SLO County beach town is the 21st ‘most underrated travel destination in the U.S.’
A small Central Coast town has made it onto U.S. News and World Report’s 2025 list of the most underrated destinations in the country.
In fact, the coastal village of Cambria is the only California community to make the list, ranked as No. 21 among the 26 selected destinations this year.
It’s a description some residents might dispute heartily, especially after a Memorial Day weekend in which the town was packed to the gills with visitors. However, even the town’s own tourism website calls it a “hidden gem,” as does Travel + Leisure, which in 2023 deemed it “one of the most beautiful coastal destinations in the state.”
There’s obvious danger and difficulty in sticking that “underrated” label on a tourist-reliant town, something the publication notes in its own first paragraph about the designation.
“Designating a destination as underrated can be challenging. A vacation spot that may have slipped under one reader’s radar might be a well-known favorite for another,” reporter Elizabeth Von Tersch wrote.
“But visiting places that haven’t gained clout on a national level — those that aren’t frequently featured on travel lists, including our own — can feel like you’re getting in on a little secret.”
That category also applies to a national park, forest, recreation area and lakeshore, along with a state park.
How they viewed Cambria
Some of Cambria’s not-so-secrets are revealed in Van Tersch’s description of the rural village of about 6,000 residents, who live six miles from Hearst Castle and the start of the dramatic Big Sur stretch of Highway 1.
“Sitting between the sandy shores of Santa Barbara and Big Sur’s breathtaking cliffs, Cambria can get lost in the heaps of praise piled on California’s coastline,” she wrote.
However, “Cambria has its own beach to boast about — the dramatic Moonstone Beach — along with wild meadows and bluffs at the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve,” she wrote of the town that’s roughly halfway between the San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The review goes on to call Cambria’s Main Street “perfectly quaint,” noting that, “its colorful cottages and Tudor-style buildings house galleries, boutiques and wine-tasting rooms. And with proximity to the volcanic monolith at Morro Bay and San Simeon’s impressive Hearst Castle, Cambria’s location can’t be beaten.”
How U.S. News makes its selections
Ever anxious to hear from its readers, U.S. News urged them to vote as to whether each of the 26 towns on the list deserves to be there.
“U.S. News considered user votes and editor input, as well as factors such as crowds and things to do, to highlight the best underrated places to visit in the U.S,” the website said.
Also, the website suggests, “If you have a beloved lesser-known spot, cast a vote below to see it on next year’s list.”
From those votes comes the genesis for the next year’s list. Among the qualifiers are seasonality, affordability and category distinctions.
Users’ votes carry half the weight for those selections, and the opinions of U.S. News editors contribute the other 50%.
See full list of ‘26 most underrated destinations in the U.S.’ for 2025
Here’s the full list of U.S. World News and Travel’s 26 most underrated destinations.
No. 1: St. Simons Island, Georgia
No. 2: Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho
No. 3: Door County, Wisconsin
No. 4: Chattanooga, Tennessee
No. 5: Block Island, Rhode Island
No. 6: Big Bend National Park, Texas
No. 7: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
No. 8: Duluth, Minnesota
No. 9: Charlottesville, Virginia
No. 10: Crested Butte, Colorado
No. 11: Des Moines, Iowa
No. 12: Baxter State Park, Maine
No. 13: Yachats, Oregon
No. 14: Omaha, Nebraska
No. 15: Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota/Wyoming border
No. 16: Flagstaff, Arizona
No. 17: The Catskills, New York
No. 18: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan
No. 19: Gloucester, Massachusetts
No. 20: Winston-Salem, North Carolina
No. 21: Cambria, California
No. 22: Brown County, Indiana
No. 23: Stone Harbor, New Jersey
No. 24: Paduca, Kentucky
No. 25: St. George Island, Florida
No. 26: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
This story was originally published May 25, 2025 at 9:41 PM.
