Last month, my family and I headed down to Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo to celebrate my birthday! Originally, we had planned to spend the weekend in Sonoma, but due to the devastating wildfire that broke out, we had to quickly change our plans. After doing some research, we decided to head down to Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo instead! Although I’ve visited the San Luis Obispo area several times over the years, this was my first time visiting the wine region there. I honestly had no idea how many wineries there are in this area! We had such a great time and I already want to plan a trip back. Here are my recommendations for how to spend a weekend in Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo!
Day 1
Daou Winery
On Friday afternoon, we drove down to Paso Robles and visited Daou Winery, which came highly recommended! It certainly lived up to the hype – it is such a stunning winery with the most beautiful views! Although we enjoyed their wines, the wine was not the main selling point for us. Instead, we loved Daou for the amazing setting, friendly staff, and adorable winery cat, Bell! It might have been my favorite winery of the trip due to the experience!
If you visit, be sure to grab a glass and wander around the property taking in the great views! Also, I’ve heard it gets very crowded, but as we came late in the day, we didn’t experience this.
From Daou, we drove to our hotel, the Embassy Suites San Luis Obispo. We like staying here for the convenient location, great breakfast, and free happy hour drinks! After getting settled in and grabbing a cocktail from happy hour, we headed out to dinner in downtown San Luis Obispo at Thai Palace. It’s a casual spot with great Thai food! I loved the Thai platter and the green curry!
If you would prefer to stay in Paso Robles, I would recommend staying at Allegretto Vineyard Resort Paso Robles, La Quinta by Wyndham Paso Robles, or Hotel Cheval in downtown Paso Robles.
Day 2
On Saturday, we drove into Edna Valley and visited several wineries in this area. Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo are close together, so you can easily visit both of these regions in the same weekend. There are so many wineries in both Paso and San Luis Obispo that you really can’t go wrong! The great thing about this region is that, unlike Napa and Sonoma, you don’t need reservations for most of the wineries. This makes it easy to visit wineries as you please – no formal schedule necessary! Many wineries in this area will also comp your tasting fee with a purchase – another plus! We took advantage of this at every winery we visited.
Edna Valley Vineyard
The first winery we visited was Edna Valley Vineyard. We arrived right around opening time and were the first ones there, which meant we had a more intimate experience. Edna Valley has a laid back vibe – grab a glass and feel free to wander around. The tasting room is really beautiful and modern and we loved lounging in the chairs in the front. Edna Valley’s wines were some of the best we had during the trip – we especially liked their Chardonnay!
Chamisal Vineyards
Our next stop of the day was to Chamisal Vineyards. My parents used to be wine club members here, so we knew we loved their wine! The winery itself is small, but they have a tasting room and a patio. Besides the wine, the other highlight for us were the beautiful fall colors of the surrounding vineyards and their cute winery cat! We really enjoyed our time at Chamisal and I would definitely recommend visiting!
Malene
While we were at Chamisal, we learned about their sister winery, Malene! It’s located right next door to Chamisal and specializes in rosé (which I love!), so we had to stop by. It was the most laid back winery that we visited – the wine is served out of an airstream! They have a nice garden area with picnic tables and cornhole. We enjoyed trying their wines (we really liked the Rolle) and it’s a fun vibe – I would stop by if you’re in the area!
Talley Vineyards
Up next was Talley Vineyards! We had packed up a picnic lunch (highly recommend doing this!), so we enjoyed it here at their picnic tables before heading inside for a tasting. Talley also has a low key vibe and is very family friendly – there were families with young children and dogs lounging outside on the patio. Talley is also a farm, which we noticed right away due to the strong scent of cilantro that hit us as we stepped out of the car. The staff was very friendly and we enjoyed tasting their wines. They also have growlers of red and white wine that you can purchase. This was the first time that we have ever seen this and would be great to bring to a dinner party or Christmas! Next time we’re in town, we’ll have to stop by and purchase a growler!
Laetitia Vineyard
Our last stop of the day was to Laetitia Vineyard. It was quite crowded when we arrived, but we found a spot at the indoor tasting bar. My dad had visited Laetitia years ago and remembered really enjoying their wines. I had never heard of them before but I was interested in visiting because they make sparkling wine in addition to the still classics. I’m so glad we added Laetitia to our list because we loved their wines! The tastings are quite casual and they let you select 5 wines out of the list. We opted to try both sparkling and still and we loved pretty much all of the wines that we tried!
As a tip for all wineries: if you would like to taste something again to decide if you would like to purchase, ask to “revisit” the wine. We did this at pretty much every winery so we could be sure we purchased the wines that we loved! It can be easy to mix them up when you’ve tried several wines in a flight.
While I was looking up wineries to visit, many of the sites I came across mentioned Laetitia’s walking path that was supposed to have amazing coastal views. That sounded right up our alley! While we did find the trail, it didn’t exactly have the scenic views that we were expecting. Nevertheless, we got to stretch our legs for a bit and see some more beautiful fall colors! Wine country in the fall may just be my favorite thing! If you end up visiting, let me know if there’s another walking path that we missed!
After our day of wine tasting, we had reservations at Novo in downtown San Luis Obispo for dinner. After doing some research, Novo sounded like a great place for a nicer dinner with a fun atmosphere. It’s located right next to the creek and has a beautiful outdoor patio! It was chilly on this night, but they had plenty of heat lamps around to keep us warm. We really enjoyed our dinner – the highlight was the appetizers! If you go, try the spring rolls and chevre – they were both amazing!
Day 3
Halter Ranch
On Sunday morning, we drove back up to Paso Robles to visit Halter Ranch on our way home. As with Daou, Halter Ranch also came highly recommended to us based on the beautiful setting and views. While this winery doesn’t quite have the same panoramic views as Daou has, it is equally beautiful! It’s also a very large property – you have to drive for a bit and over a bridge before you make it up to the actual winery and tasting room.
We really enjoyed our visit here and getting to walk around the property – the back patio is very pretty! Their wines are also really nice – we especially loved their Cabernet Sauvignon! If you find yourself in Paso Robles, I would definitely recommend stopping by Halter Ranch for a tasting!
That’s a wrap on our weekend in wine country! We had so much fun and I hope our itinerary helps you if you’re planning your own trip down to Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo, which you should! For a recap on all of the outfit details from this trip, check out this post.
P.S. for another wine country itinerary, check out how we spent a weekend in Napa!
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