Week 297-298 - Avila Beach & Port San Luis Harbor - 04-29-2012

Avila Beach and Port San Luis Harbor

Avila Beach, California is probably the cleanest beach city that you can visit. Why? Read our Week 69 Travelogue to find out why. We love it here. In fact, a photo of the beach is the on our Big Rig Bible business card and web home page. The town has the beach, pier, shops, restaurants and hotels. You will want to visit here.

Just a mile and a half past Avila is Port San Luis Harbor. It has a boat launch, trailer parking, pier, boat storage, restaurants and most importantly RV parking. In fact, there are five different areas to stay overnight.

When you drive into the Port, you will see RVs all over the place. But on your first trip, you're going to wonder how to get a site. There is an RV host (at least at this time April 2012). But the sites are only available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Of the five areas below, the Coastal Gateway Lot has hookups (50 amp, water and sewer). Babe Lane also has hookups, but we believe they are only 30 amp (not sure, we'll check it out next week). The other areas are dry camping only and there currently is no RV dump (April 2012).

So here is the drill: park in a site and pay at the self-serve stations.

Arrive just before Noon (check out) for your best chance at getting a site at this very popular seaport. Drive in slowly and survey the areas to see what sites are available.

You will first pass the road to Babe Lane. If you are towing (who isn't), we don't suggest going up Babe Lane as you probably will not have enough room to turnaround if there are no sites open. You cannot see the available sites from the main road, so you will just have to check Babe Lane out later on foot.

Next, on your left is Nobi Point with about four sites. All sites at the Port, used to be unmarked. Now, except for Nobi, they are all delineated by lines painted on the dirt. It does not appear that Nobi Point is marked. So you should be able to get a site if you determine there is room for you.

Continuing on, the Woodyard has a number of marked sites with diagonal parking and then a couple sites that parallel the road.

And finally you will reach the Coastal Gateway Lot with hookups. If you don't find any sites, you still have the Overflow RV Camping. You can reach the overflow by driving past the hookup sites and turning around in the boat trailer parking area.

On the trip back if you pass all the areas, you will have to head back to Avila Beach and turn around by looping through the city.

Once you find and park in your site, you are required to pay at the self-serve station within 10 minutes. Cash and checks are okay, no plastic.

Port San Luis camping is among the most expensive in the country. Winter: $35 dry, $50 hookup. Summer: $40 dry, $60 hookup. (April 2012 rates) It is worth it, but be prepared!

This is the Coastal Gateway Lot with 16 full hookup sites. You get two parking slots, one for you RV and the other for your chairs. There is enough space in front of your RV to park your car.

The views out your front window are pretty nice. That is Avila Beach in the distance. Next to the Coastal Gateway sites are bathrooms, showers and laundry. These facilities are available to all who come to the Port, not just for the RV campers.

1) Nobi Point has room for three to four RVs. 2) The road between Nobi and Avila has day time parking for dozens of RVs or cars. Your dogs can run unleashed on the beach. Park overnight along the road is not allowed and the fine is $200.00.

1) This is the Babe Lane area with full hookups. 2) The view below, from Babe Lane, is the Woodyard area in the foreground and Coastal Gateway behind.

1) The overflow area as seen from the road. 2) Woodyard area as seen from the overflow bluff.

1)The Port has three restaurants: Fat Cats is in the trailer parking area. 2) Charter fishing, Patriot Sport Fishing, is on the pier.

The other two eateries are on the pier: Pete's Pierside Cafe and the Olde Port Inn. We ate at Olde Port Inn in the 70's and it's still there. It must be doing something right.

We took this one day trip to the Port to check out the wedding site for next week's big event. As we left for the 1.5 mile drive to Avila, the seal seemed to saying "Aye, aye, captain". Mandy was tired. We tried rebooting her, but her system just kept shutting down.

1) Arriving at Avila, parking was tight. No, that is not our trailer behind the Mothership. What you see here was Pete & Ellen's first quick and successful parallel parking adventure! After parking we passed by the grassy park area to arrive at the beach.

The beach has swings and other playground equipment, picnic tables, the pier and lots of sand and water.

The walkway along the beach is new, clean and beautiful.

The south end of the beach is blocked by the bluff that separates Avila Beach from Shell and Pismo Beaches. Ellen and grandson Austin, enjoy the day.

Coming south to north down front street, you have hotels, restaurants and shops. The Custom House is very nice with indoor and outdoor seating.

All the buildings along the front street were newly built in 1999 and are well maintained for a beach town, actually for any town.

A sampling of the Avila Beach stores.

The biggest and nicest of the hotels on the beach is the Avila Lighthouse Suites.

This is the site of next week's big event, the Nicholas and Hayley Hickcox Mattson wedding.

With our area survey complete, we headed back home to the Atascadero Elks to get our tux and dress ready for the big day. Until next week,

Love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy.

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Genesis 2:24

Photos from Spr 2012