As my accomplice and I drove up California’s San Bernardino Mountains final December, I watched the climate change from gentle and grey to bitterly chilly and stormy. We had been instructed that snow was coming, so we pulled over and a neighborhood helped put snow chains onto our tires. Evidently, we had been a far cry from the motorways of London, the place I reside.

We quickly arrived within the small city of Working Springs, passing a handful of shops en route—I might hardly consider we had been simply an hour and a half from Los Angeles. We adopted the winding roads to the tip of a small neighborhood and there, hidden amongst rows of pine bushes, was Lightfoot Cabin, the Airbnb we had booked for Christmas.

The Airbnb hosts had arrange a heat welcome: an exquisite wreath hung from the entrance door and the fireplace was roaring contained in the relatively spectacular freestanding hearth in the lounge. As we entered it instantly warmed our freezing fingers—though I used to be nearly too preoccupied with the sensation that we had stepped right into a scene of a Hallmark film to note.

The cabin was much more charming than the pictures within the itemizing; laborious to consider, as these pictures had stopped me in my tracks when planning this journey. I imagined us cuddling up in entrance of a fireside and sipping mulled wine whereas wrapped up in blankets inside a personal, cozy cabin—it felt like essentially the most romantic option to spend Christmas, and Lightfoot Cabin had all of it. Aforementioned hearth, test. Cozy loft bed room, test. Cute kitchen with all of the instruments for making limitless scorching drinks, test, test, test.

In particular person, all the things about this place felt particular, from the attractive, darkish exterior to the superbly thought-about small bench to depart your footwear. The cabin was small however spacious sufficient for 2, and filled with facilities like a scorching tub and enormous deck, full with house heaters for the winter. The interiors had been designed with mid-century options, making the aesthetic trendy and recent, whereas the wooden paneling all through maintained that traditional cabin really feel. The kitchen’s mint Smeg fridge and breakfast bar offered all the things wanted to make espresso and pancakes (necessities for a romantic keep, for those who ask me). The window over the sink ignored the forest of evergreen bushes, which actually made washing up really feel like much less of a chore. These views are one-upped, although, by the bed room’s A-frame window, with a scene that makes you are feeling such as you’re trying right into a panorama portray.

Every day spent right here was extra idyllic than the following. We performed Al Inexperienced on the Airbnb’s report participant, cooked fluffy scrambled eggs and pancakes for breakfast, and soaked our bones within the scorching tub on the deck overlooking bushes that seemed like they’d been dipped in powdered sugar. Come nighttime, we settled into the key film room downstairs—not proven among the many Airbnb itemizing’s pictures, it options an unlimited projector, popcorn maker, and help-yourself jars of sweet.