SAN LUIS OBISPO , 160 miles north of Santa Barbara and halfway between LA and San Francisco, is a few miles inland, but makes the best base for exploring the surrounding coastal regions. Still primarily an agricultural market center, it holds more nineteenth-century architecture than any other Californian city (especially around Buchon Street), plenty of good restaurants, a couple of pubs, and - outside summer holiday weekends - plenty of accommodation.

The compact core of San Luis is eminently walkable, centered around the late eighteenth-century Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (daily 9-4pm, June-Oct closes at 5pm; suggested donation), a dark and unremarkable church that was the prototype for the now ubiquitous red-tiled roof, developed to replace the original, flammable thatch in response to Native American arson attacks.

Between the mission and the visitors center, Mission Plaza 's terraces step down along San Luis creek, along which footpaths meander, crisscrossed by bridges every hundred feet and overlooked by shops and outdoor restaurants on the south bank. The undeniable highlight is the stunning pink Fremont Theater , 1035 Monterey St, an Art Deco marvel that becomes a riot of splashy neon at night and still plays movies. Higuera Street , a block south of Mission Plaza, is the main drag, and springs to life on Thursday afternoons for the Farmers' Market , when the street is closed to cars and filled with vege-table stalls, mobile barbecues and street-corner musicians.

San Luis Obispo

• San Luis Obispo
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