Pismo Beach Weekend Getaway

Pismo Beach is a charming town on the central coast of California that is 4 hours from Orange County. I have been to Pismo Beach before and had a wonderful time visiting the Monarch Butterfly Grove and sightseeing the town. This summer, I wanted to go back to Pismo Beach to ride an ATV on the sand dune at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (SVRA). I have heard how fun it is to ride an ATV on the sand dune and I was excited to try it for the first time.

Solvang

We took a 3-day weekend trip to Pismo Beach and our first stop was in Solvang, a cute Danish town known for its Danish-style architecture. It took us about 3 hours to get to Solvang. We had lunch at the Solvang Restaurant that is famous for aebleskiver. The aebleskiver is pancake ball sprinkled with powdered sugar and covered with raspberry jam. It’s a delicious Danish treat. After lunch, we walked around to explore the beautiful town. There are all kinds of bakeries and shops as well as windmills.

OstrichLand

We then headed to the OstrichLand to feed the ostriches and emus. OstrichLand is a 33-acre breeding farm with more than 100 birds. The ostriches and emus were hilarious as they roamed around and eagerly stuck their heads out to reach for their treats. This was a fun stop for our family. The kids can’t wait to come back to visit it again.

Hearst Castle

Our next stop was the Hearst Castle, which is located along the beautiful California Central Coast in the town of San Simeon. The Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark that is about 2 hours from Solvang. William Randolph Hearst collaborated with architect Julia Morgan to build a beautiful mansion on top of the hill, which took 28 years to complete. We purchased the Grand Rooms Tour tickets in advance since tickets are often sold out early. It cost $8 extra per ticket to reserve it online in order to avoid driving there and not be able to get tickets for the tour. We took the last tour time at 5 P.M. to catch the sunset and avoid the crowds.

We spent about three hours at the Hearst Castle including watching a 40 minutes “Hearst Castle – Building the Dream” movie and exploring the beautiful grounds around Hearst Castle after the tour ended. The movie is included in the daytime Castle Tours ticket.

The Grand Rooms Tour is recommended for first-timers. It includes touring the Assembly Room, Refectory, Billiard Room, Theater, Gardens, Neptune Pool and Roman Pool. I was amazed of how William Randolph Hearst collected all kinds of arts from all over the world and and incorporated into his mansion. After the tour ended, we walked around the castle to take pictures. We felt like we had the whole castle to ourselves since everyone on our tour had already left.

ATV Riding in Oceano Dunes

The next morning, we drove to SunBuggy in Oceano an hour before our reserved time at 8 A.M. to fill out the rental forms, get fitted for safety gear and complete a 17 minutes dunes driving safety orientation. It took us about an hour to finish the check-in process before we got to pick up our ATV and dune buggy and be on our own. We booked a few ATV and dune buggy for two hours and it came with helmets and googles.

This was the moment that I have been waiting for, my first time riding on a sand dune. Initially, I was nervous riding the ATV on the sand dunes, especially riding on the slopes. However, it turned out to be a lot of fun once I got used to the ATV. There were 8 of us in our party and we took turn riding the ATV and dune buggy. We had a rough start in the beginning since the kids (ranging from 8 -11 years old) were learning to ride the ATV. They quickly learned to ride it and were roaming on the sand dune. Two hours went by so quickly and we didn’t want the fun to end. We wished we had booked the ATV for at least 3 hours. We will definitely be back in the near future!

Splash Cafe

For lunch, we stopped by the Splash Cafe, which is known for their award winning clam chowder. The line is usually very long and it can be stressful finding a parking space near the restaurant. We parked a few blocks away and walked to it (highly recommended unless you want to be stuck in traffic near the restaurant area). We ordered clam chowder, fish & chips, calamari and onion rings, which are their popular dishes.

Montana de Oro State Park

We visited the Montana de Oro State Park after lunch and hiked the Bluff trail. The Montana de Oro State Park is an 8,000 acres of sandy beaches, canyons, cliffs and the Bluff trail offers a stunning view of the ocean coast. We spent about 2 hours hiking the trail.

Horseback Riding

On the last day, we went horseback riding at the Madonna Inn before we headed home. We rode halfway up the Madonna Mountain and the view from the trail high above the town was lovely. The ride was an hour long and it was relaxing and scenic.

This was a fun weekend, especially I got to ride an ATV on the sand dune for the very first time. What are your favorite things to do in Pismo Beach and nearby cities?

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