The subtle crispness in the morning air and the calendar tells us that fall is here. If this inspires you to take a fall trip, the Central Coast's San Luis Obispo County — or SLO as locals call it — awaits your sense of fun and adventure.

After traversing up and down the state hundreds of times, I recently stopped for a long-overdue visit to explore San Luis Obispo County's inland towns. It's the perfect distance for a road trip: not too far (about 5 hours from the desert) but far enough to feel that you are getting away from it all.

The county is bursting with a dizzying range of diversity that you'll find in the various communities — the city of San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande and Atascadero, as well as rustic coastal communities: Pismo Beach, Morro Bay and Cambria. We had visited many of these coastal towns before, so we headed to the interior landscape of lushly painted rolling hills that produce some of California's notable wines.

El Paso de Robles

Our first stop was the friendly town of Paso Robles where we checked into the newly opened La Bella Sera Hotel & Suites (labellasera.com), a hotel designed to look and feel like a Tuscan manor. It's ideally located near the 101 Freeway which bifurcates the county north and south, giving us easy access to the 180 member wineries in the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (pasowine.com). The town recently adopted its original name by which it was incorporated in 1889 — El Paso de Robles. It means “pass of the oaks” and it certainly evokes its romantic early California history more than its contemporized name. Driving through the town's country roads and byways, you'll see why “pass of the oaks” is so apt. The trees that dot the landscape are towering old oak trees. Many of them are hundreds of years old, dating back to a time when the Spanish Franciscan padres planted the region's first vineyards in the 1700s. Although it took a lifetime of living in California before I discovered El Paso de Robles, I was hooked. With its viticulture pedigree, country setting and casual sophistication, it has become my new fave home away from home.

In every wine region in the world you'll be sure to find stellar cuisine and Paso Robles is no exception. On our first evening we discovered Artisan (artisanpasorobles.com), one of the town's most lauded eateries. Located on the quaint town square, Artisan's chef Chris Kobayashi dazzled our palates with his creative use of locally produced, farm fresh ingredients that is the focus of “slow food.” The next evening we were fortunate to meet Chef Tom Fundaro and enjoy the casual ambiance of his Villa Creek Restaurant (villacreek.com), also located in downtown Paso Robles. His menu also emphasizes local, organic and sustainable ingredients - luckily for chefs like Kobayashi and Fundaro they have a bounty of local fresh herbs, produce, cheese and, of course, wine for inspiration.

To wine is divine

While my husband and I have been enjoying some of the county's wonderful wines for years, we wanted to visit some of the boutiques wineries we were familiar with and discover some new ones. But with nearly 200 wineries and 26,000 vineyard acres in the region, what's a mere mortal to do? We relied on some local insiders to steer us in the right direction. Our first stop was at the family-run 500-acre Steinbeck Vineyards (steinbeckwines.com). For six generations, Steinbeck has produced premium grapes primarily for other local wineries such as J. Lohr and Treana but they launched their own label a few years ago with great success. Their handcrafted wines include four varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and Viognier. Besides producing fine wines, the Steinbeck family has been farming their land since the 1800s using sustainable practices, long before it was in vogue.

Our next stop was at Wild Horse Winery & Vineyards (wildhorsewinery.com) which also produces superior wines while emphasizing sustainable farming practices that reduce their carbon footprint. As their name implies, this winery is located in an area of expansive horse ranches along the meandering country roads that lead you to Wild Horse in the town of Templeton.

We had more due diligence ahead, however, so we pressed on. We were greeted at Adelaida Cellars (adelaida.com) by the winemaker, Terry Culton, a warm and jovial Irish-Canadian. Owned by the Van Steenwyk family, Adelaida has been making wine since 1981.

Adelaida Cellars' estate varietals consistently rank among the best due to the excellent growing conditions - a combination of the rocky limestone soil and the 1800-feet elevation.

Historical heritage

San Luis Obispo County's reputation for a notable wine region has received wide acclaim but SLO offers an astonishing variety of things to explore beyond the vineyards.

We enjoyed a walking tour of the San Luis Obispo downtown with local historian Steve Akers (slowakingtours.com). Starting at the San Luis Obispo Mission, he regaled us with colorful anecdotes and tidbits about the town's history while we strolled the historic downtown sector. It was an entertaining and illuminating.

Just a few miles south of the town of SLO in Edna Valley, we discovered one of the truly enchanting gems of the county - Old Edna, the 100-year-old town site that was brought back to life by the current owner Pattea Torrence. The town site has an antique store, casual café and deli, a B&B that is a beautifully restored original cottage, and several more structures that are being restored (oldedna.com). Torrence has created a magical time warp for visitors where you can step back in time and experience halcyon days of old.

We spent our last day at the historic village of Arroyo Grande, known for its historic Swinging Bridge, the only one of its kind in California. From our cozy retreat at the House of Another Tyme B&B (anothertymebnb.net) we were walking distance to the historic downtown. Owners Jack and Judy Tiedemann are delightful hosts whose style of hospitality is “mi casa es su casa” literally. In the afternoon, we had a stroll downtown and dropped in to Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab. Housed in a historic building, Doc Burnstein's (docburnsteins.com) has turned ice cream-making into performance art. They have Wednesday evening performances where the guests create a new flavor of ice cream - which explains some of the exotic flavors like Chocolate Chili, Guinness Beer and Vanilla Chai.

After three days we realized we had not even seen the coast, so we spent our last night watching a post card sunset at Pismo Beach from our ocean view table at the Sea Venture Restaurant. We savored our last night in SLO with a leisurely dinner and toasted to our next visit.

There is such rich history, recreational fun, and abundant beauty in San Luis Obispo County — too much for our brief stay but we vowed to return to continue our SLO discovery.

Lydia Kremer is a Palm Springs travel writer and owner of Vortex Public Relations. She can be reached at LydiaLane@aol.com