A Fun Three-Day Adventure in Butte County

Where to stay

Begin your three-day adven­ture with a serene morn­ing walk around the gor­geous grounds of Chap­pelle de L’Artiste Château & Retreat. This unique glamp­ing site from Cre­ative Excur­sions offers near­ly every­thing you can imag­ine, from breath­tak­ing views of the sur­round­ing val­ley to a pool­side oasis that includes a giant koi pond, and it even has its very own par­ty cave with a stage and bar. You will get a com­fy night’s sleep in a spa­cious tent that includes a queen bed, air con­di­tion­ing, mini fridge, cof­fee mak­er and more. It’s a per­fect place to clear your mind and immerse your­self in the tran­quil­i­ty of Paradise.

Where to Eat

Head over to Deb­bie’s Restau­rant in Par­adise for a hearty break­fast. This local favorite is known for its unique thin-and-crispy pan­cakes, deli­cious omelets, and friend­ly service. 

Anoth­er must-eat spot in Par­adise is the icon­ic Joy Lyn’s Can­dies, where our diet went com­plete­ly out the win­dow, and we left with more choco­late than an 8‑year-old on Halloween. 

For lunch and din­ner, there are plen­ty of local restau­rants and cafes to choose from.

Things to Do

Head over to the near­by Par­adise Lake for a fun day of hik­ing that includes gor­geous views of the lake, with plen­ty of shade for those warm sum­mer days, as the trees pro­vide the per­fect canopy above.

Evening in Paradise

When you get back to your tent and rinse off in their onsite pri­vate show­ers, take a tour of the grounds, and make your way over to the apt­ly named Burnt Barn Dis­tillery. When we vis­it­ed, they were putting the fin­ish­ing touch­es on the Dis­tillery for its grand open­ing lat­er in 2023, but we were lucky enough to get the grand tour from one of the owners. 

Fol­low­ing the tour, our gra­cious host and her amaz­ing hus­band sat down with us for a deli­cious din­ner, as they shared tales of 2018’s Camp Fire that dev­as­tat­ed Par­adise and the remark­able com­mu­ni­ty that came togeth­er to rebuild bet­ter than before. Our expe­ri­ence at Chap­pelle de L’Artiste was one we won’t for­get, and while we can’t guar­an­tee you will have the chance to sit down with the own­ers for a chat, we are hap­py to say that the host fam­i­ly of this beau­ti­ful prop­er­ty man­ages to out­shine the prop­er­ty itself.

Where to Stay

We checked into an Airbnb in Meri­am Park, Chico, and it was the per­fect place for our next cou­ple of days. This is a new­er neigh­bor­hood, with every­thing you could want with­in a short 3 to 5 minute dri­ve, and Down­town Chico only 10 min­utes away. The Chico Mar­ket­place is around the cor­ner for those that get that shop­ping itch, and that’s where we rent­ed our car for the few days we were in town. All that being said, you can lit­er­al­ly skip the rental, as there are great restau­rants, cof­fee shops and more only steps away in Meri­am Park’s Tank Dis­trict. And if you need to, you can always catch a short Uber ride.

Where to Eat

Since we stayed at this Airbnb for a cou­ple of nights, we took advan­tage of the great food near­by on Days 2 and 3. For break­fast, you can walk to Day­camp Cof­fee or take the short dri­ve to Down­town Chico’s Tin Roof Bak­ery & Café, and you’re guar­an­teed to start your morn­ing off right. Our biggest issue at Tin Roof was decid­ing what delec­table treat we want­ed with our morn­ing coffee! 

For lunch or din­ner, we can’t rec­om­mend Bur­ban Kitchen in Meri­am Park enough, as the menu has plen­ty of mouth­wa­ter­ing options, and the fan­cy flat­bread and pork rib tacos were out of this world! Final­ly, for anoth­er great meal with a local brew, you can walk just up the street from Bur­ban Kitchen to Farm­ers Brew­ing Restau­rant and Tap­room for a great date night spot.

Things to Do

The first stop as you make your way from Par­adise to your Airbnb in Chico has to be the Butte Creek Water­shed Over­look. What seems like an incon­spic­u­ous stop on the side of the high­way is actu­al­ly a sprawl­ing look at the 510,000-acre canyon below which is local­ly known as a ​“minia­ture Grand Canyon.” With easy access park­ing that leads right to the edge of the over­look, any­one can take in the views or add a love lock to the count­less locks hooked on the chain-link fence that acts both as a bar­ri­er and an end­less trib­ute of unbreak­able love for the many that have passed through over the years.

While there are many activ­i­ties and hikes to choose from, on our sec­ond day we hap­pened to be in town for the full moon, and the Fore­bay Aquat­ic Cen­ter in Oroville has a moon­light pad­dle that it offers a few times a year in late sum­mer and ear­ly fall, which end­ed up being the high­light of an unfor­get­table trip. 

After about a 25 minute dri­ve from our Airbnb, we pulled into the Ther­mal­i­to North Fore­bay, met our group of pad­dlers, put on our life jack­ets, and after a brief safe­ty run­down, got in our kayak and set out for a breath­tak­ing full moon over the lake. If you are inter­est­ed in this activ­i­ty, we high­ly rec­om­mend it, and you can get updates about the annu­al dates on the Fore­bay Aquat­ic Center’s web­site.

If you are any­thing like us, you will like­ly be ready for a quick bite, show­er, and bed after all the excite­ment, and that leads into our final full day in Butte County.

Spend your third day explor­ing the vibrant city of Chico and the beau­ti­ful parks that make it feel like a true oasis in the desert.

Where to Stay

When a good thing is work­ing, don’t change it. So that’s why we stayed anoth­er night in our Meri­am Park Airbnb and rec­om­mend you do the same.

Where to Eat

There real­ly are so many options, but as we said above, our go-to for break­fast is Tin Roof in down­town, which went well with our full day of adven­ture. For lunch, explore Down­town Chico’s din­ing scene. You’ll find a vari­ety of cafes, bistros, and eater­ies offer­ing diverse cui­sine. We grabbed a bite on the go, and after a full day of adven­ture, we went to Farm­ers Brew­ing Restau­rant and Tap­room, where a flight of their in-house beer, wings, and some pork-bel­ly and salmon bowls reen­er­gized us for our night­cap in town.

Things to Do

Spend your third day explor­ing the vibrant city of Chico.

1. Upper Bid­well Park: Since sum­mer days can get hot, we rec­om­mend start­ing your day with a hike in Upper Bid­well Park. The Yahi Trail fol­lows the crys­tal-clear Big Chico Creek with plen­ty of tree cov­er that offers the per­fect morn­ing hike before the after­noon heat — we were even lucky enough to see a fam­i­ly of deer pass by as we were cool­ing off in the river!

2. Low­er Bid­well Park Swim­ming Hole: With the heat real­ly start­ing to ramp up, we went to one of the coolest — lit­er­al­ly and fig­u­ra­tive­ly — city park attrac­tions we’ve ever seen. Sycamore Pool at One Mile Recre­ation Area in Low­er Bid­well Park is a mas­sive pool of con­stant­ly flow­ing spring water that pro­vides a beau­ti­ful and nat­ur­al back­drop, with a fun way to cool down dur­ing the long sum­mer days. 

3. Coin-Op Game Room: Vis­it Down­town Chico for din­ner, drinks, and fun. With sev­er­al places to choose from, you have plen­ty of night-life options in Chico. How­ev­er, if you’re like us, you can end your night play­ing old-school arcades and enjoy­ing live music at the Coin-Op Game Room, which is locat­ed on the same streets as our bonus option below. The Coin-Op has food and drinks as well, but you should know that after a cer­tain hour it becomes 21 and up.

4. Bonus: Thurs­day Night Market in the heart of Down­town Chico. Every Thurs­day from May through Sep­tem­ber from 6pm to 9pm, you can browse a wide selec­tion of fresh, local­ly grown pro­duce, arti­sanal goods, and hand­made crafts. It’s a great place to pick up sou­venirs or snacks for your jour­ney. To help with fun and safe­ty, the streets are closed off to pedes­tri­ans and ven­dors. We had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy a stroll around the mar­ket, and then hit up the Coin-Op.

Butte Coun­ty, Cal­i­for­nia, offers a per­fect blend of nature, art, and culi­nary delights. From the enchant­i­ng glamp­ing expe­ri­ence at Chap­pelle de L’Artiste to the vibrant neigh­bor­hoods of Chico, this region has some­thing for every trav­el­er. Whether you’re indulging in mouth­wa­ter­ing dish­es at local eater­ies, embark­ing on out­door adven­tures, or explor­ing the artis­tic expres­sions that define the area, Butte Coun­ty promis­es a mem­o­rable and immer­sive experience. 

So, pack your bags, and get ready to dis­cov­er the beau­ty and charm of Butte Coun­ty, Cal­i­for­nia. Your three-day adven­ture awaits!