Pismo Beach Wine Tasting: Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip Day 3
We love driving along beautiful roads but not so much when we are rushed and too short on time to actually enjoy the drive! The long days in Iceland were mostly due to us accepting it when Google said “5 hours” of driving when it sometimes actually took us 6-7 hours in the car (not such of an issue in the US it seems where Google’s indicated times have been very accurate). The other point was the stops in Iceland were awesome and took us so much longer than we expected.
Missed Day 2? Click here to check out the Big Sur.
We knew the Californian coast had quite a few places to stop and we didn’t want to repeat the mistakes we made in Iceland so we chose to have a short day on day 3 of our road trip with only an hours’ drive.
There were a few options of where to stay (Santa Maria, Santa Barbara to name just a couple) but we went for Pismo Beach because we hadn’t had a chance to go wine tasting in California yet and apparently Pismo Beach was a good spot for it.
Check out our video from the day by clicking here or scroll down to the end of the post.
The drive was short and we arrived in Pismo Beach without much idea of where to go or what else there was to do there.
Our first stop was an old guilty pleasure that we’ve been reintroduced to being back in the States…frozen yoghurt. The kind of frozen yoghurt where you (over)fill your own tub with however many flavours you like and then top it with Reese’s pieces, cookie dough, M&Ms, candy, hot fudge sauce and other unhealthy options then pay by weight.
Looking for things to do in Pismo Beach
After our (un)healthy lunch we bumbled around what is a pretty normal, relaxed seaside town. I think I prefer Monterey and Cambria (they had a nicer feel) but the beach itself was huge and the novelty of just walking along the beach and watching big waves breaking hasn’t become boring to us just yet after living in landlocked London for so long. The more we’re back by the sea, the more we realise how much we have missed it!
Dayna has a bit of a phobia of Pelicans (well founded I think) so she tried to confront it by posing for a photograph with one of the big guys.
Taste of the Valleys Wine Tasting
Pismo Beach has a few options for wine tours, nearby wineries and different places to do tastings but we wanted one where we could walk from our Hotel and neither of us would have to drive plus we would get to try a variety of wineries. Wine tasting for 2 people isn’t very fun when only one of you gets to try anything!
It worked out good value for the $10 we paid for the tasting and we liked one of the bottles of red so much that we had to try it a few more times…in bigger glasses this time.
Click here to check out the (foggy) drive to LA and Day 4 of our California road trip.
More information on Pismo Beach Wine Tasting
How long is the drive from Cambria to Pismo Beach?
45 Miles and it took us about 1 hour.
Where to stay in Pismo Beach?
We opted to go with a cheap option and stayed at Ocean Palms motel. It wasn’t the nicest place we stayed on our trip but it was comfortable and good value for money.
Where to go wine tasting in Pismo Beach?
We went to a wine shop Tastes of the Valley that offers a huge range of local wines and tastings of the wines (“flights”) for $10 (or you can buy by the glass or bottle). There are many other options around though if you’re willing to drive or pay for a tour.
*Some of the links used in this post are affiliate links – there is no difference in cost to you but we do get a small commission if you book or buy through the link. As always, we only ever recommend accommodation that we have stayed at or things that we use ourselves.
When we plan a road trip with my friends, we make sure to include vineyard tour and wine tasting in it. We are all wine lovers and this kind of travel can really give us a lot of excitement. Thanks for sharing your trip and for giving us inspiration.