Pismo Beach businesses look to benefit after city is named ‘Best Small Coastal Town’ in the nation
Dave Alley
PISMO BEACH, Calif. – Pismo Beach businesses are banking the city’s recent place atop a national poll of best small coastal cities in the nation will attract more visitors to the popular tourist destination.
This week, Pismo Beach was named the number one Best Coastal Small Town in America in USA TODAY’s 2025 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
“We’re excited that USA Today has recognized what all of us have always known, which is Pismo Beach is an amazing place to be,” said Jorge Garcia, Pismo Beach City Manager. “We are now officially the country’s best small coastal town. It’s a great thing to be on that list and it’s a validation and confirmation of all of the amazing investments that we’ve been doing.”
With the national attention the article brings to Pismo Beach, local businesses are hoping it will boost the number of travelers who will visit the popular tourist destination.
“With this number one ranking of Pismo Beach, we are hoping and we’re praying that this brings lots more tourism to our businesses,” said Denise Holt Wasson, Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce Vice Chair/Vice President. “Our entire little town relies on tourism. Our hotels, our businesses rely on tourism. If we didn’t have the tourists, we wouldn’t be able to thrive like we do and our chamber loves all of our businesses. We promote all of our businesses for that very reason, and now with this ranking, we’re so excited to see what the future brings in for Pismo Beach.”
The honor comes two years after Pismo Beach earned a third place ranking in the same readers poll and a second place showing seven years earlier in 2018.
Pismo Beach wasn’t the only San Luis Obispo County city to earn a place on this year’s top 10 list.
Morro Bay finished in fifth place in the poll, trailing only Pismo Beach, as well as Cedar Key, Florida, Castine, Maine and Bar Harbor, Maine.
“It’s great for the county,” said Jed Bickel, Sea Crest Ocean Front Hotel General Manager. “The county and Visit SLOCAL, they work really hard to collaborate and make sure that all the cities are represented. It’s a great thing about the cities in this county, you can you can hop to each one. You can stay in Pismo, but then you can go visit Morro Bay, so that’s something that the county works on collaboratively, and we’re really excited to see Morro Bay be right there with us. It’s just going to help the area as a whole.”
According to USA Today, the national recognition celebrates the beauty and spirit of coastal communities.
The coastal cities in the national rankings were selected by a panel of travel experts and winners were determined by public vote.