If you’re looking for an easy weekend getaway from Los Angeles, I highly recommend doing a road trip up to San Luis Obispo County! Back in college, I went to SLO in the winter with a couple of friends (blog post here). It was overcast and cold the whole time, but we got some iconic photos in the sand dunes! It was a very quick trip, and I’ve always wanted to return when it was sunny to do more hiking and exploring. My boyfriend, Mayur, had never been before, so we decided to go for a long weekend and escaped a bit of the August heatwave in Los Angeles.
HOW MANY DAYS TO STAY IN SAN LUIS OBISPO
When people say that they’re going to San Luis Obispo, or “SLO,” they typically mean San Luis Obispo County, not just the city of San Luis Obispo. For just the city of San Luis Obispo, you probably only need 1 day. I’d recommend visiting the surrounding coastal towns like Pismo Beach and Avila Beach as well. You can do a lot in 2 days, but if you want to do more hiking or have a beach day, 3 or 4 would allow you to do so at a leisurely pace (idk how to do that yet but maybe one day this blog will be called Leisurely by Laura).
WHERE TO STAY IN SAN LUIS OBISPO
We stayed at the Vagabond Inn, a mile outside of downtown San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo (the city) is more inland, but we also explored the nearby coastal towns of Pismo Beach, Avila Beach, Los Osos, and Morro Bay. In planning this trip, logistically, I tried to make an itinerary that made the most sense driving-wise, but if you do double back to places (which we did), it’s not that bad since the beach towns aren’t too far away and you don’t have to deal with LA traffic (which is just as bad as what you’ve heard). The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo is super cute and kitschy, but there are plenty of hotels and motels in all the towns, so pick whatever fits your aesthetic and budget.
PRO ROADTRIP TIP
To ensure there was music we both liked (throwback to when my friend Camilla didn’t allow Taylor Swift on our whole Death Valley road trip), we made a playlist based on the prompts below that I compiled from various Pinterest lists. This resulted in 5 hours of music and sparked some fun conversations and old memories, 10/10 would recommend for your next road trip!
DAY 1: SATURDAY, AUGUST 23
We left LA around 9:30am and didn’t stop until we made it to Santa Barbara for lunch at Santa Barbara Public Market. All the public parking lots and garages we saw were free for the first 75 minutes, similar to Santa Monica. It’s a cute indoor food hall with some solid options, but it’s not too big or overwhelming. It wasn’t too crowded, even at lunchtime on a Saturday, and we didn’t have to wait in any long lines or circle like a hawk to find a table. Mayur and I shared a veggie breakfast burrito from Little Heart Cafecito and some kimchi arancini from Seoulmate Kitchen that had a lot of fun Asian fusion menu items (gochujang mac & cheese!).
One of my favorite ice cream places, Rori’s Artisanal Creamery, had a stall, but we had a sweet treat planned at Kin Bakeshop, which was only a 15-minute drive away. It’s in the same shopping area as a Vons, and there was plenty of parking, which we love. There was a line out the door, but it only took about 10 minutes. There were cream tops for any kind of coffee or tea drink and mochi donuts. I ended up getting a Thai Tea cream top and Mayur tried a mugwort cream top latte, which tasted earthy kind of more like a matcha/hojicha tea. This ended up being our favorite thing we ate on the trip, and we’ve joked about driving back up just for this cafe.
Then, we headed up to San Luis Obispo. We were too early to check into the motel, so we stopped in at the Madonna Inn. I’ve never been to Dollyland, but this is how I imagine it to be. Everything is pink and kitschy and whimsical. They’re known for their pink champagne cake, but there were just too many sweet treats to be had, so I skipped it again. Maybe on my next trip up there. The inn has 3 dining areas, but only one was open at the time. Upstairs has the gift shop where you can buy colored water glasses that they use in the restaurant, as well as some very fun Madonna Inn merch.
At 3 pm, we checked into the Vagabond Inn, dropped our bags, and did the short drive to downtown SLO. Last time, I stayed super close to downtown, which was nice since we could walk everywhere, but finding parking wasn’t too hard. We saw bubblegum alley, which is just as disgusting as I remember it, but yet still not as cool or as big as the one in Seattle.
We checked out Scout Coffee and walked into a few cute shoppy shops in Mission Mall like Idlewild Flowers & Gifts and the Buen Dia Market. I wanted to be at Montana de Oro State Park for sunset, so we went to SLODOCO for a donut for a sweet treat. Five years ago, I had a religious experience with their crème brulee donut, but unfortunately they had recently just sold out of them. Tragique. We shared a boysenberry cream cheese pillow and a Nutella “docro” (aka a cronut) and they were still good!
While it was 80 degrees and sunny in San Luis Obispo, Los Osos is on the coast, about a 30-minute drive west. As we approached Montana de Oro State Park, it started getting overcast, and the temperature dropped around 20 degrees. The ocean views were almost completely obstructed by the fog, and I was super disappointed since it was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to SLO. However, it was still nice to not be sweating, and we walked about 3 miles, which was most of the Bluff Trail. Not many people were at the park, and we did get to see several deer, which may not have happened if it was more crowded and sunny.
For dinner, we went back to downtown SLO to a marketplace called The Creamery, which is mainly outdoors and has a bunch of different restaurants. It was pretty busy around 8pm on a Saturday night, but luckily, we didn’t have to wait very long for a table at Bear & the Wren. They specialize in pizza and you can choose between Detroit-style and Neapolitan style for most of the pizzas on their menu. Mayur and I decided to share a cucumber salad and a hot honey and ricotta Detroit-style pizza.
DAY 2: SUNDAY, AUGUST 24
My friend, Dory Ann, has been to SLO several times since one of her best friends from college lives there. She had recommended we go to Wayward Baking, which is definitely a local “if you know, you know” kind of spot. On Google Maps, it is just labeled as “Bakery.” They have limited hours and have delicious sweet and savory pastries. I got a tomato Danish, Mayur got a strawberry goat cheese and pistachio Danish, and I got a peanut butter & jelly croiffin (croissant/muffin, you need to try one if you haven’t) to-go. These did rival many LA pastry places, and the pricing was very similar.
After, we headed north to Morro Bay. A blog I had read during my trip research said there are often sea otters right by the Great American Fish Company in the morning, but alas there were none when we went. Both me and this other little boy were disappointed.
We drove down the road to walk around Morro Rock, and as we were pulling into the parking lot, we saw a small crowd of people looking at a pod of otters floating together!! Needless to say, my trip was made in that moment, and I’m glad I didn’t have to take another L.
You can’t walk all the way around Morro Rock, but we walked as far as we could, and then watched some of the surfers at Morro Beach. It started to get foggy again. Within 40 minutes of us getting there, the blue skies vanished, and haze covered most of the rock.
There are a few shops to venture into, like a jerky shop, and then I got some saltwater taffy. It was only $3.50 for a little bag, and you could mix as many flavors as you want!
It’s kind of crazy how quickly the weather changes along the coast. Avila Beach was 20 miles south, and it was back to sunny skies. Avila Valley Barn is a free family-friendly attraction with animals, haystacks, U-Pick, and a market store with all the fun jams, jars of pickled veggies, pies, and fresh produce. They also had corn on the cob (cash only). You can buy heads of lettuce to feed the sheep, goats, cows, and chickens, and they love it. I can’t believe I didn’t see a single highland cow in Scotland this summer, but saw one at this farm in central California.
After about 30 minutes, we headed to the beach and sat and ate the PB&J croiffin above the water. We walked the town, which was approximately 2 blocks wide. Nothing was really speaking to us food-wise, so we decided to wait to eat lunch until we got to Pismo Beach.
This was by far the most crowded place we went to on this trip. Pismo Beach felt super touristy and was slightly bigger, maybe 5 blocks wide. There was a pier, and the beach extended along the coast as far as the eye could see. We walked down the pier a bit and watched the surfers, then ended up at Papi’s Grill for tacos. It was nothing fancy, but there were a variety of different tacos and they did the job.
While it was the hottest part of the day, it was only about 72 degrees and there was a breeze, so we headed to Pismo Preserve to do a little hike. The parking lot is pretty small, and I imagine it can get crowded. You have to register your car on an app to park, but parking is free. I had planned to do the Spring to Spring trail, which was a little under 4 miles round trip, but the trail map looked like it went a little further into the hills than I really wanted. We ended up following a 2-ish mile trail, which was completely exposed to the sun, but we had ocean views the whole time. I imagine this hike would be beautiful in the spring when the grass is green, but since it was August, the hill was brown. It wasn’t too strenuous at all, and it was cool to see the beach and Pismo pier from above.
Since it was sunny and we were ahead of schedule, we decided to try our luck and return to Montana de Oro State Park. Thankfully, we were successful! It was really pretty and felt like a completely different experience. Morro Rock was visible in the distance and could see all the cliffs and hills that we had missed the day before. I’m really glad we got to see the landscape in all its glory!!
We stopped at the motel for a quick shower before going to dinner at Novo in downtown SLO for dinner. While a lot of restaurants offer reservations, it didn’t seem like you really needed to make them. Novo had a nice outdoor back patio with string lights and heat lamps. I’m kind of confused by the menu since there were Asian dishes but also steak. We shared a beet and burrata appetizer and then Mayur got noodles and I got risotto.
DAY 3: MONDAY, AUGUST 25
We checked out of the motel around 9 am. I had researched a lot of coffee shops while planning this trip, so it was hard to pick a final one to try. Ultimately, I wanted a cinnamon roll from Old West Cinnamon Rolls in Pismo Beach, so we went to Esteem a few blocks over. It’s similar to Saba Surf in Los Angeles in that it’s part surf shop part artisanal coffee counter. Mayur got a sage latte and I got a seasonal latte called the Refined Blackberry, which had blackberry bergamot syrup, orange blossom, and bruleed vanilla sugar on top.
From there, we walked over to Beachin Biscuits, which appeared to be run by high school boys. I just got a biscuit and eggs, and the teenage cashier recommended a side of honey butter, which was a great addition. These were extremely filling, and I took half of my biscuit to go. I did not leave room to eat a cinnamon roll, so we just picked one up at Old West Cinnamon Rolls and brought it home. I got the one with cream cheese frosting and they really load it up!
From there, we headed back to Santa Barbara Public Market for a bathroom break and then got back to Los Angeles around 2 pm and avoided any rush hour traffic!
Overall, I’d say this was a successful trip! We got to explore several towns and experienced SLO with both overcast and sunny skies. This was a PACKED itinerary and we walked 20,000 steps a day. We didn’t really feel like we were rushed for anything, but I think if you wanted to do it a more leisurely pace, I’d recommend adding a beach day at Avila Beach (less crowded) or Pismo Beach (more crowded). If I were to return, I’d like to go in May or June to see the green hills and do some more hikes. I’d also maybe go further north up to Cambria or Hearst Castle.
RECOMMENDED READING
My First Trip to SLO
Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Park Road Trip
Squeezing in a San Diego Staycation
