where to stay on the Central Coast?
 

We're going to the Central Coast area from Oct. 15 to 19th for the harvest festival in Paso Robles and have never been to the area. We want to visit Santa Barbara and spend a day touring the Santa Ynez wine area and then spend the weekend in Paso Robles. This sounded easy until I tried to book a hotel. Most places in Paso are booked or ridiculously $$$.

So here's our plan at the moment.... Thursday our flight gets in at 8:00am. Pick up car and drive to Solvang area. Spend the day in the Santa Ynez valley and stay over somewhere around there (Solvang or Los Olivas?).

Friday- Drive up Hwy 1 and tour the coast towns, then visit wineries on our way to Paso Robles. Stay in Atascadero (?) Friday and Sat. nights.

Sunday morning drive to Santa Barbara via San Luis Obispo and stay in SB for the night. We will have 1/2 day Sunday and 1/2 day Monday to spend in SB before leaving.

What do you think? Too ambitious? Too much moving around? Am I missing something? We like to keep on the go when we travel, but I really hate changing hotels so much. Any ideas for great places to stay $150 +/- a night? Right now we're considering Holiday Inn Express due to the lack of options in the Paso area.

Also, has anyone been to the Harvest festival in PR? There is very little info on the website and I wanted to know what to expect.

Muchas gracias!!!!

Deb

I might just stay Thursday and Friday nights in San Luis Obispo, and Sat/Sun in Santa Barbara. Paso and the coast are in reasonable reach of SLO, Santa Ynez valley is a good visit on the way between SLO and SB. Thursday night is farmers market night in SLO, they close down some of the downtown streets for it, and it is fun.

Lodging on the central coast tends to be pricey; maybe not big city rates, but definitely more than an equivalent hotel in typical towns.

Hi Deb, we recently stayed at the HI Express in Atascadero. I usually don't like HI Express, but this one is really very nice. It is just 1 year old and everything is still brand new. Contemporary design and spacious rooms. Buffet breakfast was good. I'd highly recommend it. I posted a review on tripadvisor with photos if you are interested.

Thank you both for the help. Staying in SLO was my husband's original thought. How are the restaurants there? There's a few good ones in the Solvang area that we wanted to try, so that was part of the attraction. How long of a drive would you guess from SLO to Santa Ynez valley and also to Paso Robles?
YK.. I saw all the good reviews for the HI Express and the price is right. Thanks!

after a couple of hours in Solvang, I'm done with it but maybe you are different.
I would spend as much time in SB/Montecito area and the Paso Robles area..
Hampton Inn in Goleta/SB is new and a good deal for the area.

I never have trouble finding restaurants in SLO that I enjoy; usually just wander around downtown until we seem a menu that looks interesting, though I don't eat out so often when I'm down there these days.

I'd think somewhere in the 45-60 minutes to Solvang from SLO, and about 30 minutes to Paso. It can be a nice circle route to go up the coast from SLO to Cambria, then across to Paso Robles and back down to SLO. Lots of nice backroads to drive in that area as well.

Novo is a good restaurant in SLO. I also like Big Sky Cafe, casual Californa style.

Pismo Beach might work for a lodging option since October is after the beach rush.

It sounds like you would rather stay in SLO than Atascadero. Is that correct? Why?

hi, abqdeb: SLO is more "quaint" than Atascadero. It has a really nice downtown and you can start your winetasting there.

Start with "Taste", the SLO Winegrowers Association "store" in the heart of downtown SLO. You can try a great number of wines here without having to drive out to the individual wineries.
http://www.slowine.com/cm/Home.html

SLO, however, is further away from Paso Robles and is over a mountain, so you have to drive over the Cuesta Grade (relatively steep in some places, definitely not recommended after winetasting!) to get to and from Paso Robles. If PR is your destination, then I'd suggest staying in Atascadero.

For lodging, you might also try Templeton, which has a few B&Bs and is between Atascadero and PR. Don't know your tastes in lodgings, so it's hard to recommend B&Bs.

In SLO, definitely eat at the Madonna Inn. If you staying/passing through SLO, you'll kick yourself for having missed the Madonna Inn.

Here's a trip report that I did back in 2007 on some of the Central Coast wineries. We're returning this September to try out the wines of this region again.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...coast-a-tr.cfm

Agree with easytravel that Atascadero is a good next choice if your focus is attending the festival in Paso Robles. SLO, the home of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, is a very enjoyable town with an energetic vibe and some excellent restaurants but a noticeably longer drive from PR. We were on the Central Coast last month, staying in Paso Robles, Cayucos, and San Luis Obispo (if you click on my name, you'll find my brief trip report). With only four nights and a relatively small geographical area, I'd try for two stops. Besides Santa Barbara, I think you're going to find your best restaurant options in the Paso Robles/SLO/Cambria area. Our best meal of the trip was at the Cass House in Cayucos.

If Cambria would work for you as a base, we enjoyed this moderate hotel VERY much!

http://www.bestwesternfiresideinn.com/

Just wanted to touch base and thank you all for the help. We ended up booking the first 2 nights in SB at the Brisas Del Mar, then 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Atascadero. I'm still keeping my eye open in case something opens up in Paso Robles.

So now on to wineries and restaurants. All recs welcome! Too much to see and too little time, unfortunately. I'm still hoping that someone who has been to the Harvest Festival will chime in with some details.

Deb

We had dinner at Villa Creek restaurant at Paso Robles. Food was super fresh and tasty - highly recommended!