Avila Beach sits on top of natural mineral springs. It's one of the few beach towns in California where you can follow a day on the sand with a soak in a hillside hot tub. Here's how to do it right.
The signature experience. Sycamore's private open-air hot tubs are terraced up a wooded hillside along Avila Beach Drive, each fed by naturally heated mineral water and screened from the others by oak trees. You book by the hour.
At the Highway 101 end of Avila Beach Drive, Avila Hot Springs is the casual, family-friendly option: a large warm mineral pool alongside a freshwater swimming pool. Day passes are inexpensive, kids are welcome, and no reservation is needed for general soaking. Less romantic than Sycamore, much easier with children.
The hot springs pair naturally with everything else in town: a morning on Avila's sheltered, south-facing beach, lunch on the promenade, the Bob Jones Trail by bike, wine tasting at the walkable downtown tasting rooms, then a soak as the sun drops.
Our Avila Beach vacation rentals are 1-2 blocks from the beach and a short drive (or bike ride up the Bob Jones Trail) from both springs. Browse all 12 properties. If you're planning a couples trip, ask us which ones have the best sunset views.
The springs here come up naturally warm and mineral-rich, which is why the resort exists at all rather than someone having built a heated pool and called it a spa.
Temperatures sit in a range that suits a long soak rather than a quick dip. Thirty to forty-five minutes is about right. Longer and most people get light-headed, especially after a day in the sun or a tasting room.
The private tubs are terraced up the hillside under oaks and you reserve one by the hour. The common pool is fine and it is not why you came.
Weekend evenings book out days ahead in summer. Weekday afternoons in winter you can often get a tub same-day, and that is the best version of the experience: cold air, hot water, nobody around.
The obvious time is a summer afternoon, which is also when it is busiest and when a hot soak is least appealing.
The right time is a cold evening between November and March. Eight minutes from the village, dark, steam coming off the water, and the tub is yours for the hour. Bring a second towel and something warm for the walk back to the car.
Take water in and drink it. Take a robe or an oversized towel, because the walk from the tub to the car is longer and colder than you expect.
Do not go straight from a long tasting afternoon into a hot tub. Eat first. And if you are soaking late, plan how you are getting home before you get in.
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