Santa Barbara is known for its harbor full of bobbing boats, its clean sand beaches, and dining for all tastes. Called the “American Riviera,” Santa Barbara is the perfect place to stay while driving up or down the coast of California. And it’s just a two-hour drive north of Los Angeles, which makes it an ideal getaway from the bustle of big city life. You can relax on the shore, rent a kayak, ride a bicycle along the paved waterfront path. There’s history here to explore, too.
Planning Your Seaside Adventures
The heart of Santa Barbara is the waterfront, ringed by gently rising foothills. While it’s a compact area, it offers so much to see and do, and of course you may want to spend time just relaxing on the beach or the grassy park areas.
You will also want to walk or drive north of the water to the downtown area. Here you can shop, eat, stroll, visit the old fort, and tour the historic courthouse.
I spent one day by the water and the next day in the town on a recent short visit. Here are some highlights I enjoyed.
The Harbor
This is such a fun place for a long walk. First you see the various boats. Even though I live in the coastal city of San Diego, I always enjoy a harbor.
Can you spot the rubber ducky swimming alongside the boat?
The Fisherman’s Walk takes you past countless vessels. Santa Barbara developed due to its fishing industry. There’s even a “museum” of older fishing boats in the water. You’ll also find restaurants, a maritime museum, and kayaks for rent.
As you reach the ocean, the path turns onto the breakwater. If you look over the wall, you will get wet!
The Lost at Sea Memorial is at the end of the breakwater. Pause here to remember those lost, and watch the surfers, too.
Stearns Wharf
The wharf is a symbol of Santa Barbara. It’s suffered 4 major fires, one closing it for as long as 9 years. Every time, the city rebuilds and reopens the destroyed restaurants and shops. Today, the wharf thrives. You can walk here from the harbor or take the water taxi from Fisherman’s Walk.
Downtown
Walk up State Street from Stearn’s Wharf and in a few blocks, you will be in the downtown. Shops and restaurants abound, and you can take in a movie at one of several theaters.
Explore the side alleys. The Arcada is modern, while El Paseo dates back to the 1920s . You never know what you’ll discover.
The Courthouse
This National Historic Landmark looks like a Spanish castle.
It is a fully functioning courthouse, and it’s worth a tour to see its beauty. Built in 1929, its architecture is Spanish Colonial Revival. Artists copied tile patterns from Italy and Spain. The white adobe walls topped by red clay roofs sit amid lush gardens of palms and pines.
Tours are offered every day at 2:00 and weekdays at 10:30 for no charge. You meet in the mural room. Our docent Gerry told us about the history of the courthouse as we sat with the paintings of California history on the walls.
The tour is fascinating, both during the interior and in the gardens.
The clock tower is open, with a 360-degree view of Santa Barbara from the outside walkway.
The Presidio
The remnants of the one of the 4 forts in early California history lie right off the main street through downtown. Wander around here and you may happen onto chickens in the “livestock” pen. Not much of the original fort survived, but it’s worth a look.
Where to Stay
Santa Barbara caters to visitors and has a wealth of choices when it comes to a hotel. We stayed at the Mason Beach Inn and found it ideal as a base for exploring the city. It’s a short block from the water, on a quiet residential street. We loved walking the neighborhood and greeting people out with their pups.
We parked on arrival and walked everywhere from here – the harbor, Stearn’s Wharf, the Presidio, the Courthouse, and restaurants.
The Mason Beach Inn is comfortable, and, with its Spanish architecture, you will feel like you are in someone’s Santa Barbara home.
Where to Eat
Our favorite meal this visit was definitely the Enterprise Fish Company on State Street, just a short walk from the water. The building was once a commercial laundromat. The new owner bought a giant grill in Mexico, hauled it up here, and opened the restaurant. The crusted mahi mahi was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
Whether you are coming to Santa Barbara from across the ocean or from nearby cities, you will find this city a great place to relax, wander, and refresh.
How about you? Is there a place you love to visit where you can totally relax?
Disclosure: Exploring Our World was welcomed as a guest at the Mason Beach Inn. As always, all opinions are my own.
39 Comments
What an amazing place to visit! I love all the tile work.
Lovely photos! Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful shots! The memorial is particularly poignant.
Santa Barbara is one of my favorite cities to visit! I live in LA, and it’s the perfect weekend away. I still need to do the harbor/Fisherman’s walk and the Lost Sea Memorial as you suggest. Great, fun city!
Looks like the kids of beautiful place that combines the best of mountain views with a lively water scene with the right balance of Spanish influenced food and architecture.
Santa Barbara looks amazing! I love all the photos! cannot wait to go!
i’ve been to this beautiful work I love it I didn’t know you took a tour of the courthouse I will definitely have to go back into those lovely mosaic times !
Looks like a wonderful place to get away. Nothing more calming that the sight of bots nestled in a Marina. Thank you for sharing
We were supposed to go to Santa Barbara but couldn’t due to the wildfires. One day we will have our chance to visit this lovely city!
What a lovely looking place. I’m a fan of Spanish architecture, so I know I would enjoy looking at all of the buildings. You also really can’t beat the beach for a bit of relaxation. This is one of the spots in California I need to get to someday. Thanks for sharing. #WeekendWanderlust
This looks so marvelous! I love a good sea side adventure. Also the buildings are very rustic which is really great
The architecture in the downtown alleys seems very appealing. I would love to walk around such an area that’s full of shops and restaurants.
While I have passed through Santa Barbara, I have never actually stopped and looked around. I like walking around marinas and looking at all the boats and activity. I would pick the fresh fish restaurant in a seaside community every day.
Clearly I missed a lot on my first college visit to Santa Barbara! I would love a do-over and explore it deeper! #FeetDoTravel
The pic from the clock-tower is great to give a bird’s eye view of Santa Barbara. What a lovely town. There’s actually a lot to see and anywhere next to the sea grabs my attention. Have pinned for later. 🙂
Great photos, I’ve always been curious about Santa Barbara. Love the mountains and Spanish influence 🙂 #feetdotravel
I live only about 45 min north of Santa Barbara, so I know the city well. Nice summary. For your next visit, you really should do a whale watching trip, it is an amazing experience. There is also a beautiful zoo, yes a great place to relax or bring the kids, and beautiful views. I also love the Sea Center (on the Warf), the botanical gardens and the museum of natural history. Visiting from “The Good the Random the Fun” Link up. Many Thanks 8)
Hello Santa Barbara looks like a fun city to visit. I love the coastal and water views. Gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing your visit.
Wishing you a happy day and a great new week!
Great photos. There seems to be lots to do and admire in Santa Barbara
That’s not a gem – it’s a treasure chest full of them!
Thanks for linking up at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2019/06/boo.html
Santa Barbara is a charming town to visit. You have done a great job describing it, I haven’t been there in decades so I appreciate all the info and great photos.
That looks amazing! I have always wanted to visit Santa Barbara; mostly because of the TV show I used to watch in the 80’s… It looked so pretty.
Reading your post had me thinking of my two fun visits to Santa Barbara. Thanks for the memories, Sharon! 🙂
What a beautiful photo tour Sharon! I am not a seaside person (grew up on one of Finland’s thousand lakes) but enjoyed a lot the harbour views. And making genealogy research I found some distant relatives from Santa Barbara. So fun.
Beautiful city. I would love to revisit again.
Worth a Thousand Words
It looks so lovely!
I haven´t been to the “American Riviera” yet, but I´d love to visit! Your photos are so beautiful, I really feel the Santa Barbara vibe through them! In fact, the waterfronts are my favorite places to relax! Thanks for the inspiration #FeetDoTravel
Santa Barbara is gorgeous. I’ve only gotten to explore a little of it in passing through doing the PCH. One day I’d like to return and see more. This was a fantastic post on what all there is to do there. Thank you for sharing Sharon!
Great photographs. Santa Barbara was my favourite town on our California road trip from San Francisco to LA.
The “only time” I’ve heard of Santa Barbara, is from the same name soap opera that was on TV when I was teen 🙂 Looks very idyllic. Would definitely visit if in the area. #farawayfiles
Hi! Sharon, I’ve never visited California before and this place looks like amazing. I would definitely plan to visit California with my family this year. Thanks for sharing this amazing post.
Beautiful photos! Places full of charm. I want to go there and feel this amazing atmosphere.
We love Santa Barbara, but don’t get to visit often enough. We’ve seen the courthouse, but had no idea there were tours available! Making a note of that for our next visit, along with the Mason Beach Inn. It looks fab! You’ve definitely got us dreaming of our next trip out west. Thanks for the wanderlust! 🙂
The only thing that bugs me about Santa Barbara is that the majority of places enforce a minimum 2 night stay over the weekends, so there’s no chance of doing a road trip and having a one night stay here. It’s a fab place to visit, and I love the main street, and the market they have on a Sunday is always full of great artwork, and we used to drive up here just for the day for Sunday brunch, a wander around the market, and then back to LA.
Whenever we drive from SF to LA, the husband always dissuades me from stopping in Santa Barbara because of the traffic. The next time we take that road trip I am insisting that we stop in Santa Barbara! Thanks for the inspiration.
I LOVE Santa Barbara and it’s only 2 hours from me so I visit as often as I can, Amazing post think you for sharing.
What a beautiful and tranquil place- it seems so peaceful and relaxed! Thanks for sharing this gorgeous city!
I love Santa Barbara! This is such a great treasure trove of gems to see and do while visiting. Beautiful photos and thanks for sharing!
I totally agree, Santa Barbara is such a little gem of a city! I kinda stumbled upon it a few years back. I mean, I knew it was there but didn’t know I was going to enjoy it so much!