Downtown Santa Barbara & the Waterfront
Santa Barbara proper, where State Street runs down to the sea – Stearns Wharf and the beach at its foot, the Funk Zone's tasting rooms and galleries a few steps back from the sand, downtown's shops and cafés up the street and the Old Mission above – with one hotel, a block from the water.
The neighborhoods
Montecito
The village east of Santa Barbara – Coast Village Road's shops, Butterfly and Miramar beaches below, lanes of estates climbing into the foothills – with two of the four hotels, one on the sand and one up San Ysidro Creek.
Ojai Valley
A citrus valley thirty-five miles inland in Ventura County, ringed by the Los Padres National Forest and known for the pink light on its mountains at sunset – forty-five minutes from Montecito, and a world apart.