Visitors Guide 2020

SIGNATURE
ATTRACTIONS
MISSION PLAZA
BUBBLEGUM ALLEY
San Luis Obispo bubbles with outdoors
adventure, laid-back beaches, culinary delights
and urbane shopping, but make sure to reserve
some space in your itinerary for these iconic,
uniquely SLO experiences.
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
In the heart of SLO, this still-active Catholic Church provides the
backdrop for Mission Plaza, a community gathering spot and site
of events and festivals year-round. See more on page 16.
Downtown SLO Farmers’ Market
Every Thursday night Higuera Street transforms into the secondlargest
farmers market in the West. See more on page 44.
Hearst Castle
A quick jaunt up scenic Highway 1 delivers you to the sprawling
castle of publishing baron William Randolph Hearst. Pick up your
Hearst Castle tickets at our Visitor Center at 895 Higuera St. in
San Luis Obispo. See more on page 20.
Bubblegum Alley
One of Downtown San Luis Obispo’s quirkiest features is a
15-foot-high, 70-foot-long alleyway on Higuera Street covered
in decades’ worth of chewed bubblegum left by passers-by.
Bubblegum Alley has, over the years, attracted the attention of
major news media, The Tonight Show, MTV and Ripley’s Believe It
or Not, among others.
Beaches
They don’t call it the Central Coast for nothin’; from the craggy
cliffs of Ragged Point south to the sandy Oceano Dunes, San Luis
Obispo County offers roughly 90 miles of coast to comb. Watch
the waves from a bed and breakfast along Cambria’s Moonstone
Beach, surf with Morro Rock as a backdrop, walk the pier in
Cayucos, Pismo or Avila Beach, or poke around the tide pools of
Montaña de Oro.
Wine Country
Delightful discoveries await oenophiles and neophytes alike in
Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo’s Edna Valley — hidden gems of
California’s flourishing wine industry with thousands of acres of
vineyards and more than 300 friendly, world-class wineries. See
more on page 52.
Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove
From November through March, Pismo Beach attracts a
different kind of visitor, when thousands of monarch butterflies
gather in the Eucalyptus trees at Pismo State Beach. The
Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove is the winter home of
one of the largest colonies of monarchs in the United States.
monarchbutterfly.org
Elephant Seals
The Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery, about seven miles
north of San Simeon along Highway 1, is home to more than
15,000 elephant seals. Visitors come from around the world to
view the mammoth marine mammals. Viewing platforms are
open, free of charge, every day of the year. elephantseal.org
14 | slochamber.org