San Luis Obispo: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
San Luis Obispo grew around a Spanish mission founded in 1772, and it stayed a small ranching town until the railway arrived in the 1890s. Today it is a university town with a creek running through the middle and a taste for the eccentric: a wall of chewed gum, and a pink hotel famous across America. This is a walk of about two hours downtown, with a short drive at the end to the Madonna Inn. Come on a Thursday, and finish at the evening market.
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A short history of San Luis Obispo
In 1772 Spain's soldiers in California were starving, and in a nearby valley they called the "Valley of the Bears" they hunted grizzly bears and saved themselves. In the same year, on 1 September 1772, the friar Junípero Serra founded his fifth mission here, named after Saint Louis of Toulouse. Native people shot burning arrows onto the mission's roofs, so it was one of the first in California to be covered with clay tiles. The town was incorporated as a city in 1856, the railway reached it in 1894, and the technical college "Cal Poly" opened in 1901. In 1925 the Motel Inn opened here, the first place in the world to be called a motel, exactly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The ten best sights in San Luis Obispo
1Mission San Luis Obispo de TolosaStill a parish church; the small museum beside it is worth half an hour
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2History Center of SLO County
In the old Carnegie library facing the mission; free
3Fremont TheaterLook up at the neon after dark even if you are not going in
4Madonna InnGo in for a slice of cake and to see the pink dining room — and the men's room
5Cal PolyThe university's student-run shops sell its own cheese, chocolate and wine
6Bubblegum AlleyTwo minutes is enough; bring your own gum to add
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7Bishop Peak
A steep two-hour hike from town; go early, there is little shade
8Morro RockNo climbing allowed; walk around its base to watch otters in the harbour
9Montaña de OroCliff paths and coves 30 minutes west; spring wildflowers gave it the name
10Avila BeachA sheltered beach that is often sunny when the coast to the north is in fog
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in San Luis Obispo →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in San Luis Obispo:
Free walking tours in San Luis Obispo
A mission and its odd little town
San Luis Obispo grew around a Spanish mission founded in 1772, and it stayed a small ranching town until the railway arrived in the 1890s. Today it is a university town with a creek running through the middle and a taste for the eccentric: a wall of chewed gum, and a pink hotel famous across America. This is a walk of about two hours downtown, with a short drive at the end to the Madonna Inn. Come on a Thursday, and finish at the evening market.
- Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa · Founded by Junípero Serra in 1772, the fifth of California's 21 missions. After local tribes set its thatched roofs on fire with burning arrows, the padres made clay roof tiles here — the red tile roof that became the mark of California architecture.
- Mission Plaza · In the 1970s the town closed the street in front of the mission and opened the banks of San Luis Obispo Creek as a public plaza. It is now the town's main square, with paths and bridges down along the water.
- History Center of SLO County · The sandstone building opened in 1905 as the town library, paid for by the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who funded more than 1,600 libraries across America.
- Bubblegum Alley · Both walls of the alley, about 20 metres long, are covered in chewed gum. Nobody knows for sure how it began; the usual story credits rival students in the 1950s, and the city has given up trying to clean it.
- Fremont Theater · A streamline-moderne cinema that opened in 1942, in the middle of the war, with a tall neon tower over Monterey Street. It was designed by S. Charles Lee, one of the leading American cinema architects of the time.
- Madonna Inn · Opened in 1958 by Alex and Phyllis Madonna. Each of its roughly 110 rooms has its own theme, from a cave of boulders to a room in pink; the men's room downstairs has a waterfall instead of urinals.
Hearst's coast
North of San Luis Obispo the coast opens into long empty hills, and William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper king, bought a quarter of a million acres of it. Coming from Monterey you drive this stretch on the way in, so these stops fill the afternoon of the arrival day. The castle needs a booked tour and about three hours; the seals and beaches need much less. Highway 1 here is flat and easy, but fog can roll in suddenly from the sea in summer.
- Piedras Blancas Light Station · Lit in 1875 on a point named after the white rocks offshore, white from the droppings of seabirds. The top of the tower was taken off in 1949, which is why it looks cut short.
- Piedras Blancas Elephant Seals · Elephant seals first hauled out on this beach around 1990, and the first pup was born here in 1992. The colony now numbers in the thousands, and the big males can weigh more than two tonnes.
- Hearst Castle · The architect Julia Morgan worked on it for Hearst from 1919 to 1947. Hearst kept a private zoo on the hill, and zebras descended from it still graze beside Highway 1.
- Moonstone Beach, Cambria · The beach is named after the translucent pebbles of agate and quartz washed up among its stones. The boardwalk above it runs past a row of motels to the creek mouth.
- Cayucos Pier · Captain James Cass, a sea captain who settled here, built the pier in 1872 to ship the farm produce of the area. The village that grew around it is still small enough to walk end to end in ten minutes.
- Morro Rock · A volcanic plug about 176 metres high, the last of the Nine Sisters, a chain of old volcanoes that runs to San Luis Obispo. It was quarried for stone for the harbour breakwaters until 1969; today peregrine falcons nest on it.
South through the dunes
South of town the coast turns into long beaches and some of the largest coastal dunes in California, which hide a strange piece of Hollywood history. This is the start of the drive to Los Angeles, so take these stops in the morning, before the wind picks up over the sand. All six are within forty minutes of San Luis Obispo. Pismo is the place for chowder, and Guadalupe the place to fill up before the empty stretch south.
- Avila Beach · In the 1990s oil leaking from old Unocal pipelines was found under the town. The company dug up the whole beachfront, removed the polluted soil and rebuilt the downtown, which reopened around 2000.
- Pismo Beach Pier · Pismo once called itself the clam capital of the world, and Bugs Bunny kept trying to reach it in the cartoons — 'Pismo Beach and all the clams we can eat!' — after missing his left turn at Albuquerque.
- Pismo Monarch Butterfly Grove · Monarchs from west of the Rockies fly here for the winter and hang in clusters from the eucalyptus trees. None of the butterflies that arrive in autumn has made the trip before: they are several generations removed from those that left the spring before.
- Oceano Dunes · It is the only state park in California where you may drive cars and off-road vehicles on the beach. In the early 20th century the dunes were home to the Dunites, a community of artists, mystics and nudists who lived in shacks among the sand.
- Dunes Center, Guadalupe · In 1923 Cecil B. DeMille built an Egyptian city, with giant sphinxes and pharaohs, in these dunes for his silent film The Ten Commandments, then buried it in the sand. Pieces dug up since the 1980s, including a sphinx head, are on show here.
- Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes · Somewhere under these dunes the rest of DeMille's set still lies. The dunes are also a nesting ground of the western snowy plover, a small shorebird protected by law, so parts of the beach are fenced in spring.
Getting to San Luis Obispo and getting around
- San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport · Small and easy, ten minutes south of downtown, with flights to the big western hubs
- San Luis Obispo Amtrak Station · The Coast Starlight stops here, and the Pacific Surfliner to Los Angeles starts here
- Downtown Transit Center · Town buses and the regional buses to Morro Bay and Pismo meet here
Cheap eats in San Luis Obispo
The Central Coast eats tri-tip: a triangular cut of beef grilled over red oak in the Santa Maria style and sliced thin, often in a sandwich with salsa. Pismo adds clam chowder, and the farms around town supply the strawberries and avocados sold at the Thursday market. San Luis Obispo is a student town, so lunch is cheaper than on the coast, and the queues at the famous places move fast.
- Firestone Grill · The tri-tip sandwich everyone queues for, about $12-15
- Splash Café · Clam chowder in a bread bowl by the Pismo pier, about $10-14
- Woodstock's Pizza · Student pizza downtown, a slice about $4-6
- Thursday market barbecue · Tri-tip and ribs from the grills on Higuera Street, about $10-16
- Copper Café, Madonna Inn · A slice of the famous pink champagne cake, about $10-14
- Taco Temple, Morro Bay · Huge seafood tacos and burritos by the highway, about $12-20
Museums in San Luis Obispo
- History Center of SLO County · Free exhibitions on the county's ranches and railways
- SLO Museum of Art · Small art museum by the creek; free
- Dunes Center · Plaster sphinx pieces from DeMille's buried Egyptian set
- Morro Bay Museum of Natural History · Birds and sea life of the estuary, on a point over the bay
- Hearst Castle Visitor Center · The big-screen film about Hearst before the bus up the hill
Nature and day trips near San Luis Obispo
- Bishop Peak · The highest of the Nine Sisters; a rocky summit over the town
- Montaña de Oro · Bluff trail over coves and sea stacks
- Morro Rock and the estuary · Otters in the harbour and herons in the estuary
- Piedras Blancas · Elephant seals on the beach below the boardwalk
- Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes · Wild dunes and an empty beach south of Oceano
Things to do in San Luis Obispo with kids
- SLO Children's Museum · Hands-on rooms for small children, downtown
- Central Coast Aquarium · A small aquarium in Avila with touch tanks
- Oceano Dunes · Guided dune-buggy and ATV rides on the sand
- Monarch Butterfly Grove · Look through the telescopes at the clusters
Where to eat in San Luis Obispo
- Novo · International menu on a terrace over the creek
- Luna Red · Small plates and cocktails by Mission Plaza
- F. McLintocks Saloon · Ranch-style steakhouse in Shell Beach; huge portions
- Giuseppe's · Southern Italian in Pismo; no booking, expect to wait
- Mother's Tavern · Burgers and live music in an old downtown bar
Frequently asked questions about San Luis Obispo
What is there to see in San Luis Obispo?
The top sights in San Luis Obispo are Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, History Center of SLO County and Fremont Theater. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in San Luis Obispo?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of San Luis Obispo without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in San Luis Obispo?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in San Luis Obispo, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: A mission and its odd little town.
How do you get to San Luis Obispo and get around?
The main ways are San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, San Luis Obispo Amtrak Station and Downtown Transit Center. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in San Luis Obispo, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in San Luis Obispo that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in San Luis Obispo for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.