Hotel Californian

Name: Hotel Californian
Address: Santa Barbara & Montecito, CA, US

Four-star · From $500 per nightAny mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.

Downtown Santa Barbara & the Waterfront · Santa Barbara & Montecito

A sense of the place

Hotel Californian — room — A bedroom at Hotel Californian: a king bed with a plum velvet headboard, white linen and a black-and-white patterned runner, a brass swing-arm wall lamp, Moorish tiles along the wainscot, a teal velvet armchair, a black floor lamp and a minibar cabinet, and French doors open onto a balcony framing a lighthouse at the end of the harbour; nobody in frame — © Hotel Californian

Hotel Californian — pool — The rooftop pool of Hotel Californian at sunrise: a long pool with a tiled deck, a row of loungers with red cushions and folded towels under red parasols, the white parapet, palms along the beach and the Santa Ynez Mountains, and the low sun flaring at the right edge; nobody in frame — © Hotel Californian

Hotel Californian — spa — The round lounge of the spa at Hotel Californian: curved royal-blue banquettes with white and patterned cushions, a carved stone fire bowl on a blue-and-white mosaic floor, white orchids, white curtains drawn back between white columns, a domed ceiling painted with a blue Moorish pattern, a chandelier of blue and clear glass globes, and a Moorish arched doorway; nobody in frame — © Hotel Californian

Hotel Californian — aerial view — Hotel Californian from the air: its white Spanish Colonial Revival buildings with red-tiled roofs at the foot of State Street, the palm-lined beach and boulevard, the harbour with its breakwater and marina, sailing boats on the Santa Barbara Channel and the islands on the horizon under a clear sky — © Hotel Californian

Hotel Californian — lobby — The lobby lounge of Hotel Californian: black-and-white banded columns, a white coffered ceiling with Moroccan lanterns, mustard velvet armchairs around a chess table on a patterned cement-tile floor, a coral banquette, potted palms, arched windows onto the courtyard and mirrored Moorish arches with brass lanterns; nobody in frame — AVABLU / Hotel Californian

Why it's in the collection

Because it is the one address in Santa Barbara proper – not Montecito, not Ojai – with four-star standing, and it puts the city on foot: State Street at the door, the sand and Stearns Wharf a block away, the Tan Tan Pool on the roof above it all – and we list it at exactly the tier it holds.

36 State Street, where the street meets Cabrillo Boulevard and the waterfront – opened in 2017 on the site of the 1925 Hotel Californian, a block from the beach and Stearns Wharf, with the Funk Zone at the door.
121 rooms and suites with interiors by Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Moorish in spirit and laid with more than a million tiles.
The Tan Tan Pool on the rooftop and, below it, Majorelle Spa with four treatment rooms.
Four-star standing for the hotel – a step below the one five-star we list in the destination, and listed here as exactly that – with its tables gathered under the banner of The Society: State & Mason, The Knock, Goat Tree and Djinn; independent.

The neighborhood

Golden hour over Downtown Santa Barbara & the Waterfront

Downtown Santa Barbara & the Waterfront

Santa Barbara proper, where State Street runs down to the sea – with one hotel, a block from the water. Stearns Wharf and the beach lie 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.

Stearns Wharf and the beach, a block down the street across Cabrillo Boulevard.
The Funk Zone's tasting rooms and galleries, at the door.
State Street's shops and downtown, straight up the street; the Old Mission, a short drive up the hill.

Plan your stay

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