Dune Buggy, UTV or ATV Experience at Pismo Beach

Experience the thrill of Pismo Beach’s Oceano Dunes in a dune buggy, UTV, or ATV. Cruise the Pacific shoreline and conquer the sand dunes.

Duration: 2 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area - Rent your dune buggy in Oceano, just 5 minutes down the road from Pismo Beach, at your selected time. Get fitted with your gear and receive a safety orientation. You will then hop on our complimentary beach shuttle which will drive you a mile down the beach to the OHV staging area. Hop in the driver’s seat or passenger’s seat of your fully automatic, Big Paddle Tirer Dune Buggy and zoom off through the Oceano Dunes.
What's Included
  • Park fee
  • All equipment and safety gear
  • Free Souvenir t-shirt, 1 per Buggy Booked
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
Additional Information

Whiz around the Oceano Dunes in a dune buggy with friends and family while during your stay in Pismo Beach. Nowhere else in California can you drive your vehicle on a public beach, so take advantage of the unique opportunity to cruise down the scenic Pacific shoreline before you get to speed, zoom and zip your way along miles of Pismo’s popular sand dunes. This 2-hour dune buggy experience includes all safety gear and instruction as well as a dunes support team to help you on your adventure if you get stuck or need assistance!

2-hour rental options by UTV or ATV are also available. Departs at 328 Pier Ave, Oceano, CA

  • Not recommended for children aged 4 and under
  • Drivers must be at least 16 years old with a valid driver’s license when accompanied by an adult 18 years or over; photo ID will be required
  • You will be able to switch drivers during this free roaming adventure as often as you wish.
Location
307 Pier Ave
Pier Avenue
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.9
(153 Ratings)
5 stars
4 stars
3 stars
2 stars
1 star
Brittney_g
Aug 18, 2024
Excellent - I loved everything about it, staff were amazing, Lenn and Jessica made she we were taken care of and happy
Review provided by Viator
Alisonsv4412rm
Aug 14, 2024
So. Much. Fun!!! - So fun!!! Vehicle worked great and staff was efficient and helpful. Dune buggy riding was a great adventure to experience with my kids. We will come back next time we’re in the area.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
A287ymamya
Aug 13, 2024
Great family experience - First time trying the ATV with 5 adult and 5 kids (age from 10-12). Lynn was extremely helpful. She listed all the options and price for us to choose from. Some of us want to drive but others just want to take backseat. There are options for everyone. Highly recommend. We will definitely coming back for more.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Emma_h
Aug 31, 2024
Great once started, but getting there was a mare! - The actual dune buggy driving was great. However, turning up to find out we had to pay $200 to be held, then another $20 to cover the belt breaking was more than annoying! There was no mention of this when booking. I was told it would be released at midnight, this did not happen so we had to waste part of the next day going back to get this sorted. Also when we started one of our ATV’s broke down on route to the sand dunes. We hadn’t even started the actual experience, we did as directed call the breakdown no. This however was in LA, so by the time one of us drove back to tell them they hadn’t even gotten the message. This is not the most practical or time efficient way. Luckily the staff swapped the ATV and kindly re started our time as we wasted the first 30 mins just trying to get to the dunes.
Review provided by Viator
Dennisa527
Aug 5, 2024
Focus on the fun part of the experience - This was an epic trip with my 2 boys. We had a blast on the dunes. The checkin, ferry and set up staff were all very pleasant and made you feel comfortable and not rushed. However the organization needs more processes to help their staff and guest experience. The checkin period could use some efficiency as we were in line for quite some time just to be handed a form to fill out and wait in line again for someone to review it. The wait time after being ferried over to the vehicle pickup was also unnecessarily long with no vehicles available so had to wait for earlier riders to return. Condition of the vehicles was also suspect and management should consider retiring some of the vehicles as they are in pretty bad shape. They were fun but so beat up, misfiring and seat belts that barely worked. Finally I got stuck briefly and called the help line for some assistance and was immediately answered but said that it would take 20min to get to me. I was able to get the vehicle back on the move by myself so canceled the service but it was about an hour later that day when we were having lunch when I go a call from the help confirming my location so they can get me some assistance! Imaging if I was in a bind and it taking them an hour to get to me that would not have been a pleasant experience. Regardless with all these issues it was still fun for what it was. Great staff again.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jeanette
Jul 23, 2024
Fun but not for the inexperienced - We rented Atv's for an hour. It was definitely fun but not for the inexperienced. The drops in the dunes range for the more experienced rider's, not for novice individuals.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Debiventura_ca
Jul 21, 2024
BEWARE!!! Do not rent a PROWLER. Rent a Razer or Quad. - BEWARE!!! Do you see the traditional-looking dune buggies in the cover photo? PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT RENT ONE OF THOSE! They are called PROWLERS and they do NOT have a reverse gear and continuously get stuck in the sand. We had to dig ourselves out 5 TIMES. I literally thought I was going to have a heart attack because I'm 71 years old and not used to this kind of physical stress. Fortunately, some nice people stopped to help us 4 of those times. It was OK riding on the flat beach area but NOT THE DUNES! Rent an ATV Quad or a RAZER. They have much more power to get up the dunes. We're glad we tried it and might even do this again someday but would make sure we were getting a Razer or Quad. The guys were all helpful but should have never allowed us to take the prowler. They even told us we would hate it but just try it for a while then come back and get a Razer. After getting stuck 5 times, we finally made it back with about an hour left on our 2-hour rental that cost $512.00 but no Razers were available. They offered us some Quads which my husband took for a spin but I was sooooo exhausted from digging and getting in and out of the car that I just wanted to sit still.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Z1109jzjasminek
Jul 25, 2024
kids had fun but so delayed! Do not plan anything else after. - I have emailed [email protected], I have emailed [email protected] and have not gotten a response so maybe posting here someone from SunBuggy Pismo will give a hoot. I arrived for our 12 o clock reservation on June 13 at 11. At 1:20 and we were still not riding. The check in process is horrid, it took over an hour. The staff member Steve is a sweetheart but slow as molasses. After riding the shuttle down to the location we are told that the ATVs are NOT available. So we have to wait. It is now 1:20 and an hour after we finished the paperwork and we are still waiting. I have called the office and Cathy who tried to help transfer me 3x with no luck because no one at the Pismo Office answered the phone. Cathy then got Eric to call me and he said that he called down to Pismo and that there were vehicles but that he was dealing with an injury. Which is inaccurate, there were no ATVs for us to ride. If there was an injury that is understandable but that’s not the case. I spent $842.14 for 6 people for 2 hours of riding. I want to be compensated or refunded due to the insane amount of delay this has caused to our day. We planned on being at SunBuggy until 2:30 at the latest and now our afternoon sand boarding lessons and our catered dinner are both being delayed which costs me more money. Super annoying to be told to email and then not get a response. Do better.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
718ariellem
Aug 1, 2024
Birthday gift that my stepson couldn’t in joy - Hello Sun Buggy, I was super excited to do Sun buggy. It was a surprise birthday gift for my stepson. The moment that we got there I had high hopes. I had paid for two hours for a four-person explorer. When I called the person said this would be the best experience for my stepson. We would be able to go fast and enjoy the dunes to its fullest. When we got there we did the training video and it went over all of the things we needed to know. When we finally made it to the area to pick up the buggy. The gentleman went over the area that we couldn’t go into super fast and didn’t speak loudly enough for everyone to hear him. We were the first people to get our rental. One in the training video said that they would inspect the whole buggies with us before driving this didn’t happen. The buggy didn’t have all of the seat belts before we got there. Two the driver-side tire was tearing apart as seen in the picture. The gentleman said on a hill go for it all gas. This didn’t work because I had to push the gas pedal down so it would even go. Three he also didn’t inform us what area would be the best for us. When I started to drive I noticed that I was flooring the gas pedal we were not moving at all. We ended up getting stuck within five minutes. I had noticed a QR code on the side of the buggy. I did that and called the phone number that was listed on the paperwork. Headquarters never gave me an ETA. I waited 30 minutes. Gave them a call and they said oh they are two minutes away. I waited another 15 minutes and still no one had come. I ended up receiving a text message saying that they were on their way and still, we waited another 15 minutes for someone to come. The first thing that I can say is the recovery team was amazing, they were so nice to my whole family. The issue with the buggy was it had a hole in the filter. They hey had never seen this happen in 20 years. They tethered us back to the general area and said it was gonna take 20 minutes to fix it now by this time the buggy was even working. It took a bit longer and My husband had asked, can we get another vehicle even if we had to pay more they had informed him that all of the vehicles were sold out for that day. So they said to him once we start the buggy you cannot stop unfortunately within five minutes we got stuck again. in the area that they said would be best for this kind of buggy. They offered us another hour and 30 minutes for then we have our full experience, but unfortunately, that did not happen. We kept on getting stuck and stuck everywhere we went. Honestly, I think we maybe got 30 minutes of driving time and we were stuck for over 2 and a half hours. After getting stuck so many times, I told my husband I’m done let’s just return the buggy. I had noticed the two-seater buggies, and I had taken pictures to compare and contrast them. The two-seater buggies were higher than the four-seater. The tires were bigger and probably can handle the dunes a lot better than the four-seater. I believe that this vehicle was bad from the start it had no power and no acceleration. Overall this experience made me upset because how I was sold that this was gonna be the best experience for my family was the complete opposite. The amount of money that I spent was not even worth it due to how many times we got stuck in the sand and had to call the recovery team. The good thing was that the recovery team was always nice to us and I just wish we would’ve had a better experience of not getting to know the recovery team so well.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nicolesp5194nt
Jul 17, 2024
Bad company service - The worst service in the company. In the begining when you are about to pay 270 usd for the experience they are very nice and polite. Before hopping the UTV we were given a map with a phone number in case we got stuck or needed something. A few minutes later we got stuck and for more than 20 minutes no one answered the call. We spend all out time waiting for someone to help us and no one did. We dediced to return and explain the manager the situation and in stead of helping us and understanding, he was rude and record us. Do not work with them
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Select Date and Tickets
up to 15 guests
1
Adult
September 2024
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Today