"Get out. Get lost." A strange thing for a hotel to say to a guest, but the phrase stretches across the wall of the SCP Redmond lobby in letters eight inches high. The instructions do continue—"Get found. Life is good."—making it clear that the aphorism is meant to inspire. Welcome to a hotel more devoted to mindfulness than room service.

Opened in a historic building in Redmond, Oregon, right before the pandemic began, SCP has singlehandedly recast the sleepy downtown. Some 17 miles north, the booming city of Bend has long overshadowed its smaller sibling, even if the two municipalities do share an airport. While Bend grew with brewery after brewery, upscale dining and an outdoor mall, it got the skyrocketing home prices to match; more humble Redmond remained less a vacation town and more of a locals hang.

"Redmond was up and coming," says SCP cofounder Pam Cruse, who opened the Redmond location shortly after her first property in Colorado Springs; now her mini chain numbers nine. The name stands for Soul Community Planet, a list of priorities in what Cruse calls holistic hospitality.

Behind the three story brick facade in Redmond, that means calming neutral tones and plenty of plants, a cafe full of vegetarian fare just off the lobby and, of course, big quotes on the wall. "By discovering nature, you discover yourself," reads another. 

Nearly 50 hotel rooms reflect a thorough renovation of the 1928 structure, with a small number designated as "peaceful" offerings. Besides the sound machines and water carafes found throughout the hotel, these specialized retreats replace TVs and blue-light clocks with yoga mats, oil diffusers, and meditation pillows. "A respite from screen time and digital addictions many of us have," says Cruse, pointing out that the great outdoors is why most visitors choose Central Oregon the first place.

The streets of downtown Bend regularly swell with bachelor parties and girls' trips, ski crews or golf crews or mountain bike crews lining up outside brew pubs. But if Bend is a nightlife capital, Redmond gets up a little earlier—maybe thanks to all the quality sleep that comes with noise machines and no screens.

While Redmond does have a smattering of breweries (as any Oregon settlement seems to require), from the front door of SCP there are donut shops in either direction. Murals bring color to the still-industrial downtown, and locals take meetings in SCP's cafe, Provisions Market.

Speaking of health, everything served at Provisions, next-door bistro Terra Kitchen, small-plates bar Wayfarer Club, and the seasonal Rooftop restaurant are plant-forward: vegetarian but not completely vegan. The menu fit the hotel's ethos, says Cruse. Redmond is the first SCP to go full veggie. Even without meat, the dining array is impressively broad for a hotel with only 49 rooms.

A plaque behind SCP's front desk tallies the give-back efforts the company supports, from youth programming (104,000 individuals affected so far, which seems like a lot) to trees planted (113,000). But for all the health kicks, for self and planet, the whole place has a sense of humor about itself; whimsical climbing figurings decorate room walls, and a giant tapestry splashes a colorful face on one lobby wall.

With the climbing center of Smith Rock State Park just down the road, and the classically outdoorsy Central Oregon landscape in every direction, Redmond can make a case for itself as a Bend alternative. At SCP, the town manages to hit somewhere right between sleek and crunchy.

SCP Redmond

521 SW 6th St, Redmond
Travel time from Seattle: 5.5 hours