Just 10 minutes from Pismo Beach and in one of the friendliest small towns in the nation is the Wayfarer in San Luis Obispo, and it is a perfect family-friendly hotel especially if they keep the Super Mario arcade game in the hotel restaurant. (This hotel just changed over from being the Kinney if you are looking for that hotel.) My family recently stayed there with Visit San Luis Obispo to check out the area and we had such a cool and comfortable stay-my teen boys especially enjoyed our visit.
You can get connecting rooms at this Wayfarer SLO hotel
One reason why my guys loved the Wayfarer so much is because we all had our own space. More and more this is important while traveling with teenagers. We had one room with a king bed and one room with two queens and between them we had TWO bathrooms.
Having two bathrooms was heavenly.
We could also keep all the sports on tv in one room. And we could have one room that was peaceful (for me.)
What are the rooms like at the Wayfarer SLO?
The room decor is pretty unique and funky. I’ve never seen photos used like this in a room to cover so much of the wall space-they were all framed too! The room was also utilized in a way that felt like it was designed thoughtfully for comfort-we appreciated the chair by the window for curling up and reading and the mirror on the wall made the room feel bigger than it actually was. The weather was unusually windy, rainy and cold this visit but we could see the pool from our room and it looked like it would be inviting on a warmer trip.
And is the food tasty at the Wayfarer Hotel in SLO?
The hotel restaurant food hit the spot. We are Hilton Gold members with our Amex credit card so one of the perks at this hotel is that we get $15 a day (this could change-always check the actual hotel website and Hilton member benefits before you book or go) in the hotel restaurant. We went to the nearby farmer’s market on one of the nights of our stay (this market is every Thursday night at 6pm) and were still a little hungry so we ordered a few things. And for breakfast one morning, the hubby and I went to Scout Coffee and picked up vegan pastries at Skippers Brew Coffee House so the teenagers ordered breakfast and one of them had a tater tot/egg/avocado breakfast bowl that we all couldn’t help but try and it was something we’ll all dream about having again.
And there are lots of things to do nearby
The Wayfarer is located in the hotel district of SLO and easily walkable to delicious restaurants and coffee shops and even downtown SLO. We could have walked to the farmer’s market if we wanted to-it was about 20 minutes away or even borrowed bikes (this hotel has a whole fleet of them!) and put them in the market bike valet. But we were there during a severe weather system so we drove just in case. We were also close to San Luis Obispo’s Gum Alley and I really wanted to see this because we are from Seattle and we have a Gum Wall too!
Right across the street we had the most delicious pizza at Gino’s Pizza SLO. The crust on this pizza was so good and one of my kids ordered a pasta that was really tasty too. The coffee scene in this city is endless-and Scout coffee was so good went twice. I would come back to SLO for the coffee shops alone. Our favorite coffee experience of this whole California trip was at LOKUM where everyone should go to try Turkish Delight and Baklava-I’ve never seen so many flavors. We also visited SLO’s famous Bubblegum Alley which reminded us of our Gum Wall in Seattle but this one has been here for a much longer time.
One evening we drove to Baileyana winery and it was only 10 minutes away. And another morning we tried to see the butterflies at the Monarch Butterfly Grove (also about 10 minutes) but it was just too weather-y this trip. (you could tell this was a unique closure because at least 3 other cars showed up in the early morning while we were there) We had the loveliest meal at Novo on their outdoor patio by the river and then drove 5 minutes away to get banana cream pie from the Tik-Tok famous Madonna Inn and we ate that and a piece of a German chocolate cake in our room while we watched a show together and wound down for the day. The Wayfarer just felt like it was really close to everything we would want to see in the area and there was more than enough to do for a weekend trip.
The Wayfarer is also really close to Cal Poly
My guys are 14 and we’re not really into touring colleges yet but I did make them look up Cal Poly online while we were in the area. My husband and I did not grow up in the United States so we don’t know much about American Colleges but I found out that a neighbor has a kid that goes to Cal Poly and a few in my social media community mentioned their kids go there too. So the Wayfarer would be a good place to stay if you’re in the area for this school. We saw a mom here who was having a weekend with her daughter and they built a LEGO model together in their hotel room and she was packing it to bring it home and it made me wonder where my guys will be in 4 or 5 years. It wouldn’t be unbelievable if this was a little spark that leads us back to school here one day. But I want to keep that a long way away for now. I’m just thankful for the memories of a really cool weekend with my guys in such a great place to stay.
(ps. one more thing about the hotel you might like if you’re anything like me: this hotel is only 3 floors and there are elevators but there are also stairs. And I really love when you can walk up a couple flights of stairs and end up in your room.)
(pps. you can get to SLO from SEA with a direct flight)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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