Town to stay in on North Central Coast
 

I will be in San Jose soon and will get off sometime on Friday, not sure what time.

I want to drive down to San Luis Obispo (I guess via 101) and then start my way back up the coast highway (1)? On Saturday, I want to go to San Simeon/Hearst Castle.

Where would be a good place (town) to spend Friday night. My ideal place would be a town that I can get a hotel and be able to walk to a decent restaurant and a watering hole or two, then the next morning I can head to San Simeon and then to San Jose late that Saturday.

Look forward to helpful comments

Why not San Luis Obispo? About 3 hours from San Jose. The Apple Farm Inn is nice and has its own restaurant. Or, if you want to go up the coast about 35 miles, stay in Cambria which gives you an early start for San Simeon/Hearst Castle the next day.

Keep in mind, some weekends in SLO, in the May/ June timeframe can book up quickly. So I would make a reservation as soon as you nail the date down. Paso Robles right off of 101 which is close to Hwy. 46 (a good way to get to San Simeon), would be another option.

The downtown area of San Luis has a fair amount of life in the evenings. The town is nice in that it isn't overrun with chain restaurants. The hotels on upper Monterey street are probably closest to downtown (Quality Suites, Apple Farm, etc), though still a bit of a walk. 1865 restaurant up in the hotel area is pretty good. I haven't really kept up with the downtown restaurants, they change over time. Mo's BBQ is a good casual place.

If you want to stay in Cambria (or Morro Bay, which is another good choice) you can cut over to the coast before you get to SLO - I think the highways are 46 and 33.

Yes, Hwy 46 is just after Paso Robles on 101 (over 20 miles before/ north of SLO). That would be your best cut over to Cambria.