Carpinteria's mile of beach lies below bluffs that step down to the water in terraces, with the state beach campground right behind the sand. Walk the tideline barefoot and the tar seeps the town is known for leave dark marks on your feet. From there US-101 runs north past Santa Barbara to Pismo Beach and Morro Bay, three beach nights that stretch into an easy four-to-six-night loop out of Orange County.
Carpinteria is the close-in night, near enough to reach on the first afternoon out and good for a second night if the kids want more beach before the road. State Parks lists RV and trailer sites with hookups and an RV dump station there, the first of two dump stations on the loop. Book it again for the last night and the drive back to Costa Mesa is a short one.
North of Santa Barbara the highway follows the coast past El Capitan and Refugio, bluff campgrounds without hookups that the Santa Barbara campervan page covers. This loop keeps going to Pismo Beach.
Pismo Coast Village, beside the estuary on Pismo Beach
Pismo is the night people plan the trip around. Pismo Coast Village sits right on the beach with the estuary running beside the rigs, and the surf is loud enough to hear through the windows after dark, with salt on the air by morning. The resort has 400 full-hookup sites on 26 acres, wired for 30 and 50 amp, so the air conditioner, the water heater and the tanks all look after themselves.
Plenty of families stop looping here and park the whole week, with the beach out front and Morro Bay a day trip up the road instead of another move. Owners deliver and set up trailers at Pismo, listing by listing, so a trailer already waiting on the pad is a common way to do the parked week. What delivery and setup include varies, so check with the owner before you count on it.
Summer on this coast fills early, so the campsites are the first booking and the motorhome is the second. Pismo Coast Village opens public reservations on the first day of the sixth month before arrival, as of September 2026, and Carpinteria goes just as fast in summer.
Morro Bay State Park, across the water from Morro Rock
Morro Bay is the last night north and the one with the best view from a camp chair. Morro Rock stands across the estuary from the campground, herons work the rookery nearby, and eucalyptus shades the sites through the afternoon. Mornings here belong to the water, the rock and the birds.
This is the pad that decides the rig. State Parks posts a 35-foot maximum for motorhomes and trailers at its more than 140 sites, some with electric hookups, plus an RV sanitation station and water fill.
Empty the tanks at Morro Bay's station on the way out. Pismo's sewer hookups cover any night you spend there heading south, and Carpinteria's dump is the next one before home.
Montana de Oro, on the bluffs south of the bay, is on the San Luis Obispo campervan page, and Highway 1 north through Big Sur belongs to the San Francisco RV page. For a two-person overnight closer to home, Crystal Cove State Park and Moro Campground on the Newport coast suit something smaller than a family motorhome, and the Costa Mesa campervan page covers them.
