How To Spend One Perfect Day in Santa Barbara

With its good climate, lush panorama, and glorious meals and wine, Santa Barbara has been referred to as “The American Riviera.” It is no shock that a few of the world’s most profitable businesspeople have houses there, together with Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Google’s Eric Schmidt, and Oprah Winfrey. Extra not too long ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle evacuated their palatial digs in England to arrange store in Montecito, a tony neighborhood in Santa Barbara County.

However regardless of its billionaire standing, Santa Barbara nonetheless possesses a homey, laid-back vibe that appears one million miles away from its bustling neighbor to the south, Los Angeles. Guests can discover a wide range of eating places, outlets, tradition, and actions in any respect value factors whereas soaking within the SoCal solar.

Able to discover all the perfect sights, inns, and eating choices in a single good day in Santa Barbara? Here is a 24-hour itinerary in your subsequent journey.

Associated: These Earth-Conscious Entrepreneurs Are Making a Profit with Purpose in California’s Central Coast

Bike the Seashore

It doesn’t matter what the season, Santa Barbara’s expansive seashore is a must-visit for any traveler. Hire an e-bike via Santa Barbara’s first bike share program, BCycle. There are many stations on the waterfront (price is $8 per half-hour). Or you possibly can lease a Segway at Wheel Enjoyable Leases. Begin your journey on The Cabrillo Bike Path, about 4 miles from Santa Barbara Harbor to Butterfly Seashore. Some highlights embody the 150-year-old Stearns Wharf, the Andree Clark Fowl Refuge, and the gorgeous Santa Ynez Mountains dotted by Colonial Spanish-style buildings. In the event you go to on Saturday, take a look at the Fisherman’s Marketplace for contemporary fish.

Photograph by Jordan Siemens/Getty

Seize a chew to eat

You will be famished after your lengthy bike journey, however concern not, meals is on the way in which. Santa Barbara is known for its eating places, so discovering a nasty meal is difficult. In close by Goleta, the Santa Barbara Fish Market is a brand new restaurant serving native and sustainable seafood. The SBFM Lobster roll and the Petrale sole sandwich are to not be missed. For vegetarian, farm-to-table fare, Satellite is the place to orbit. The eclectic, astronaut-themed restaurant makes use of unusual locally-grown components. Based by “Winestonaut” Drew Cuddy, Satellite tv for pc additionally boasts a pure wine store impressed by Cuddy’s expertise engaged on natural, biodynamic vineyards throughout Europe.

Satellite tv for pc

Associated: From Garden to Plate: How One Top Female Chef Is Transforming Green Cuisine

Do Some Buying

The center of Santa Barbara commerce is the State Street Promenade, which gives a mixture of surf outlets, bars and eating places, mom-and-pop outlets, and large nationwide chains. The nine-block stretch has been closed to automobile site visitors because the outset of the pandemic. Pura Luna Apothecary is a couple of blocks away on Chapala Avenue, an interesting hybrid between a salon and an alternate natural superstore. The black, queer, women-owned wellness store sells medicinals, merchandise, and presents made in-house or by different women-owned/minority-owned ventures. Idyll Mercantile is an unbiased, brick-and-mortar plant store that gives a good looking assortment of vegetation, plant care merchandise, mugs, prints, earrings, stained glass, and greeting playing cards. Additionally off the overwhelmed path is Funk Zone, a former Nineteenth-century manufacturing hub remodeled into artists studios, galleries, and wine-tasting rooms.

^{Pura Luna Apothecary}

Take a Beautiful Sundown Stroll

If you have not consumed an excessive amount of wine, benefit from the numerous mountaineering spots in Santa Barbara that supply spectacular sundown views. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is a 65-acre wonderland of native California flora that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. You can even take walks alongside the scene bluff-top parks similar to Ellwood Mesa or Douglas Household Protect. For a two-hour sunset cruise, climb aboard the Double Dolphin sailboat, which gives views of the Santa Barbara’s shoreline and possibly even dolphins and whales.

Keep in Type

Little recognized truth: Earlier than Hollywood was Hollywood, the burgeoning film enterprise operated out of Santa Barbara. Silent movie icons similar to Charlie Chaplin fell in love with the world, a lot in order that he opened a resort for all his fancy buddies to remain. Inbuilt 1928, Montecito Inn has all of the glamour of early Hollywood with the fashionable facilities of a Twenty first-century boutique resort. The resort can be dwelling to an impressive French restaurant referred to as Coast & Olive, which gives farmers’ market fare, contemporary fish, and seasonal specials. For a extra informal eating expertise, head down Coast Village Street to Bettina, a wood-fired pizza spot widespread with the locals.

^{Montecito Inn}