Weekend Escape: Ojai : Loosen Up! : At This Rustic Hideaway, They Splurged on Pampering Without Spending Their Life Savings on Accommodations

This is a great place to pretend you have more money than you’ve got.

The idea was to pamper ourselves: to spend a luscious weekend being fed, massaged, hot-tubbed and coddled for two blessed days and nights. To order from the wine list without peeking anxiously at the price (and after seeing it, not having to explain to the waiter why we were suddenly taken with a yen for a good bottle of Snapple). For once to be able to say--after endless weeks of bargain matinee movies and pasta dinners at home--”Money is no object!”

The problem was, money was an object: We needed more. And we remained stubbornly unwilling to bring our craving for self-indulgence into line with our somewhat modest budget.

So we decided to compromise. We would head for Ojai and spare no expense on cuisine, massages and other trappings of the good life. We would take a side trip to Wheeler Hot Springs to try out the hot-tub experience so highly recommended to us by recently married friends. We would visit Wheeler’s casually elegant restaurant, and boldly order wine. And we would read the newspaper by cozy fires in the lobbies of the swankiest hotels in town.

But, we would do it all from a secret base: The Ojai Rancho Motel.

In looking for accommodations, we immediately crossed off cozy-sounding bed and breakfast places (which range from $75 to $100 a night), partly because sharing a bath was reminiscent of college dorm days. Also, most B&B;’s don’t offer in-room fireplaces--one romantic perk we felt we couldn’t live without, since nights can get chilly here.

And we didn’t allow ourselves to even think about pricey lodgings such as Ojai Valley Inn & Country Club, which offers rooms at $195-$260 per night. We also avoided the Oaks at Ojai, a spa that offers reasonable weekend “program rates” of $125-$169 per person per night, which includes all meals and a range of athletic facilities and activities. But a brochure provided by the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce discusses such goal-oriented options as 7 a.m. walks, “Creative Aerobics and Aquatoning,” vitamin packs and diets. For us, that was a little too reminiscent of the workweek back in L.A.

Luckily, friends steered us to the Ojai Rancho Motel--a small, quirky establishment that sounds like it might be the motel Norman Bates managed before he got his own place. But we loved it.

For $85, you can get one of 16 rooms that Rancho management describes as “cabin-like,” which we were told have beamed ceilings and “woodsy” interiors. But for $105, you can rent Rancho’s only free-standing real cabin. Located at the back of the motel parking lot, this plain, large, clean and comfortable one-room cabin features a bed that seems only slightly smaller than a football field, as well as a view of the pool and Jacuzzi through the back windows. Because the cabin tends to be snapped up quickly, we reserved it about three weeks in advance.

Ojai Rancho offers nothing as sophisticated as room service, a restaurant, or even a bottle opener. The cabin does have a telephone, a TV and a small refrigerator. A motel brochure boasts a “fountain;” in reality, it is more of a sprinkler. But Regal’s Wine and Cheese Store, a mile or so down the road, can provide you with cold cuts and cheese to eat in front of the fireplace, and they might even throw in some free avocados from the owner’s tree. And, during a Saturday night rainstorm, we just ordered a pizza.

It’s about an hour-and-a-half drive to Ojai, a half-rustic, half-New Age hideaway in a coastal valley below the Topa Topa Mountains, about 85 miles northwest of Los Angeles. On a Friday, it’s best if you can hit the northbound 101 before rush hour.

With the look and feel of Northern California wine country, Ojai seems much farther from L.A. than mere miles would suggest. Surrounded by citrus and avocado groves, as well as oak trees, the town offers a quaint main street with shops, taverns, cafes, and holistic book and crystal emporiums. Trolley transportation is available for 25 cents a ride. There are hiking, biking, horse and skateboarding trails. Also nearby is Lake Casitas Recreation Area in the Ojai Valley, offering fresh-water fishing and boating. And there are plenty of neighboring campgrounds. (If you send $5 to the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 1134, Ojai, Calif. 93024, you will get back maps and information on hotels, restaurants and recreation.)

After arriving on Friday, we took a 15-minute drive to Wheeler Hot Springs, located in a canyon six miles above Ojai at the bank of a mountain stream. We indulged in Wheeler’s $72-per-couple dinner (not including wine, tax and tip) and hot tub package.

The package is available Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Also available is a hot tub and champagne brunch special for $45 on Saturday and Sunday. Hot tubbing at $10 per person per half-hour and massages ranging from $36-$78 can be booked separately from Thursday through Sunday. The spa recommends making reservations for the packages a week and a half in advance.

This lovely experience includes a half-hour soak in a dark, private redwood tub room, fed by naturally hot mineral waters. Each tub is equipped with hydrojets, and an adjoining cold tub (really cold) is fed by a separate spring.

Then, after being cooked medium-rare, we headed across the way to an elegantly rustic dining room with a huge fireplace to enjoy “California Mediterranean” cuisine which changes seasonally. We ordered (and shared) warm quail salad, buffalo mozzarella salad with tomatoes and artichokes, rack of lamb, filet mignon and light-as-air chocolate mousse cake and mango mousse cake. Warning: Watch it on the wine, and not because of price: After a 105-degree hot tub, a nice bottle of Merlot packs an unexpected punch.

Although Wheeler Hot Springs also offers massages, we decided to save them for the next day--after a restful afternoon of wandering the shops, including the amazing Bart’s Books, a used-book establishment with endless stacks outdoors and indoors, plus a very friendly cat.

There may be a local law that says you can’t leave Ojai without getting a massage. The area offers all sorts. Many hotels have in-house masseurs who also welcome walk-in clients and the local paper and telephone directory list plenty of private massage therapists. Massages are also available in combination packages with body wraps, facials, hot tubs and saunas, and even brunches and dinners. Most basic massages cost $40-$60, but it’s easy to run up the bill with extras.

We chose to stop by the Oaks for an “aromatherapy” massage, which combined the basic body kneading with a selection of scented oils such as lemon and lavender. We called Saturday morning for an afternoon appointment. During my session, the music of choice was a tape of wolves howling, which was relaxing in a hey-I-don’t-mind-being-lost-in-a-dark-canyon sort of way. And the massage experience was a particular thrill for my companion, who received the ultimate compliment from his masseuse: “You don’t feel like a lawyer. You are much too loose.”

After a rainy Saturday we woke up to a sunny Sunday, so we took advantage of the fine weather to go for a two-mile morning hike, followed by a coffee shop breakfast. Then, we visited one of the treasures of Ojai--101-year-old ceramic artist Beatrice Wood, who holds court in her home and studio in Ojai’s Happy Valley.

A roadside sign invites you to drop by. When we did so in the early afternoon, her young assistant showed us around her home--packed with memorabilia of her worldwide travels--as she chatted with two invited guests. We joined the conversation and the irreverent Wood--who speaks casually of having Monet as a neighbor while studying acting in Paris--canceled out the compliment that had been paid my companion by his masseuse by saying cheerfully: “Oh, you are a lawyer? I’m so sorry.”

While there are no set visitation hours, Wood, oft-quoted as saying her two passions are “chocolate and young men,” is usually available to discuss a flamboyantly romantic life that has included love affairs with French diplomat-turned-novelist Henri Pierre Roche and artist Marcel Duchamp. And she might even offer you a chocolate.

Haithman is a Times Calendar reporter.

Budget for Two Gas: $20 Two nights, Ojai Rancho Motel: $210 Dinner and hot tub, Wheeler Hot Springs (including wine and extras): $97 Lunches, snacks, one Domino’s pizza: $65 Aromatherapy massages (including tip): $120 FINAL TAB: $512 Ojai Rancho Motel, 615 W. Ojai Ave., Ojai, Calif. 93023; tel. (805) 646-1434.