Bohemia Lives on in These Artsy, Budget-Friendly CA Destinations

You could argue that the town of Mount Shasta lies closer to the hippie end of the alternative continuum than the boho zone, but we think the town’s strong arts presence and emphasis on finding your own way of doing things qualifies it for true bohemian status. Want to argue about it? Go somewhere else. People in Mount Shasta are too zenned-out and too busy planning the next gallery opening to bicker about how many crystal shops it takes to make a town a hippie haven. In a place where loggers sit on the patio at Lilys next to Ophelia the Mystic Muse, you can definitely find space to do your thing.

At about 16,000 people, Ukiah is just big enough to put a veneer of urbanity over funky Mendocino County. The sparsely populated, herbally infused Emerald Triangle region has long attracted the independent-minded, and increasingly artists are landing in the area’s cultural capital. There’s a First Friday Art Walk every month, and a top-notch arts-education program working to make sure that the next generation keeps up the creative vibe. Visitors can enjoy the excellent Grace Hudson Museum, with exhibits dedicated to edge-adjacent topics like the history of female tattoo artists in the state. Just outside of town, numerous modest hot spring resorts (like the one pictured here) allow you to relax and live your best life without spending a lot of money—and what’s more bohemian than that?

Sonoma County’s Bohemian Highway is named after the Bohemian Grove, a private men’s club that is, ironically, the least bohemian place in the state. But the scenic road does not disappoint, because it eventually leads to the town of Occidental. This former commune-studded bump on the map has matured into a more tidily-scrubbed version of its hippie self without losing any creative energy, supporting several galleries and the excellent Occidental Center for the Arts. You can stay in luxurious digs if you want, but consider the laid-back Occidental Lodge, which will welcome both you and your dog. Unusual for this part of Northern California, there aren’t many tasting rooms in town. The food and drink scene here is much more about lively conversation over beer and hearty fare. If you should require wine—or health food—stop by the appropriately named Bohemian Market for provisions.

Bohemia abides in the Marin County hamlet of Bolinas. The best hotel in town is actually a couple of extra rooms in someone’s home—it’s not an Airbnb so much as it is a standing local joke that no one knows how to quit (Grand Hotel, 415/868-1757.) There are more surf shops than gas stations and more murals than stoplights. (Although the murals are legion, it would actually only take one mural to make this statement true in this postage stamp-sized town.) It seems as though every front yard in Bolinas is full of eccentric art, and the town of 1,600 manages to support two galleries and a museum—this in spite of the fact that locals actively discourage tourism by stealing the signs pointing to town off Highway 1. (Use your GPS.) Should you manage to find Bolinas, be sure to stop by the most bohemian site of all: The famed Free Box of Bolinas, where anyone is welcome to dig for treasure among the (surprisingly tidy) castoffs of local residents.

The former Baghdad by the Bay is now more of a gleaming tech hub than a bohemian enclave, but echoes remain of San Francisco’s reign as the counterculture center of the universe. The city’s creative, arts-loving spirit is still present in the mural-lined alleys of the Mission District; among the revelers enjoying folk and alternative music at Golden Gate Park’s sprawling (and entirely free) Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival; and in North Beach, where you can caffeinate at one-time Jack Kerouac hangout Caffe Trieste and perhaps spy 100-year-old Beat Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti still roaming the stacks at City Lights bookstore.

Longtime hippie hangout and surf town Santa Cruz has one of the most bohemian downtowns of any city in California. Shop to your shabby-chic heart’s delight on and around Soquel Avenue, where you’ll find funky furniture stores, bookshops, record stores, and vintage boutiques to outfit yourself and your home even if you’re on a starving artist’s budget. Outside of downtown, you’ll find lots of other low- and no-budget activities, like the magnificent rock formation that is Natural Bridges, and of course, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where you’ll pay for rides but the strolling and people watching from the pier are absolutely free—and priceless.

With a name like Harmony, you might expect this Central Coast enclave to be a little trapped in the Woodstock era, but the reality is more intriguing. The former dairy town went through a creative spurt in the 1970s, but had become essentially a ghost town by the late ‘90s, with all the funky little shops, restaurants, and studios that once defined it shuttered. But Harmony is in the process of being resuscitated with an eye toward restoring its former artistic glory. Already you can shop for pottery and learn to blow glass. More makers are being coaxed into town gradually and the place is becoming more infused with creative energy by the day. Drive through, sample some local ice cream, and watch a creative experiment unfold before you.

Less than two hours from Los Angeles, Ojai has long been a place Southern Californians have gone to escape the fast pace and aesthetic expectations of the City of Angels. Though there are luxury resorts and hip farm-to-table restaurants, there are also earthy hot springs and farmers’ markets where you can pick up the raw materials for your own food masterpieces. Chain stores are forbidden here and Ojai is the region’s go-to spot for funky home furnishings and offbeat fashion boutiques. The main attraction of an Ojai evening is the open-to-all visual spectacle that is the daily “pink moment,” when the setting sun hits the dusky Topatopa mountains that border the Ojai valley.

Like San Francisco, modern Laurel Canyon is more of a pilgrimage site than an actual active boho Mecca. But the mostly residential neighborhood deserves a mention for being the epicenter of the explosively creative L.A. music scene in the 1960s, and for the famed Canyon Country Store (pictured), whose porch was jam-session central in the ‘60s and is still a hotspot for rock-star sightings. It isn’t unusual to see Joni Mitchell sitting there drinking coffee. But if she should be there when you visit, please just appreciate your historic encounter from a respectful distance—she and the other ladies (and gentlemen) of the canyon have more than earned their right to make their art in peace.

There are those who say developers have stolen the soul of Venice, and then there are those who complain that the place is still too seedy. There’s a hint of truth to both schools of thought, but if you visit on a lively weekend day you’ll find the town’s bohemian spirit alive and well. The beach is home turf for roller-skating guitar players, pet owners taking their boa constrictors for a stroll, and assorted other eccentrics. Venture a few blocks inland, to the vintage clothing stores and Himalayan salt lamp emporiums of Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and you can outfit yourself in an appropriately boho vein. Finish off the look with cheap but fun jewelry or sunglasses purchased on Ocean Front Walk—you can afford them even if your wallet is artistically thin. Explore even deeper inland and you’ll stumble on the boho-quaint, private home-lined Venice Canals (pictured above), L.A.’s answer to the dreamy Italian city.