Santa+Barbara,+CA

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 * Travel Trips for Santa Barbara, CA:**
 * Santa Barbara Wikitravel Website:** []
 * Santa Barbara Wikitravel Website:** []


 * Rena Oster- June 2014**

In early June, my husband and I went to Santa Barbara. We left on a Friday morning on Frontier and returned on a Sunday night, more on that later. Frontier does not fly to SBA every day, so a back up plan is needed. United has direct and connecting flights to Denver. Also, American and US Air have connecting flights. Other options include flying to Burbank on Southwest or LAX on various carriers and then driving. Note: traffic can be bad! When we were leaving on Sunday, I also found a shuttle service that has pickups at LAX with service to/from Santa Barbara with a drop off point near the Hyatt on the beach, as well as a few other locations [|www.sbairbus.com] It is less than a two block easy walk from the Hyatt drop off/pick up to the Inn at East Beach, [|www.Innateastbeach.com], which is where we stayed. However, we did have afternoon drinks and snacks at the Hyatt after checking in at the Inn. We rented a car at the SBA airport and found it very easy to get around. There is also AmTrak that can take you to various places on the coast. [|www.amtrak.com] We were meeting friends from SMF who had an extended stay and booked far in advance at the Fess Parker Resort. [|www.Fessparkersantabarbarahotel.com] (a Double Tree/Hilton resort) Yep, “Daniel Boone”! It is a nice resort, with a balcony overlooking the beach, but since we were booking last minute, rooms were up to $400 night. I searched Trip Advisor and various hotel websites and settled on the Inn at East Beach. All hotels in SBA are more expensive than many other destinations. The innateastbeach.com website has a lot of information and maps of the area. You will also get to meet Frank, pictured on the website. Nice, friendly guy. Our hotel was across from the beach, comfortable bed, clean, all the usual amenities. Nothing fancy but we would stay there again. They offer free wi-fi, free parking and breakfast. It was a much better breakfast than most continental b-fast places. Lots of fresh fruit and juice, quiche ,breads, cereal, granola… There is not an ocean view from the room unless you get the end suite which has a balcony. There are partial ocean views from the common areas. Check with your hotel before booking because many do not offer the free parking or free wi-fi. There are lots of places to stay, all are across the street (Cabrillo Blvd) from the beach. We walked many places and found a food store for a few snacks (kind of like a Vitamin Cottage) on our way to the Fess Parker. Bikes are available for rent also. There are lots of restaurants within walking distance and of course the beach, Stearns Wharf, and the Harbor are right there too. We drove downtown to State St. Lots of shops and restaurants and interesting people. We ate lunch at the Sand Bar [|www.sandbarsb.com] one day (great Mexican food) and dinner at Killer Shrimp, [|www.Killershrimp.com] (must try a shrimp bowl with bread, we shared a lot of the dishes between four of us). Both are on State St. We ate dinner one night at the Fish House [|www.sbfishhouse.com] on Cabrillo Blvd, excellent. Our friends also tried Enterprise Fish Company [|www.enterprisefishco.com], and Trattoria Mollie for lunch (in Montecito, world renowned and featured on Oprah), __http://www.tmollie.com/tmollie/Welcome.html__ They enjoyed both places. We also had drinks in the lobby bar of The Fess Parker after dinner one night. Fess Parker has his own winery, so his wines are served there. They play old Daniel Boone shows and movies on the tv’s in the bar, and have memorabilia around the hotel. Kinda fun! We were told that the bar stays open as late as people keep coming in. So we kept them open a while! Now for the trip home. Since F9 does not fly out of SBA on Sundays, we were going to try United direct to Denver first, (afternoon flight) and then go for the connecting fights if we didn’t get on. On Id90 the UA flight had a green smiling face prior to checkin the night before. When we arrived at the airport we found that due to SFO having construction, two earlier UA flights to SFO were canceled, filling up all of their other flights. We tried the first UA flight anyway and no non revs got on. Now, what to do? Drive to LAX, hit traffic and miss the last flights out, and pay an expensive one way rental car? Stay another night? Agents at the other airlines were very helpful and said none of the flights looked good. I started checking on line to purchase tickets. US Air connects in PHX, but too late to catch F9 home and standby on US didn’t look good. Tickets to PHX on US were showing well over $300 each. So, I tried US Air SBA-PHX- DEN and the price was only $147 each, last two tickets. No brainer, purchased two tickets home. Odd, that the same flight to PHX, but then adding DEN was cheaper than purchasing to PHX only. You never know I guess. Try all options. Since we had to wait several hours for our confirmed flight, we were able to check our carryon bag. The US agent didn’t charge me since I work for an airline. This is when I saw the flier for the Santa Barbara Airbus Shuttle. Also, the agent at our car rental booth called a cab for us (since we had already turned our car in) and took us to a restaurant, just down the road. It was right on Goleta Beach [] and had a great view and food. The USS Ronald Regan was there for the weekend we were there and the sailors had some time off. It was fun to see them walking around town in their white uniforms. I doubt they had to pay for much food or drink that weekend! We had a great time, even though it was only two nights. There are many things to do in the area, or just relax and take in the view and sea air. Take your binoculars and get a better view of whatever might be in the harbor.


 * Mike Summers - July 2011:**

Santa Barbara (SBA) is a nice minimum two-day trip. The airport is quite small (quaint), but they are in the process of building a new terminal next to the present building. You'll want to rent a car when visiting SBA. Budget, Hertz, National, and Enterprise have offices at the airport. You'll need to take a shuttle bus to Avis or Thrifty. Here's the airport website: [] with lots of information. Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District's Route 11 bus links the airport with downtown Santa Barbara. I would have a back-up plan for flying to SBA. When we went, the flights looked very good. Unfortunately, the day before our departure the Frontier plane struck a bird on approach, which resulted in the out-going flight being cancelled. Luckily, I had purchased Zed tickets before I left Denver on US Air to Phoenix ($21.50 each). US Air has five daily departures to Phoenix. We caught one right after discovering that our Frontier flights were going to be full. From Phoenix we flew on Frontier home. Instead of a one, two, or three day delay, we got home six hours later than we had orginally planned. Always have a back-up plan. Hotels in Santa Barbara are more expensive than most places. You'll want to shop around. Check the usual sites like Hotwire, Expedia, Kayak, or Orbitz before leaving. State Street is the focal point of the city. Numerous shops, theatres, bars, and restaurants can be found. Here's a website for downtown and State Street: []. We enjoyed the happy hour at the Sandbar along State Street (Sandbar website: [] ) along with the atmosphere. We also visited the Santa Barbara Brewing Company which had daily specials (SB Brewing Company Website: [] ). You won't have a hard time finding an establishment to suit your tastes in this city. The beaches and main pier are at the end of State Street. You can find free on-street parking for 90 minutes in many areas. There is also parking at the beach along Cabrillo Blvd. for a maximum of $12.00 per day. There is a cement walkway that parallels the beach for a few miles starting at the pier. Here's some beach information: []. You'll find East Beach and West Beach the easiest to access. The beaches are okay, but they are no match for Newport, Huntington, Laguna, Manhattan, or Redondo Beaches in the LA area. The 'real' reason to visit this area is for wine-tasting. There are numerous wineries in the area. Here's two websites for SBA wineries: [] and [] that will assist you. You can even book tours so that you don't have to do the driving. About thirty minutes northwest of SBA is the town of Solvang, CA. "Solvang" means "Sunny Field" in Danish. It was established in 1911, and is a nice place to visit for shopping, wine tasting, shopping, and wine tasting. Here's the town website: []. Much of the movie "Sideways" was filmed here (Website for Sideways: [] ). There are numerous tasting rooms where you can have four glasses of wine (and keep the souvenir glass) starting at around $8.00. We had lunch at the Solvang Brewing Company (website: [] ) which had good food and a nice atmosphere. There are other towns in the Santa Ynez Valley (Website: [] ) such as Buellton, which is the "Home of Split Pea Soup". There is plenty of wine and beer tasting in this part of the country (Website: [] ), and it's cheaper than heading to the more-famous Napa Valley. You can also visit this area by driving north from LAX. It's about a two-hour drive (Mapquest Map from LAX to SBA: [] ). Take your significant other to this nice area and get away for a weekend or a few days! Enjoy! Mike Summers


 * John Copher - January 2012:**

Santa Barbara (SBA) is a nice minimum two-day trip. The new airport is finished and the car rental is inside the new airport. On our last visit, we stayed at the Pacifica Suites (same place where the flight crew stay) located on 5490 Hollister Ave.Phone number 1-805-683-6722. Pacifica Suites (Website: [] ) is located about 10 minutes from the airport if you are renting a car. The hotel is about 7 miles from downtown Santa Barbara. The rates are the same year round for Frontier employees. You just have to let them know you are a Frontier employee. They have a great breakfast where you fill out a request for what you want to eat for breakfast and hand it the chef and they will prepare your meal for you. They also have a happy hour Monday- Thursday around 5-7pm. You can go to Pacifica Suites.com to view the hotel and rooms. They also have bicycles you can rent for $5.00 a day and your within 10 mintues of riding over to the ocean and along the beach.


 * Rus Dewitt - August 2012:**

We went to Santa Barbara last week. It was Old Fiesta week. A busy and beautiful celebration of the Spanish and Mexican culture with food, dance, parades and tours. We toured the old mission and courthouse with docents. I'd highly recommend both of these tours. We went to several great restaurants. In the town of Montecito, the next town over from SB, ther is the Montecito Inn (Website: [] ) a cool hotel started by Charlie Chaplin. There is a place in the hotel the Montecito Cafe with great food, we had an exceptional lunch. There is a nice farmer's market on Saturdays on Santa Barbara St. We ate breakfast at a wonderful bakery, Our Daily Bread (Website: [] ). . In SB, we ate at Brophy Brothers (Website: [] ), great seafood in the marina. On State Street is the Enterprise Fish Company (Website: [] ). It is near the underpass where State Street goes under the 101. We met some locals who indicated this was one of the best Happy Hours. We had $1 oysters that were huge and delicious. We also ate dinner there one night and had their lobster special. Finally, Susie gave us the tip for the Beachside Cafe. This place (Website: [] ) is about a 1/2 mile from the airport. We ate a nice lunch there before we left. Looking at their menu, they have a Happy Hour. So if you take the 12:50 flight you can head over and be at the restaurant in time for getting happy.


 * Jenny Heidel - February 2013:**

We traveled to Santa Barbara in February. It is a beautiful, smaller city with a small airport and is easy to get around via a rental car. We stayed at the Hotel Oceana, a "boutique" hotel located on Cabrillo Ave., across the street from the pier. They offer a free continental breakfast and free use of their bicycles for up to two hours. Because it was the off season, I did not make a reservation, but presented my frontier badge at check in and was given a discount and a room with a partial ocean view. We went on a whale watching expedition with the Condor Express Whale Watching company. It is located within walking distance of the hotel. It was the beginning of the whale migration season so we saw only 2 blue whales, but saw lots of sea lions and dolphins. The captain extended the trip by 30 minutes to insure that we did see dolphins. Great customer service. The Santa Barbara Mission was interesting to tour. The grounds are beautiful as is the church itself. There is a small museum to tour and an old, old cemetery. If you drive 12 miles south, you can visit Carpinteria State Beach, It is perfect for birdwatching and walking. We were ready to pay the parking admission fee, but the ranger directed us to parking lot nearby which was free. We ended our day with a dinner at Tony's Italian Restaurant in Carpinteria. It has been family owned for 50 years. The calzones are amazing and the portions are huge.