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Known as the American Riviera, Santa Barbara, California, is all about the outdoors. The weather is comfortable year-round, and visitors as well as residents can ride bikes, walk along the beach or take lazy drives into the hills or through the outlying vineyards.

Located north of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara has been a celebrity hideaway since the early 1900s, with the carefree attitude and architecture of a Mediterranean village and the sunny, relaxed disposition of a California beach town. As you bicycle along the Santa Barbara waterfront, you'll see why this seaside city is a special place. With the exception of recurrent morning fog, clear, blue skies shine over golden beaches, and the arid Santa Ynez Mountains loom over the city's signature white-stucco buildings with red-tile roofs. Joggers smile, beach volleyball players wave, and brown pelicans flap their wings methodically as they fly overhead.

In addition to its picturesque waterfront and abundant attractions, including the well-known Santa Barbara mission, the city offers museums, trendy restaurants and boutiques. But there's plenty more to see and do in the area. Montecito to the east is the place for exclusive shopping—it's often compared to LA's Rodeo Drive. To the west are Isla Vista and the lively campus of the University of California Santa Barbara. To the north are Santa Maria and the Santa Ynez Valley, where you'll find dozens of wineries as well as the old-time Danish town of Solvang.

Must See or Do

Sights—Stearns Wharf; Santa Barbara County Courthouse; Old Mission Santa Barbara; Lotusland.

Museums—Santa Barbara Museum of Art; the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; Santa Barbara Historical Museum; Karpeles Manuscript Library and Museum; the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

Memorable Meals—Huevos rancheros at Chad's Cafe; clam chowder at Brophy Brothers; fish tacos at Shoreline Beach Cafe; French Onion soup at Bouchon Santa Barbara.

Late Night—The bars and clubs along lower State Street; live music at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club; Cava in Montecito.

Walks—To the end of Stearns Wharf and back; along the waterfront between the harbor and Montecito; the Historic Red Tile Walking Tour downtown.

Especially for Kids—The interactive exhibits at the Maritime Museum; the skateboard park along the waterfront; the antique carousel in Chase Palm Park; the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Geography

Sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains, Santa Barbara boasts a stunning setting. Sandy beaches and rocky coves stretch along one side, and the vineyard-draped peaks of the mountains rise less than an hour's drive away. Because of the shape of the coastline, the beaches actually face south, and the mountains rise to the north. This sometimes makes directions a bit confusing for visitors, who expect the coast to be due west, as it is in most of the state.

The city of Santa Barbara is laid out in a grid, with nearly all north and south streets dead-ending into Cabrillo Boulevard, the main thoroughfare flanking the waterfront promenade. State Street, the main north-south street, begins at Cabrillo across from Stearns Wharf, bisecting the city into the east and west sides. Most of the city's main attractions, as well as numerous shops and restaurants, are within a few blocks of State Street.

Lately, the 10-block State Street pedestrian promenade is closed to traffic adding a European feel to the city and permitting more outdoor space for cafes, shops and festivals. The city is looking into how to make the pedestrian area a permanent feature. Adjacent dining streets are popping up as a result of the increased foot traffic including Victoria Street, Coast Village Road near Montecito and the Funk Zone. State Street Promenade Market takes place every Thursday with local businesses and restaurants setting up for pedestrians to peruse.

The central part of the city can easily be explored on foot or by hopping on and off the trolleys. You will need transportation or a tour to visit Montecito (home of well-known personalities such as Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry) and to go wine tasting in the hills.

Highway 101 and the Pacific Highway connect the city to Los Angeles, which is about 90 mi/145 km south, and San Francisco, which is 330 mi/530 km north of Santa Barbara.

History

The Chumash peoples made their homes along the Santa Barbara coast (and the Channel Islands) for about 13,000 years before the Portuguese explorer Joao Cabriho (Spanish name: Juan Cabrillo) claimed the area for Spain in 1542. The oldest human skeleton found in North America was discovered on Santa Rosa Island, about 30 mi/48 km from downtown Santa Barbara.

After Cabriho's landing, a group seeking shelter there on the feast day of St. Barbara named the area after her when they survived a fierce storm. European settlement began in earnest when Father Junipero Serra, traveling with the Spanish army, established a royal presidio in 1782. The mission was founded four years later, although a large earthquake in 1812 destroyed it and most of the town. A larger mission was built in 1820 with its bell tower completed in 1833.

Spanish rule ended in 1822, when Mexico took over briefly until Col. John C. Fremont claimed the region for the U.S. in 1846.

By the late 1800s, the area's reputation as a pleasant place to live had spread among California's rich and famous, and Victorian homes began to outnumber Spanish Colonials. The Gold Rush of 1849 brought even more people, and the area saw a surge in population. After an earthquake leveled buildings in 1925, city leaders decreed the town would be rebuilt in the Spanish-Mediterranean style of whitewashed adobe structures with red-tile roofs that continues today.

Stearns Wharf was built in the late 1800s, making it easy for steamboats to dock in Santa Barbara. The railroad to Los Angeles was completed in 1887, and the railroad connecting the city to San Francisco was completed in 1901. It was also around that time that city leaders decided to make the beaches public; therefore, you won't see any hotels or motels built on Santa Barbara's sands. The first electric street car line was opened in 1896.

The oil industry further changed the town. Oil had been seeping out of the ground for centuries, but its value was only discovered in the late 19th century. Summerland Oil Field, the world's first offshore oil well was built in the 1890s. It was mostly depleted by 1910, but the derricks remained until the 1920s, and the field remained partially in production until 1940. However, larger offshore oil derricks were built throughout the 1950s and '60s. A huge oil spill in 1969 at the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field created one of the first modern environmental oil hazards, created a backlash against offshore drilling in the area, and led to national and state laws limiting drilling.

In the 1970s, the Santa Barbara city council passed a resolution limiting the city's population to 85,000 through zoning. This prevented new development and urban sprawl, but caused housing prices to soar. The unintended consequence of limiting growth in the city was a huge commuter population.

The area has been attracting Hollywood refugees since the early 1900s, when a film company opened a studio there. Since then, the area has been home to such legends as Charlie Chaplin (who built the Montecito Inn in 1928 largely for film casts and crews), as well as Kirk Douglas, Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Costner, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez and Oprah Winfrey.

Potpourri

Santa Barbara City College, one of the country's most beautiful campuses, overlooks the harbor, West Beach and the scenic Cabrillo beach walk. Stroll along meandering cliffside paths or prepare a sunset picnic and sprawl out on the green lawn, taking in views of the Pacific.

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden stretches across a 78-acre/32-hectare estate and is home to more than 1,000 types of native California plants along 5 mi/8 km of walking trails.

The oozing Santa Barbara Channel tar seep is one of the largest and messiest of its kind in the world, second only to the one in the Caspian Sea. Up to 150 barrels of stinking, sticky crude gurgle up to the surface every day. Though only a small portion of that tar makes its way onto the city's beaches, romantic beach strolls can occasionally resemble a walk through a mine field of natural tar. If you find yourself coming into contact with tar, Vaseline, olive oil or gasoline can get the gunk off.

Carrillo Street, one of the major roads in the city, was named for the Carrillo family. Jose Raimundo Carrillo was captain of the Presidio, and his son, Carlos Antonio Carrillo, was the governor of California in 1837. Two other downtown Highway 101 exits have similar names—Cabrillo Boulevard and Castillo Street—so listen carefully when getting verbal directions from a local.

Southern Pacific Railroad's tracks were built long before the city's hotels and high-end homes, and the ubiquitous noisy trains running along the shore do not discriminate; they rattle both visitors and residents out of bed day and night. This is a frequent complaint, even at the area's most exclusive resorts.

Before Hollywood and Los Angeles stole its glitter, Santa Barbara was home to the largest film studio in the world, the Flying A Studios, during the silent film era. It was also the scene for such major movies as DeMille's The Ten Commandments and W.C. Fields' The Bank Dick.

The downtown farmers market has been a vibrant part of Santa Barbara's social scene since the 1970s, before "green" and "local" became fashion. Far more than just a place to shop, it's an opportunity to meet locals and talk to growers from across Santa Barbara County. The late celebrity chef Julia Child was seen there regularly.

Location

Shore Excursions