Oceano Signs and Statues welcome guest to this Central Coast City in San Luis Obispo County

Crazy California

It's time to leave the subtlety behind when you drive into town at the Central Coast city of Oceano. Funky, dated and so authentic, you can take a breath of fresh air and be glad you discovered the real deal along the coast, just a few miles from the boutique wineries and cultural amenities. Take for example, the huge sculpted dinosaur that peers from behind a fence at a statuary store.

This is the California we love. It's disappearing as the price of land continues to sweep entire neighborhoods from the landscape, so you have to take a visit and enjoy it now.

Located an exit off Interstate 101 between Pismo Beach and Santa Maria, Oceano, as the name indicates, does enjoy ocean frontage. The city is, in fact, home to one of the few remaining recreational vehicular beaches in California where you can drive ATV's (all terrain vehicles) along the shoreline and into the sand dunes.

Much of the surrounding streets and regional features take on the sandy, wind-blown appearance from the constant, thin veil of sand that's blown inland from the coastal winds.

In the pictures shown above as visitors drive along Front Street - Highway 1, enjoy the Welcome to Oceano sign with a big, blue wave in a brown wood sign. Midget Market, Oceano Card Room and a stature and plant shop that's been for sale can be absorbed on the easy-paced road that passes in front of the shops next to fields, farms and the cooling plants where foodstuffs are cooled from the fields, then packed into trucks for their journeys throughout the U.S.

When visiting Oceano, be sure to take in the beaches, shops, farms and easy pace that makes you glad you veered off the main highway to explore Central Coast California's authentic towns.

Where to stay:

A few miles up the road near Pismo Beach Prime Outlets shopping center are many hotels set on cliffs overlooking the beach and pier in Pismo Beach. Our favorite new place, Dolphin Bay Hotel
 is not for budget stays. But if you can ever let go of your hard-earned cash, try one night. It's like being in a luxury home, not a hotel room.