Kennolyn hosts corporate retreats, company off-sites, leadership meetings, weddings and private parties at two adjoining venues, Hilltop Hacienda and Stone Creek Village, with weddings for up to 300 guests and overnight lodging on site. The property covers 450 acres of the Santa Cruz Mountains at Soquel, California, a short drive from Highway 1.
Seminars and company events
Teams come from San Francisco, Palo Alto and Silicon Valley for single-day meetings, multi-day retreats, leadership off-sites and team building. Indoor and outdoor meeting spaces are set up for each program, and all-inclusive retreat packages combine lodging, meals and activities. The activities are part of the reason to come: a high ropes course, a climbing wall, tennis and pickleball courts, cornhole, a heated pool, and evenings around a campfire with s'mores in the redwood amphitheater. A cocktail hour with a bar can close the working day. The events team supplies meeting room diagrams with capacities on request.
Weddings and receptions
Hilltop Hacienda hosts day weddings for up to 300 guests, with a ceremony in a redwood grove or on the lawn, dinner overlooking Monterey Bay and dancing in a courtyard lit with string lights around its fountains. The package includes 5.5 hours of exclusive use, a coordinator for the rehearsal and the day, a planning meeting, a private tasting, cake cutting, and tables, chairs, linens and tableware. Couples get ready in Casa de Caldwell and the Casita.
Stone Creek Village hosts the Weekend Wedding Retreat, from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Guests stay in cabins, the ceremony takes place in the Redwood Amphitheater, and the Town Square becomes the reception space. Monie's Cottage and the Museum serve as getting-ready rooms, and Caldwell Lodge hosts the late party. The weekend includes the recreation areas, a Friday campfire and fireside lounges. Hilltop Hacienda also offers a four-hour reception format for rehearsal dinners, birthdays and holiday parties.
Rooms and capacities
Hilltop Hacienda has a courtyard and gardens, a lawn, a redwood grove ceremony site and an indoor fireplace lounge, for up to 300 wedding guests. Stone Creek Village has the Redwood Amphitheater, the Town Square, Caldwell Lodge and its cabins and recreation grounds. Meeting room capacities are given in the diagrams the events team sends.
Accommodation
Overnight accommodation is on site, with cabins in Stone Creek Village and cabin suites set in the redwood forest. The site does not state the number of rooms or beds.
Catering
Catering is in-house. The culinary team cooks with local ingredients and adapts menus to each group and the length of its stay. Weddings include a full catering package and a tasting.
History and setting
Max and Marion Caldwell founded Kennolyn in 1946 as a children's camp, named after their children Ken and Carolyn. It still runs summer camps for more than 2,000 children and has hosted weddings and events since 1995, when their granddaughter Pam Caldwell Nootbaar opened the property to them. The family still owns the land, much of it kept in its natural state.
Getting there
The property is at 8400 Glen Haven Road, Soquel, a short drive from Highway 1 and just under 45 minutes from the San Francisco Bay Area.
