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Santa Barbara, California is located just an hour and a half from the bustle of downtown Los Angeles. Its Spanish architecture, cascades of bougainvillaeas, picture-perfect beaches, and tony day-spas, however, will make you feel as if you’ve been transported to a Mediterranean resort.
Things To Do In Santa Barbara
If you only have a weekend to spare for savouring its history, cuisine, and shopping, the following recommendations are a breathtaking start to what could become a favourite getaway.
State Street
Since you’re going to work up an appetite on your first day, you’ll want to start your adventure with a stroll down both sides of State Street and scope out a few options for your midday meal. This is the main drag of the city and is where you’ll find the majority of its ethnically diverse restaurants and cafes, boutiques, and bookstores. (You’ll also want to return here in the evening when the club and music scene ignite.)
Santa Barbara isn’t a place for the faint of heart when it comes to opening your wallet and extracting the plastic. World-class chefs work their magic here and several of the bars could legitimately wear the label “swank”. As for shopping, you’ll find many speciality stores that cater to clients who enjoy custom made furniture, who collect objects d’art from exotic origins, and who buy wine by the price and prestige.
It’s also a great avenue for people watching, book browsing, latte-sipping and making a note of all the things you want to come back and buy when you win the lottery. Don’t forget your camera on this trip; the red brick sidewalks, the adobe architecture and courtyards, the beckoning alleyways, and the romantic streetlamps are their own snapshot in time.
On The Waterfront
If beaches, boats and body bronzing are your idea of fun, Santa Barbara has some of the most beautiful harbours and coastline scenery in the country. The main harbour lies at the end of State Street and is where you’ll find every size and style of leisure and commercial fishing vessels, along with occasional sea lions who invite themselves in for the chance at a free meal.
Sportfishing expeditions, scuba diving and kayaking lessons are available for those who can’t wait to get wet; water taxi rides are a blissful diversion for the rest of us.
Stearns Wharf
Next to the harbour is where you’ll find the popular Stearns Wharf. There is no shortage of excellent seafood restaurants located here, along with an impressive nautical museum and souvenir and speciality shops. Stearns Wharf dates from the early 1870s and is one of the prettiest spots in the city to enjoy the sunset and quaff wines from the local vineyards at Santa Ynez.
Santa Barbara County Courthouse
Those bright red tiles on the sidewalk aren’t just for decoration. This self-guided history walk, which starts at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse on Anacapa Street, will not only teach you about the city’s Spanish and Native American heritage but give you a lot of exercises as well.
The Courthouse itself is an architectural wonder to behold and was one of many downtown buildings that had to be restored following the 1925 earthquake. The interior murals, depicting Santa Barbara’s early history and influence of the Franciscan monks, are enormous, breathtaking and the subject of extensive preservation efforts.
Guided tours are offered at 2 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Courthouse gardens are also a popular spot for bride-sightings!
Mission Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, of course, was on Father Junipero Serra’s ambitious map when he set out to construct a string of missions that would introduce Catholicism to the indigenous people of California. The tenth mission to be built, Mission Santa Barbara was completed in 1786, two years after Father Serra’s death.
Located on Laguna Street, the present building is actually the fourth such structure to occupy this spot, its predecessors having succumbed to the elements. It is still in use as a parish church and a repository of paintings, artefacts and writings that chronicle the city’s history. Tours of the mission are available from 9 to 5 each day. Parking, however, can be a tad problematic on weekends.
Arts And Music
Santa Barbara is an art lover’s paradise. Not only will you find a wide assortment of galleries but also a community of local entrepreneurs who do sidewalk sketches, sell their crafts, and teach speciality classes.
For those who are more into looking than buying, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art offers an eclectic mix of American, French and Asian masterpieces in their permanent displays and a pleasing palette of new works that rotate through on a seasonal basis. An interactive gallery will keep younger family members entertained.
Santa Barbara Bowl
If music under the stars on a summer’s night in an oak glen holds appeal, check with your concierge to see what’s playing at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Located just outside of downtown, this amphitheatre venue has done everything from string quartets to pop vocalists to symphonies to rock bands. Built during the WPA years of the Depression, the original purpose of the Bowl was to accommodate the annual celebration of Santa Barbara’s Fiesta Days.
Flora And Fauna
The Santa Barbara Zoo is one of many that embraced the trend toward creating natural habitats instead of cages for its residents, allowing visitors to take photos which really suggest a “wild” encounter. It also offers a petting zoo (primarily sheep and goats) for the younger set, and spring and summer zoo camps for older kids who want to get a behind the scenes tour of the facility, learn about endangered species, and participate in arts and crafts.
Santa Barbara’s Botanical Gardens
It’s just a jungle out there…albeit a well maintained one. Santa Barbara’s Botanical Gardens contain over 60 acres of vegetation that will make you want to ask for the name of their gardener. During the school year, it’s a popular place for field trips; count on seeing gaggles of young naturalists with sketch pads and trying to sound out the scientific names of all the plants on display. The gardens are open daily from 9 to 4 during the winter months and 9 to 6 during the spring and summer.
Museum of Natural History
Where do lounge lizards like to hang out? If they’re the scaly kind, you’ll find them running around in their own habitat lounge at the Museum of Natural History. The complex also has a planetarium for the star-gazers in your family and a number of interactive exhibits for budding young scientists. In addition, the Museum has a recently renovated marine complex (The Sea Center) wherein visitors can learn about conservation efforts and sea life studies pertinent to the Southern California coast and Santa Barbara Channel.
Image Credit: Depositphotos
