Bandon Wayside
June 18, 2021
Bandon Wayside Inn is a charming resting place. You can tell Nicole and David are tireless workers and pay attention to every detail. It is a very Zen place.
Their story from their website is really wonderful and inspiring:
You never know what will inspire your next move. We never thought a trip to Mexico would change our life, but it did! We’re David and Nicole, the owners of the Bandon Wayside, as of July 2017, and we owe it all to David’s Uncle Fred. It was he who wanted to move to Todo Santos Baja to live out his dream of warmth and comfort in the Baja way.
So in April 2013 David and Uncle Fred left Seaside, Oregon in a 1980s Ford RV, hopeful with fingers crossed that the RV would make the trip. The weeklong trip down 101 was uneventful, the border crossing tedious, and the breaks along the way for food and surf checks fantastic.
Nicole caught up with them in Todo Santos, a tiny beach town in southern Baja with the Pacific on one side and the Sierra de la Laguna mountains on the other. In other words, paradise.
We settled Fred into a small RV park, adjoined to a casita. It was nice, simple, and had everything Fred needed. Then we went back to our 9-5 lives, and returned several times over the next few years. We fell in love with the lifestyle and became inspired to bring a little Todo Santos spirit back to Oregon. How we would do it was the next hurdle. Blame Google, because we found the Bandon Wayside–for sale–on a real estate web site. We pondered, wondered, went back and forth, and finally made an offer.
Before we could say ‘Que he hecho,’ we were the proud owners of a neglected 1949 roadside motel and small RV park–and the passionate purveyors of a dream to bring her back to life in the 21st century, gussied up and full of Todo Santos spirit. After all she also sits between ocean and mountains in a charming, welcoming community.
On January 01, 2018 we returned to Todo Santos to escort Uncle Fred to his final resting place. Fred died Christmas Eve, 2017, in a place he loved.
Fred inspired us. He lived life his way while being kind and generous on his journey. Welcome to the Bandon Wayside.
Their website is www.bandonwaysidemotelrv.com.