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Getting Around: Grover Beach, CA

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Grover Beach and Pismo Beach Essentials

Bus frequency is poor
Bus coverage is poor.
Most routes oriented around San Luis Obispo.
Reroutes handled poorly.
Do not trust map walking directions.

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Pros

Bus service exists.

❌

Cons

Good luck riding the bus.

Traveled April 2025

Trash can on a sidewalk. Sidewalk designed to look like a wave on a beach. Street, palm trees, strip mall in background.

Wooden deck, overlooking a beach on the left, ocean at right.

Wooden deck in foreground with a sign at the railing in the center. Beach beyond, water in distance. Sun peeks into frame at top center.

Beachfront Path

So I don’t talk too much trash on Grover Beach (as I did have a good time), I’ll start off by mentioning the gorgeous beachfront path. It seemed fairly new, made of wood, elevated above the brush, and was a joy to walk.

The path took me from a nice fish and chips lunch at the edge of Grover Beach, all the way past a golf course and several RV resorts, to downtown Pismo Beach.

The wooden path ended at a dirt path with a coyote warning.

Hold that thought.

Fish and chips with tartar sauce on round table in foreground. Through a window, block wall and sand dunes with vegetation. Blue sky, scattered clouds.

Rather good fish and chips by the beach.

Wooden path with wooden railing on either side, headed directly forward into the distance. Mounds of vegetation-covered sand on either side. Mountains and cloudy sky in distance. Beach slightly visible in distant left.

Really nice wooden path along the beach.

“Warning - Active Coyote Area” sign. Dirt path curves into the distance.

Watch out for coyotes!

Pismo was cute, the pier was lovely, the weather was divine. But it also felt like a bit of a tourist trap.

Pier extends into distance below a large sky with clouds and sun at right. Some pedestrians. Shops at right.

Pismo Beach Pier. Really nice out.

Bus Reroute

I wanted to take the bus back from Pismo Beach to my hotel in Grover Beach. I looked up the route map.

There was very little bus service to begin with. The next bus would, in theory, arrive in about a half hour. I didn’t particularly trust it.

It was about a 40 minute walk. So I figured I’d start to walk, and hop on the bus if/when it came by.

What the apps didn’t tell me was that the buses were rerouted, over a mile out of the way. I found out thanks to a laminated sheet of paper zip tied and taped to a bus stop several RV parks into my walk.

I tried the bus arrival information SMS text line. It gave me perfectly cryptic information. Anyways, the bus wasn’t coming.

The response I got when texting for bus status. No idea what that’s supposed to mean.

Bus stop and map, with a Rider Alert zip-tied and taped in front of it. List of bus stops closed until further notice.

Rider alert that probably makes sense to someone, but not someone who just got to town.

Walk This Way?

A maps app (I forget if it was Transit, Google, or Apple) routed me on foot, down PCH, aka Dolliver St.

Pedestrian crossing signage and several bus stops suggested that pedestrians were indeed welcome there.

Main road with bike lane. No sidewalk. Bus stop with bench and a “24 / Bus Stop” sign sit up on the curb among wild plants, directly adjacent to the bike lane.

I guess you’re supposed to bike up to the bus stop?

Curved road with bicycle lane, No Parking Any Time sign, and pedestrian crossing sign. No sidewalk, only concrete that holds road barrier.

The map told me to walk along this road.

However, the complete lack of sidewalk begged to differ. I was walking alongside a highway.

There was a bike lane painted onto the asphalt, and I suppose they intended pedestrians to share it. Or perhaps they didn’t intend anything at all. Hard to say.

View from bike lane on curved road. Barrier and trees to right.

Not even a touch of sidewalk at this point.

Sidewalk ending in a bumpy yellow curb cut, pointing pedestrians toward a road. No crosswalk.

If you cross here, you’ll reach some railroad tracks, followed by a wall. Watch out for traffic, the road curves here too!

One particular pedestrian crossing, with a bright yellow sign, took you from one side of the road with only a few feet of sidewalk, to no sidewalk on the other.

I did meet the remains of what appeared to be one of the aforementioned coyotes.

Remains of a dead animal, possibly a coyote, on concrete beneath a roadside barrier.

A dead something… I think maybe a small coyote.

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