Santa Barbara

We are so glad that we chose to stop off at Santa Barbara. It really is a beautiful little town, with palm trees lining all of the main routes through the town and the Los Padres National Forest covering the mountains as a backdrop. It is idyllic and unsurprisingly has made Santa Barbara a hotspot for retirees and tourists alike.

Our motel is situated on the main road into Santa Barbara, so in the morning we took a walk through to the main shopping strip. We found that there were many up-market restaurants and cafes and even on a Thursday morning it was really busy. We continued down to the beaches and piers, stopping off for a tasty burger along the way, before making our way back.

The view of Santa Barbara towards the sea from the courthouse tower

The promenade

In the afternoon we had a walk around a mission that was set up by the Mexicans to bring Catholicism to the American public in the late 1700’s. We took some pictures from the outside and then had a sunbathe on the lawn before wandering around a botanical garden in the north of the town. Our attention span for native Californian plants was pretty low and we again descended into lizard spotting! How sad we are!


The Mission

We really enjoyed our short stay in the town and have exhausted most of the free activities here. Maybe some day we will return with a bit more money to enjoy some more of Santa Barbara’s fine dining and fancy bars!!