San Luis Obispo
First and foremost, it’s SLO. Not San Luis Obispo. Or San Louie. It’s just… SLO. The nickname is both a nice shorthand way of referring to San Luis Obispo and a great reflection on the vibe of the town. A college town at heart, SLO sits right between LA and SF and feels like the perfect transition from southern California to northern California. The mornings are cool and foggy (like the Bay Area) and the afternoons are warm and sunny (hi LA!). Out of all the places we visited on our trip, SLO is the place I most want to move to while also being the place I least want to visit again (fear not travelers, lemme explain).
SLO is a small town with about 50,000 residents, most of whom are in some way, shape, or form affiliated with the college. In the summers the town can be quiet and sleepy while during the school year (assuming it’s not covid times) the town can feel busy and bustling. A town like SLO is kind of my dream place to live. It’s extremely bike friendly with virtually every street having dedicated bike lanes. There’s a great mix of low brow booze and food (for college kids and 44 year old dads alike) and high end cocktails and upscale eateries (for college professors and 38 year old moms alike). But since the town is small, it took us about 2 weeks to hit all the highlights. So when I say I wouldn’t visit again, it’s not because I didn’t love SLO. I loved the place. It’s just because I’ve kinda seen it all there. Though I guess I would go back for the cake at the Madonna Inn.
What to do in San Luis Obispo
Architecture Graveyard - 100% do this hike. It’s about 2.5 miles roundtrip with the majority of the hike being down a long gravel road on the edge of Cal Poly’s campus. The graveyard is technically the “Experimental Practices Laboratory” and besides having an extremely cool name, it is where students in the architecture program deploy really radical design concepts. Each year a different student or student team gets to leave their mark on San Luis Obispo with a design not fit for the rest of the world. In all there’s about 20-30 designs laid out on a grassy hill overlooking town. Finding the graveyard is kind of a pain in the ass (you can’t google maps it like I tried to). Read this article for instructions on where to park, where to walk, and how to find the architecture graveyard.
Thursday night farmer’s market - running most of the span of downtown, the farmer’s market is especially delightful when it’s dark and the street lights light up the town. It honestly makes you feel like you’re in a small European village
Bishop Peak Trail (from Patricia drive) - there are 9 volcanic peaks around SLO (called The Nine Sisters) with Bishop’s peak being the tallest. The Patricia entrance is the more difficult of the two paths to the summit of Bishop Peak so if you’re looking for a little bit of a challenge, take this one (take the other path if you’re a loser). The views from the summit are pretty spectacular and the entire hike is about 3.5 miles.
Pismo Beach - Go to Pismo to see the beach but try to avoid it on weekends. The place gets overrun by tourists and kinda feels tacky.
Avila Beach - Skip Pismo and instead go to Avila. This is the locals beach and is much smaller and cozier than Pismo.
Morro Beach - we never actually went to Morro beach to go to the beach. We went to see Morro rock, a volcanic plug that vaguely resembles Jabba the Hutt
The Dorn Pyramid - a pyramid in a cemetery. Kinda weird looking. Kinda spooky. Worth your time but only if you’re in the town for more than a month
Motor Inn - the remains of the world’s first motel can be found at the very edge of town. I love seeing weird shit like this but you can skip it unless, again, you’re staying in SLO for more than a month like we did
Cerro San Luis - a super easy hike that gives you enough elevation gain to get a good view of SLO
Where to Drink Coffee
Kin coffee - great coffee right in the middle of downtown. The breakfast burrito was the first thing I ate when we got to SLO and it was the last thing I had on our way out of town
Scout - we ended up at Scout probably 5 or 6 times during our trip. There are two locations, one downtown and the other on the north end of town. The coffee is great and Megan swears the sweatshirt she bought there is the most comfortable thing she owns.
Libertine - somehow Libertine is a brewery (see below) and a coffee shop. How you master those seemingly unrelated things is beyond me, but they did it.
Mule bakery and coffee (Arroyo Grande) - not shitting you, probably the top 5 best blueberry muffins I’ve ever had
Where to Drink Drinks
One thing about SLO is there is no shortage of booze in this town. Maybe it’s because it’s a college town or maybe it has something to do with the chill beach vibe, but there are wineries, breweries, and cocktail lounges all over this damn place. If you’re into wine, Paso Robles is about 30-45 minutes NE of SLO and is like Napa without all the silicon valley assholes. Head south towards Santa Barbara and you’ll hit a few other wineries like Laetitia and Peacock Cellars. Go east and…more wineries. Basically wine is everywhere. A few of our favorites:
Breweries
There Does Not Exist - this is the actual name of the brewery. Besides having tasty brews, all of the beers sound like they were named by an astrophysicist on an acid trip (examples: “Transit of the Binary Star”, “Dawn Keeper”, “Moonset”, “Sowing the Sun”). It’s not the coziest place to sit and have a beer (located in an industrial park) but the beer names alone should draw you in.
Libertine - good beers downtown
Bang the Drum - nestled into some woods in drab looking office park, Bang the Drum was pleasantly serene to stop and have a beer and watch our kids terrorize other people looking for serenity
Central Coast Brewery - not my favorite brewery but it was big and has a kitchen so it has that going for it.
Wineries
Sculpterra (Paso Robles) - Ok the wine here isn’t the best and the people pouring the wine are nice but maybe a bit too talkative but if you need a reason to come here it’s to see all the weird sculptures scattered around the winery.
Restaurants
Ember - located in Arroyo Grande about 15 minutes south of SLO. I’m not exaggerating when I say this place had the best lasagna I’ve ever had in my life, period. Better than your grandmama’s lasagna by a long shot, I’ve never once had a waiter tell me “the lasagna costs $30 and it is worth it” with a straight face. But the waiter did deliver this advice with a straight face and I did order the $30 plate and I almost ordered it again, it was that good. Great bar menu here as well.
Madonna Inn - do not eat dinner here. Come from the happy hour drinks and a slice of cake and to gawk at the explosion of pink. But the meal is pricey and overrated. There’s also a garden that you can wander around (supposedly only for guests but ain’t nobody checkin hotel keys on your way in). Supposedly no two rooms at the Inn are the same (we just came for the cake). Also the men’s urinal is a sight to behold (has anyone ever typed those words? I doubt it)
High Street Deli - when I say the sandwiches here will change your life I am not kidding. They are freakin delicious. We ended up eating here 4 or 5 times. Also has a killer selection of t-shirts if you’re looking for some local swag
Lincoln Market and Deli - this spot was only about two blocks from our house and somehow we only went there 1 time during our month long stay. Lincoln street has an array of sandwiches, hot meals, and judging by the long line on sunday mornings, a really good brunch
Flour House - looking for fancy pizza, go here
Sidecar - we only went for happy hour drinks and snacks. They have a few variations of an Old Fashioned that are pretty tasty.
Luna Red - I don’t think i’ve ever complained about this but we were in and out of this restaurant in like 30 minutes. The food was great but within 30 seconds of sitting down the server was next to us prompting us to order and then about 8 minutes later we had our food. But hey, you should totally go there. It has comfortable outdoor sitting and is located right next to the Mission in the heart of downtown