A guest walking a stone path along the headland at sunset, coastal scrub and dry-stone walls either side, the resort on the ridge beyond and surf below

The Sunset Hike: up the cliff path for the last of the light

Sunset Hike

What it actually is

What happens at the top

Out of the north gate, along the fence line, then a track that climbs steadily for about an hour before it gets properly steep for the last twenty minutes. The top is a flat shelf of rock facing west, big enough that eight people are not in each other's way.

You sit there for forty minutes. The guide hands around a flask and stops talking, which is the whole point of the thing. Then it is half an hour down with headlamps.

Eight people maximum, so it stays quiet up there. It goes most evenings and it does not go in high wind.

Duration: About 3 hours, door to door
Distance: 4.2 miles round trip
Ascent: 1,180 feet
Difficulty: Moderate. Steep for the last 20 minutes
Group size: Maximum 8
Rate: $48 a person. Under 12 free

What to bring

Shoes with a sole. Sneakers are fine; sandals are not
A layer for the top, because it is ten degrees colder up there and you will be sitting still
Water. There is none on the route

That is the whole list. If you have no shoes for it, the desk keeps loaners up to a men's 13.

Included

The guide, who has walked it several hundred times
A headlamp each, handed out at the top
A flask of something hot, and one of something not
The ride back down to the lobby if your legs have had enough

Where to be

Where it starts

Past the pickleball courts, at the end of the gravel path. The guide is there fifteen minutes before and walks the group out on the minute, because the light does not wait.

If you are staying on property, dial 4 from any room phone and somebody will walk you over.

The route

All photography

A guest walking the coastal path along the headland at sunset, the resort stepping along the ridge behind and surf below

Flowering coastal scrub and rocks beside the headland path, the sea behind them in the last light

The rocks and the sea below the headland path at sunset, the sun low over the water and the far headland beyond

Before you book

Canceling, and weather

Cancel up to four hours before with nothing to pay. If the guide cancels for wind or visibility, which happens perhaps one evening in ten, nothing is charged and you are offered the next one with a space. The guide makes that call rather than leaving it to you at the gate.

Who it suits

Anyone who walks regularly. It is steady rather than technical, with one steep section. Not suitable for strollers or for anyone who cannot manage an hour of continuous uphill. Children walk free and the youngest who has done it comfortably was seven.

Accessibility

The route is an unsurfaced track with loose rock on the upper section and it is not wheelchair accessible. The desk can arrange a vehicle to the lower viewpoint, which has most of the view and none of the climb, with two days' notice.

Private walks

The whole group of eight can be taken privately on any evening it runs. Ask at the desk or through the events planner if it is part of something larger.