The trip starts with a bluff site at El Capitán State Beach, west of town on the Gaviota Coast, where a stairway drops from the campground down to sand and rocky tidepools. Those sites release six months to the day ahead on ReserveCalifornia, and the window opens at 8 a.m. Pacific. A summer weekend on this stretch is usually settled inside that first hour, so book the site first and the van second.
El Capitán is back open after a long rebuild of its entrance, though the lower-loop sites, 1 through 28, are still closed for trail work as of August 2026. Refugio is the sibling cove a few miles farther west, palms at the creek mouth and a crescent of sand that reads tropical on an otherwise oak coast. Its family sites go walk-in only from December through March, which makes El Capitán the surer reservation in winter.
Neither beach has hookups, so you run the week on your own tanks. If that is the wrong rig for you, the state's RV rentals cover the bigger coaches. Drive out to the end of Jalama Road and you hit Jalama Beach, a wind-scoured county park with a burger stand right at the sand.
Carpinteria State Beach
Twelve miles south of town, Carpinteria is the beach camp with power and a walkable town behind it. Its Santa Rosa loop runs full hookups: water, 30-amp electric, and sewer. That makes it the easy pick when you would rather plug in than boondock on a bluff. Linden Avenue and its cafes sit a short walk up from the sand. The shore has natural tar seeps and tidepools, and harbor seals haul out on the cove next door.
Santa Ynez Valley and Cachuma Lake
When you want a day off the coast, cross San Marcos Pass on SR-154 into the Santa Ynez Valley, where the tasting rooms cluster in Los Olivos and Solvang. The van night is Cachuma Lake, an oak peninsula on the reservoir with the Santa Ynez Mountains behind it and skies dark enough for stars. It has full-hookup and partial sites, worth having in summer, when the valley stays hot well into the evening. One catch: Cachuma is a drinking-water reservoir, so there's no swimming or body contact.
The Channel Islands by day boat
The islands you can see from the Gaviota bluffs are a boat day, not a van night. You can't drive out. Island Packers runs the crossing from Ventura Harbor, and a landing on Anacapa or Santa Cruz is a full six-to-eight-hour day on foot, so the van stays parked on the mainland. From the water you get Anacapa's Arch Rock and the sea caves along Santa Cruz.
North on US-101 to San Luis Obispo
Keep going north and the next overnight belongs to Morro Bay and Montaña de Oro, which the San Luis Obispo campervan page covers. For the rest of the state, start from California campervan rentals.