45 new luxury ‘eco-tents’ coming to SLO County golf course. Get a look inside
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Nightsky Camps to open 45 luxury eco-tents at SLO's Dairy Creek golf course in 2026
- Project repurposes decommissioned golf holes for eco-conscious tourism use
- Renovated on-site restaurant Marcerro opens July with locally sourced menu
A new luxury camping-style getaway is coming soon to a familiar San Luis Obispo County location.
By next spring, 45 “eco-tents” built by Nightsky camps will crop up at the Dairy Creek Golf course in San Luis Obispo, taking over land that used to be nine extra holes of golf.
Founded by two Australian ex-patriots, Nightsky camps is a hospitality experience that provides a new way to connect with nature and get guests outdoors, while still experiencing the comfort and amenities of a hotel room.
The Dairy Creek development is its first project, one the founders hope is the first of many.
“There is unquestionably growing interest all over the country, all over the world, around spending more time outdoors,” founder David Smith told The Tribune. “ ... The experience is supposed to be about creating a place where you can come and reconnect with nature. And that means a lot of different things for different people.”
The company has also taken over the golf course’s restaurant and bar area for a revamped dining experience that will service the Top Golf driving range.
“Golf travel right now is off the charts” SLO County golf superintendent Josh Heptig told The Tribune. “ ... So I think this is really going to help put the Central Coast on the map as far as destination locations to go play golf.”
The project has been in the works for four years and is finally expected to open in spring of 2026. The restaurant will be open by early July.
Nightsky is working on other locations in California focused on places that are like San Luis Obispo and can be reached easily from big cities like Los Angeles or San Francisco.
What do the luxury eco-tents look like?
Dairy Creek, opened in 1997, is one of three golf courses owned or managed by the county.
Heptig called the new location for Nightsky camps a “golf playground,” with nine holes, a Top Golf-style driving range, a restaurant and bar, and Cal Poly’s golf center.
Dairy Creek used to be an 18-hole golf course, but due to water shortages the county had to decommission nine of the holes and reimagine a use for the land that would benefit the community and generate income for the county.
Nightsky camps was the solution.
“We’re turning some lemons into some really, really delicious lemonade,” Heptig said.
The county will get a share of every dollar Nightsky makes, paid as rent, but the entire project is financed by Nightsky. Not a dollar came from the county to pay for the eco-tents, Heptig said.
By installing the eco-tents, the county will usethe empty space left over from the other half of the golf course for a sustainable and profitable purpose.
“It’s kind of like a regenerative project, in a way. ... Generation, sustainability is very much the ethos of what’s driving us,” Anatoly Mezhov, development partner at Nightsky, told The Tribune.
Both originally hailing from Australia, Mezhov and Smith were drawn to the Central Coast as the perfect spot for their inaugural location of Nightsky camps.
“It’s just like a beautiful, less discovered, world-class region that, since coming here, we just fell in love with more and more and more,” Mezhov said.
The eco-tents will be ready to rent in spring of 2026, offering each guest the opportunity for a luxury stay in the rolling hills of San Luis Obispo.
Each tented structure offers modern luxury features such as a king-sized bed, soft linens, a mini fridge, closet space, a couch and a private bathroom with a shower.
The tents’ open windows are protected with a zip-able mesh cover and tarp shades. Two large sliding glass doors open up to lead guests outside to their private deck.
The price per night for the tents will be decided closer to their grand opening, Smith said.
“It really is like a boutique hotel room, just in a landscape environment,” Mezhov said.
The founders said Nightsky’s goal is to bring a people outside in accessible, comfortable ways.
“Both of us coming from Australia, both of us having a passion for the outdoors, we’ve always really been interested in trying to take some of the principles that we think are uniquely Australian around design led hospitality, and finding ... ways to help people recreate outside that might not otherwise be comfortable with sleeping in a regular tent or going somewhere without a bathroom,” Smith said. “So Nightsky is all about connecting people with those sorts of experiences in a way that they might not otherwise have available.”
For some guests, that might mean staying on the property all day, or it might mean exploring out into other areas of SLO County.
“Our mission with Nightsky is to create a space and an experience for everyone to be able to have an adventure, whatever their definition of adventure is,” Smith said.
The tents are designed by an Australian company called Eco Structures and installed by the local construction company Bogle Builders.
In total, the project will include 45 eco-tents as well as a number of communal spaces, including a wellness center offering a yoga room, an outdoor bar and a sauna.
Sustainable stays have ‘minimal’ environmental impact
One of the county’s main draws in working with Nightsky camps was the company’s focus on sustainability.
“Dairy Creek Golf Course was deemed one of the first zero-waste golf courses, possibly in the world, but definitely United States,” Heptig said. “ ... We’re trying to not impact the environment at all.”
Each 400-square-foot tent is larger than a typical hotel room but has a much smaller environmental footprint than a hotel, Mezhov said.
“Because we’re using these tented structures, and they’re sort of a proprietary system, our impact on the land is really minimal, opposed to if you’re building like a traditional hotel, there’s just a lot of ... disruption to the ground that’s got to go down, which is not the case of what we’re doing here,” Mezhov said.
Because the tents are pre-built structures, less construction is required, which means fewer carbon emissions associated with installation. Instead of being built on concrete foundations, they use steel “eco-anchors” to support the structure.
Aesthetically, the tan eco-tents blend into the landscape for minimal visual environmental impact, too.
Nightsky’s focus on sustainability lines up with the golf course’s priorities. The course is watered with only reclaimed wastewater from the California Men’s Colony and is using grazing sheep to naturally clean up overgrown, invasive grasses from the unused nine holes and preserve the native plant species, Heptig said.
The water used by the eco-tents will be a “tiny fraction” of the 40 acre-feet — or about 13 million gallons — of water per year used on the nine holes of golf that were previously there, Heptig said.
Golf course restaurant gets a makeover
Nightsky has also renovated the golf course’s restaurant space, which will open under a new name in early July.
The new eatery, Marcerro, will serve elevated American pub food sourcing ingredients from local farmers and producers, Mezhov said.
The restaurant will undergo physical renovations, too, remodeling the indoor and outdoor dining space to offer a family-friendly experience. New wooden benches and fire pits add ambiance, while a new island bar re-structures the flow of the space.
The restaurant will also service Dairy Creek’s Top Golf-style driving range with food and drink.
According to the founders, one goal was to create a place that people can come and enjoy, whether they are staying at overnight, playing a round of golf or just looking for a beautiful spot to eat out.
“We are really focused on creating a space that’s for the community as much as it is for guests who are coming in from out of town,” Smith said.
This story was originally published June 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
