The California Coast Guide - Central Coast Part One
San Luis Obispo County - Morro Bay and Baywood-Los Osos
Heading north for CA Coast Guides and driving into the Central Coast this week! This guide will focus on Morro Bay and Baywood-Los Osos region.
If you’re new here - I dropped a 3-part guide to Santa Barbara County here, here and HERE - complete with a master Google Map capturing all my recs. Read up!
Morro Bay
Morro Bay is a quaint coastal town covered in cutesy trinket shops and seafood-forward restaurants on the bay. From my POV, this is a great place to stay if you love a no frills beach town filled with the sounds & smells of a boardwalk pier / fisherman’s village. Otherwise, I recommend tacking it on as a stop on the way to your next destination. It’s precious, but there is only so much you can do here, and the food scene is a little lacking (unless you LOVE fish & chips)
To Do
Morro Rock / Morro Rock Beach - ESSENTIAL and ICONIC! Morro Rock can be seen peeking out from so many viewpoints in town. I loved driving down the hill into the bay and seeing the rock pop out along the water.
T Pier - Morro Bay is home to one of my favorite animals… otters! T Pier area is known to be a great otter viewing area, and also has a great view of *the* rock
The Shell Shop - hundreds of shell varieties, so fun to peruse and ideal for picking up a souvenir!
The Stacks - in a close second for iconic points of interest in Morro Bay… three smoke stacks stand symmetrically just a few minutes from the coast
Eat & Drink
Giovanni’s Fish Market & Galley - a walk up window serving all kinds of delicious, fresh (and fried) seafood classics. I highly recommend the poke bowls or fish and chips!
Libertine Pub - big goblets of beer on the bay
Baywood-Los Osos
Baywood-Los Osos is a primarily residential town adjacent to Morro Bay - but hosts one of the most beautiful California state parks. Read on for my favorite part of this region!
To Do
Morro Bay State Park Campground - this is really on the cusp of MB and Los Osos, but I’m separating it since it’s driving distance from all of the other MB points of interest. I loved stumbling upon this area and finding so many cool vantage points - Morro Rock from afar, cypress trees lining the street, and plenty of driftwood to scavenge for along the beach
Montaña de Oro State Park - saved the best for last, the star of the show, my heart, my SOUL! This park is now one of my favorite places in the entire state of California. It’s massive, with rolling hills AND so many cliffs touching the Pacific. I highly recommend driving to the back of the park and visiting late afternoon - there’s a good chance you’ll have an entire cliff to yourself to watch the sun set.
Ticket to Sarahdise Event Digest - Week of 10/2
Every week, I’m sharing events you should be checking out in LA. Here’s this week’s download:
MillCross x Fonda Theater - MillCross and Fonda are teaming up this month to give away a ton of free concert tickets - peep the link for the full show list! Best of luck to ya ;)
Pumpkin Spice in the City - As mentioned last week, there are a flurry of pumpkin and fall spiced things popping up around LA. LA Times has the latest - I MUST try the Slammers PSL
Family Style Fest - This Sunday 10/8 - the most epic intersection of food and street culture. I am SO bummed to miss this - I went last year and it was incredible. Highly recommend! #EpicCollabAlert galore
Don’t forget - I’m also sharing tons of coastal content up on TikTok as a part of this CA Coast Guide series, don’t miss it! Thanks for reading, watching, etc!