With so many things to do in Paso Robles, California, (drinking wine among them), you’ll need a plan to see as much as possible, relishing every stop. Real Food Traveler Health & Fitness Editor, Carole Jacobs, narrows it down and provides an itinerary for a perfect weekend getaway.

Plan your trip to Paso Robles by saving this article to Pinterest. Top right, courtesy Pexels; bottom right, courtesy Unsplash; bottom left bench at Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, by Carole Jacobs; top left image of downtown Paso Robles, courtesy Flickr. Graphic by RealFoodTraveler.

Use This Itinerary to Plan a Perfect Weekend Getaway in Paso Robles, California’s Hottest New Wine Region

Located midway between the Santa Barbara and Napa/Sonoma Valley wine countries, Paso Robles used to be the overlooked “middle child.”  No more! In the past 20 years, Paso Robles has gained international repute as one of world’s hottest new wine regions as a leading producer of zinfandel, the first vines planted here.

Thanks to a long growing season of sunny days and cool nights and elevations ranging from 700 to 2,400 feet, Paso Robles is home to 200-plus wineries, 40,000 vineyard acres, more than 60 wine grape varieties, and a whopping 11 different AVAs — all testament to the region’s diverse soil, terrain, and climate.

With an historic downtown, lodging ranging from homey lodges to 5-star Paso Robles wine resorts, restaurants for every palate, endless outdoor recreation, and wildflower-studded hillsides, Paso Robles is an idyllic place to spend a perfect spring weekend.

The sun shines over Paso Robles vineyards. Photo courtesy Unsplash.

Things to do in Paso Robles – Friday night:

Settle in: From retro trailers to luxury vineyard resorts, Paso Robles has a bed for every budget. At The Trailer Pond, five refurbished 1950s and ‘60s trailers circle a pond at the 130-acre family-run Alta Colina Vineyard & Winery. At the other end of the spectrum is Allegretto Vineyard Resort, a palatial, Mediterranean-style spa retreat set amid 20 acres of manicured gardens, fountains and its own vineyard, with a luxury spa, private pool, tasting room and the elegant Cello Ristorante & Bar, where large doors open onto a patio with iron fire bowls and bocce ball courts. If you stay in the lap of luxury downtown within walking distance to shops and restaurants, The Piccolo, a stunning 4-story boutique hotel, offers swank rooms with exposed brick, balconies, handmade chandeliers, personal wine fridges, a champagne vending machine in the lobby, and on the roof, a gorgeous rooftop bar and wine lounge.

Dinner on the town: Head to Six Test Kitchen, an intimate, 12-seat eatery with an open kitchen in Tin City (see description below) where an ever -rotating 14-course tasting menu draws inspiration from whatever happens to be in season, and the chef prepares your meal right in front of you. Or dive into upscale Italian cuisine revolving around local sustained ingredients at Il Cortile Ristorante, another pint-size restaurant featuring house-made pasta, local cheeses, locally-caught seafood, and fresh salads made from the restaurant’s backyard culinary garden.

Hungry for more? Get Carole’s suggestion for 7 U.S. hikes and picnic menus.

Things to do in Paso Robles – Saturday

9am to 10am: Rise and shine to Breakfast: Paso Robles has everything from cozy Ma-and-Pa diners to elegant brunch bistros and weekend smorgasbord buffets. At Brunch, fuel up on almost-gourmet dishes like Eggs Benedict or Berries and Cream French Toast. Or chow down on made-from-scratch homemade fare like biscuits and gravy at Margie’s Diner.

10am to Noon: Downtown Paso Robles: Wander Paso Robles’ historic award-winning downtown, which was named Main Street District of the Year by the State of California and the Great American National Main Street Award by National Main Street Center. The charming district is lined with art galleries, boutiques, restaurants, 20 tasting rooms, a general store, and several museums charting the course of Paso Robles. Or check out the historic thermal springs at the landmark (1889) Paso Robles Inn.  Time your visit to coincide with the 18th annual Paso Robles Olive and Lavender Festival in May for a day’s worth of seminars, demonstrations, arts, crafts, collectibles, food, Paso Robles wine-tasting, and more.

Lavender in Paso Robles. Photo courtesy Pexels.

Noon to 2 pm: Tin City: Housed in an industrial park nestled along the historic 1,200-mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, Tin City is home to a motley collection of maverick winemakers, distillers, and chefs, who have pooled their talents to create a 20-acre corrugated-tin paradise for foodies and wine lovers. At first, you might wonder if you’ve taken a wrong turn and wound up on the wrong side of the tracks. But inside those humble corrugated tin-and- steel sheds are some of the strangest, wildest, and most wonderful little wineries and eateries you’ve ever seen in wine country. Sip and sample your way from BarrelHouse Brewing Co., a craft brewery and gardens serving funky wines and gigs performed on a rusty flatbed truck, to the all-female winery Desparada,  decorated with inviting velvet textures and jewel tones. Or check out Wine Shine, a corrugated blue shed whose artisan brandies come in wacky flavors ranging from hibiscus lemon to cinnamon spirit, and Tin City Cider, which mates Californian apples with wine grapes for tongue-twizzling libations like Kickin Chicken, aged in whisky barrels; and Poly Dolly, a rosé cider blended from mourvedre, pinot noir, and petit Verdot.

For lunch, head to Tin City’s McPhee’s Canteen for wood-fired pizza, kobe burgers and fresh salads on a patio overlooking a dramatic rock waterfall, then cap your meal withe dessert at pint-sized Negranti Creamery, featuring homemade sheep’s milk ice cream in only-found-here-flavors like blackberry rosemary and salted brown sugar.

3pm to 5pm: Scenic Spin to the Pacific: Get the lay of the land on a beautiful scenic drive through the bucolic Paso Robles wine country to the coast on Highway 46. The road rollercoasters through neon hillsides dotted with lavish wine estates, dairy farms, and cattle ranches before tumbling to the Pacific and the artsy wine town of Cambria. At Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, stretch your legs and feast your senses on trails that wind past dramatic ocean bluffs, wildflower meadows, waving grasslands, forested ridges, and handcrafted wood benches fashioned by local artists, each one more fetching than the last. For a drive back in time, head back to Paso Robles on the windy-twisty Santa Rosa Creek Road, or “old Highway 46”. The road wanders past charming small farms and ranches wedged into the narrow valley, Santa Rosa Creek itself, and wildflower meadows where deer and cattle seem to graze in perfect harmony.

Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. Photo by Carole Jacobs.

6pm to 7pm: Homestyle Dinner: Back in Paso Robles, relax over a couple brews at The Backyard on Thirteenth Wine and Beer Garden, then hunker down for Southern comfort food at The Hatch Rotisserie & Bar, famous for its rotisserie chicken with vanilla-maple slaw, homemade meatloaf, and hot skillet cornbread. Save room for a slice of homemade chocolate or banana cream pie.

7:30pm to 10pm: Trip the light fantastic at Sensorio: From now until September 2022, this one-of-a-kind outdoor exhibit by artist Bruce Munro features two light shows in one: the “Field of Light,” in Paso Robles, a massive 15-acre field of more than 58,800 “electric flowers” (stemmed transparent spheres lit by colorful fiber optics); and the “Light Towers,” a collection of 69 six-foot-tall, illuminated towers made of wine bottles.

The Field of Light at Sensorio. Photo by Serena Munro, courtesy Bruce Munroe.

Hungry for more? Read Sonoma County in this Editor’s Pick article.

Things to do in Paso Robles – Sunday

9am to 11am: Sunday brunch: Start off a fun day of Paso Robles wine-tasting at Thomas Hill Organics, a farm-to-table restaurant that serves creative, organic cuisine like Strawberry Panzanella, homemade waffles with berry compote, and Avocado Toast. Or try the all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch with bottomless mimosas at The Hunter Ranch Bar & Grill overlooking majestic views of rolling hills, vineyards, and the golf course.

Noon to 5pm: Roaming the Vineyards: With more than 200 wineries from which to choose, you may wish you were sticking around longer than a weekend. To savor fine wines overlooking spectacular springtime vistas, head to our pick of Paso’s 10 most scenic wineries.

• Epoch Estate Wines: Owned by married geologists Bill and Liz Armstrong, Epoch makes complex, small-production wines on site in a large building that’s partially underground so as not to detract from the 1882 winery’s bucolic setting atop York Mountain, where it looks out on miles of rolling hills and horse-dotted pastures.
• DAOU Vineyards: From fine wines created by Georges and Daniel Daou, brothers whose shared vision is to produce the world’s next benchmark for Bordeaux varieties, to gorgeous landscaping, elegantly linear vineyards and textural mountain vegetation, this hilltop winery located at 2,200 feet in the Adelaida Mountains overlooks a stunning patchwork quilt of vineyards, pastures and Lake Nacimiento in the distance.
• Halter Ranch, a 2,700-acre ranch with 180 acres of wine grapes, 15 acres of walnuts, and 10 acres of organically certified olives, offers guided picnic/pairing tours of the culinary garden, 5-acre pond, vineyards, woodlands and wildlife corridors in a classic Land Rover, with wine and cheese pairings at every stop.
• Opolo Vineyard: At this stunning 300-acre hilltop estate owned by two families who have lived side-by-side since 1996, you can sample an impressive variety of wines, stroll through the beautiful vineyards and farmlands, and enjoy wood-fired pizza and cheese platters at the rustic restaurant.
• Peachy Canyon Winery: This ultra-charming winery has a tasting room located in the historic (1886) Old Bethel School House, with a large picnic area shaded by native oak trees, an old-fashioned gazebo overlooking rolling vineyards, and award-winning zinfandels, some of which have earned 90-point-plus scores from Wine Spectator. Tastings are served in small mason jars.
• Calcareous Vineyard, located 1,500 feet above the Salinas Valley with a tasting room featuring panoramic glass walls, is the picture-perfect place to catch the sunset as it casts an ever-changing light on the surrounding vineyards and mountains.
• Le Cuvier Winery features wines made with wild yeast fermentation and served on an outdoor patio that overlooks the picture-perfect Salinas River basin, widely  regarded as one of the most beautiful scenes in Paso Robles. Our grapes are all from gnarly limestone vineyards in the hills west of Paso Robles.
• Eberle Winery’s 16,000 square feet of underground caves are exceptional, but scenery-wise, this winery, owned by cellular geneticist Gary Eberle, is in a league of its own with glorious sunset vistas of the Santa Lucia Mountains.
• Ancient Peaks, located on historic Santa Margarita Ranch just 14 miles from the Pacific, overlooks views that evoke Paso Roble’s agricultural heritage and rural splendor, with a beautiful pond that reflects the adjacent peaks.
• Villa San Juliette looks like it’s on loan from Tuscany, with a grand villa, beautifully manicured grounds, and an outdoor patio where you can savor the award-winning Bordeaux and Rhone-style wines and sweeping vistas.

Looking for things to do in Paso Robles for longer than a weekend?

Consider building an itinerary based on the California Zinfandel Trail, modeled after the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and encompassing 202 wineries, 22 of which are in the Paso Robles wine region. The trail is a choose-your-own adventure with an interactive website that lays out the wineries in regional maps and creates an itinerary based on whichever ones you choose, including dining and lodging suggestions, and a synopsis of each winery so you can plot a course that matches your interests and tastes. To learn more about Paso Robles, visit their website, here.

-Story by Carole Jacobs, Real Food Traveler Health & Fitness Editor

Hungry for more? Get Carole’s recommendations for seeing the Death Valley Superbloom.

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