Downtown Avila Beach faces the Pacific Ocean and is lined with many shops and eateries.
The name Avila commemorates Miguel Ávila, who was granted Rancho San Miguelito in 1842.[1] The town was established in the latter half of the 19th century, when it served as the main shipping port for San Luis Obispo. Although Avila Beach still has a working commercial fishing pier and the inland areas have extensive apple orchards, tourism is now the main industry. There are few historical structures remaining; among the oldest is the Point San Luis Lighthouse, built in 1890 after a series of shipping accidents.
The Old Port House is at the end of the public fishing pier and has a nice restaurant facing the ocean.
Avila Beach has three piers: Avila Beach Pier, 1,685 feet long, intended for tourist strolling and recreational fishing, Harford Pier, for commercial fishing boats to offload their wares, and the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly SLO) Pier, part of the university's marine research program and not publicly accessible.
Diablo Canyon Power Plant, one of the two nuclear power plants in California is located in a remote part of the Avila Beach unincorporated area, about 6 miles northwest of the beach itself.
In the 1990s, Unocal oil storage facilities leaked, causing a massive oil spill under the town. As described by Economist and Crisis Consultant Randall Bell in his book Strategy 360, "...the company pumped oil products through the pipeline, but only a portion made it to the tankers. Obviously, this meant that there was a leak in the pipeline, but nothing was done. This situation continued until hundreds of thousands of gallons had leaked under the town. What would have been a relatively small issue to initially correct became California's largest contamination case." [2] After years of negotiation, Unocal agreed to a thirty million dollar settlement, which has been used to rebuild the town. The contaminated soil was excavated and replaced with clean fill. Many of the town's homes and businesses were demolished in the cleanup process.
There are a multitude of sea lions and seals that entertain you with their barking and swimming antics. Beware...they bite.
A view of Avila Rock.
The beach itself is less than 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long and sheltered in San Luis Bay, which is formed by Point San Luis on the west and Fossil Point on the east. Avila Beach faces south and is protected from the prevailing northwesterly winds by Point San Luis. It is therefore usually warmer than the other beaches on the Central Coast. Most of Avila Beach is undeveloped, except for a few blocks adjacent to the beach with homes, hotels, and small businesses, and a few recently built upscale housing developments inland, near a golf course. Avila Beach is also known for its hot springs, which are used for resort spas.
After a beautiful day of music, sunshine and ocean breezes we returned to SLO and had dinner at Chow, a fantastic asian inspired restaurant. We dined on calamari, duck, asparagus, rice and washed it down with what else but a refreshing bottle of California chardonnay.
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