Santa Barbara - State St.

A day visit to the city of Santa Barbara, California (Aug. 7-8, 2021).

Santa Barbara is located on the central part of California ocean, about an hour and a half drive north of Los Angeles on Route 101 or Highway 1 (5 hours’ drive south of San Francisco) and is considered as the "Riviera of California."

I do not know why, but the last time we visited Santa Barbara was about 15 years ago, shame on us!

The city is fun and offer many things to see or do and I highly recommend visiting here, at least as a night stop when traveling along the California coast.

Most of our visit was around the main street of the city (State St.). There are many shops and places to eat on this street, but you can also "discover" the alleys on both sides of the street. Like the small alleys that has a turtle pool and sculptures.

Old Spanish Days – Fiesta:

We did not plan it in advance but at the weekend we arrived Santa Barbara (Aug. 7th) there was a festival in the city. The main street of the city was closed to cars, there were street performances shows and Spanish dancers’, live music bands as well as artists' stalls.

There were many people at the streets and a festival atmosphere.

The special thing about this festival is that they sell whole, painted egg shells stuffed with colorful confetti and people break them on other people's heads ... in short, festival.

We parked our car at State Street west section and walked slowly down the street for 2 mils all the way to the large fishing pier at the end of the road down at the ocean.

Superior Court Of California County Of Santa Barbara:

The large and impressive Spanish-style building is located near the main street. The building was built in 1920 and still serves as an acting district court. You can go up to the top of the tower and look out over the city from above (we came on the weekend, and it was closed).

Visiting the Old Mission:

The Old Mission is located at the higher section of the city. The large and beautiful building with the two bell towers was built in 1787. We were here for about 20 minutes, we were impressed with the building and the outside garden, we did not visit inside.

Link to a blog with more pictures.

Ocean and Beach area:

Santa Barbara has many beautiful sandy beaches and a long promenade along the entire length of the sea front, you can rent bikes and ride it (we did not).

We arrived at the fishing pier before sunset (you can park your car on it), It was very nice to see the bay.

Unlike my initial expectations that the sun will set in the ocean (after all, we are on the west coast) because the city location is at the northern side of large bay so during summer the sun is setting on the side of the city so there are no "classic" ocean sunsets.

Near the beach you can find the Rainbow-Colored Gate attraction, a classic Instagram photo opportunity location.

You can also find near the train station one of the largest trees from this specific kind we’ve seen, look for Moreton Bay Fig Tree in Google Map.

Link to a Blog with more pictures

For sweets lovers: we visited on the main street a new Turkish delicacy store that is nicely designed. The store name is “Locum” and it located at the State Street...

It was a short visit, we walked all over the city center and enjoyed the festival, we did not have the time to visit many other city attractions or really enjoy the beaches.