfers
- A room with a queen bed and a kitchen
- Breakfast daily: pastries, cereal, yoghurt, fruit, coffee and tea
- Wetsuits, surfboards and leashes, left with you so you can go out alone
- Transport to the spots and back, and into town on Saturday
- Two guided sessions daily, Monday to Friday
- Free WiFi
On top
Basic surf training, Mondays
For first timers, and anyone who wants the fundamentals reset.
$99 USD
John Wayne, Orange County
Airport pick-up or drop-off.
$75 USD
LAX, Los Angeles
Each way.
$150 USD
Equipment insurance
Optional cover on the board and wetsuit, per two weeks.
$40 USD
And the surf
California has it all.
Points, reefs and beach breaks from Los Angeles down to San Diego. Within five to forty five minutes they find good surf in all directions, and whether you are a beginner or well past it, the whole job is finding the best waves for your level.
The guide collects you between 06:30 and 10:00, and again between 14:00 and 15:00 for the second session. Lessons run through California Surf Experience, founded by the World Surf League competitor Ryan Croteau. Bring a swimsuit and sunscreen, the boards and rash guards are theirs.
Trestles
Fifteen minutes south. High speed walls, and the right week puts Kelly Slater in the lineup.
Lowers
The one everybody comes for, in the same stretch of coast as Trestles.
The Wedge
Newport's freak show. Worth the drive on the right swell, worth watching on the wrong one.
Huntington Beach
Surf City. Beach break up and down the pier.
Blacks and La Jolla
The San Diego end of the range, reef and canyon swell.
Around here
Venice Beach, Hollywood and the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego are all day trips from the door. Las Vegas is four hours if the swell goes flat and somebody has a bad idea.
Dave and AnnMarie
Dave and AnnMarie found the place, and reopened it.
Dave and AnnMarie Cinquini own and run West Coast Surf & Stay with their friend Christian Nelson. They found the motel in San Clemente and reopened it in 2025 as somewhere for surfers, families and travellers. Eleven rooms and twenty guests at the very most, which is the whole difference between this and a resort.
Book directly
See you when
you get here.
Send your dates, your level, and which airport you are flying into. It goes straight to the camp.
+1 949 289 8274 · dave@thecalicamp.com · San Clemente
In Europe · daniel@thecalicamp.com · +41 71 330 04 40