Escape to the Melrose River Club in San Marcos

“I didn’t know what to expect,” says Alexis Chernow of New Orleans, who along with her friends shouts encouragement, chants, and occasionally sings a song for the rowers. It’s both her first Texas Water Safari and first stay at the boutique property, which opened last spring as the only hotel on the San Marcos River. “We met the owners this morning,” she says. “They had mimosas for us to enjoy with the race. We didn’t even know we were going to get to see a race. It’s great.”

The Melrose River Club covers 12 acres, with three along the river that are ideal for tubing and swimming. It’s my first Safari, as well, and I’m more than happy relaxing in the shade and an Adirondack chair while 150 canoes pass by on a grueling, multiday, 230-plus-mile race to the Texas Gulf Coast.

In the lodge, a converted old river house just a short stroll upland from the water, I meet native Texan Max Schleder, who explains to me that he opened the club with his wife, Melodie, because of local connections. “I grew up here on the river,” he says. “I’ve paddled it 10,000 times, upstream and downstream. We wanted to promote that association with nature and be a conservation steward. Even though it changes through the seasons, the river is the life vein of the community and this property.”

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Perhaps the most important responsibility of riverfront property owners is removing non-native grasses, trees, and other plants trying to take hold. As we walk the winding trails leading past cypress, ash, and pecan trees, Schleder says that type of work has no season; it’s a year-round challenge that he takes seriously.

There are several winding trails leading guests past to the river to fire pits and shallow ponds with lily pads and dragonflies zipping along the water’s surface. Blackberry bushes grow wild and big barred owls hoot from overhead.

But guests aren’t roughing it at the Melrose River Club. Taking some inspiration from trips to Acapulco, the couple designed the public spaces with a vintage beach club aesthetic, only with modern conveniences like a popular champagne vending machine in the lobby. There are three-dozen upscale accommodations, including Park Model cabins with kitchenettes and a dozen chicly renovated shipping container casitas with outdoor showers. The property’s layout was designed for seclusion and tranquility (only guests 16 and older are permitted), and units don’t share walls with other units. Rates adjust seasonally, between $225 and $325, depending on typs of cabin and location.

The club’s most popular draw by a country mile is the on-site swimming pool. The in-ground, 16-by-60 cement pool is also surrounded by private, rentable cabanas with drink service. There are limited conditional public pool passes ($25), and Schleder teases they’re adding a poolside kitchen later this fall.

There are always seats available to the public for the monthly supper club. Prepared by local chefs and served by the river or in the grove (and soon, poolside), these gatherings typify the al fresco elegance of the surroundings.

Located only 10 minutes from Texas State University, the Melrose River Club is growing popular and convenient for football weekends, parents’ days, and graduations, and yet it still feels like a world away. General manager Margaret Wardrop says, “I won’t discount how conveniently close to San Marcos we are, but many of our guests just want to come and be right here.”

It’s close, cozy, cosmopolitan, and, just like the group cheering on the Texas River Safari paddlers realized, it’s among the most comfortable spots for watching all those extreme athletes push themselves to their limits next June. And don’t get me started on the mimosas.