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Welcome to beautiful Santa Barbara, California -- a great place to visit!
 Quietly nestled between the ocean & the mountains, Santa Barbara represents the essence California -- the art & culture of the big city & the heart & hospitality of a small, coastal town. Between the shopping on State Street, some of the best restaurants in the country, & the best that the hotel industry has to offer, Santa Barbara is truly a magnificent place to live or visit! Whether you're looking for a place to play, vacation, visit, or a place to do business, Santa Barbara has it all! Come visit our resorts, spas, restaurants, and hotels! The sun shines year-round on this coastal getaway. Located off of scenic Highway 101, between San Francisco & Los Angeles, Santa Barbara is full of the enticement of the relaxed, California lifestyle! It's perfect for a vacation or just a weekend visit! Santa Barbara is the perfect place for wine-tasting tours, shopping, beachside hotels, coastal inns, & so much more! Come visit and see what Santa Barbara has to offer you!
Santa Barbara is demographically the same size as Athens at the height of its Acient prosperity. Like many of its European vacation counter-parts, Santa Barbara has the ideal setting of being nestled between the mountains & sea. It has a riviera feel to it with ocean-views from the mountains, overlooking the town.
 Being one of the oldest resort towns in Southern California, completely rebuilt with stylistic considerations kept at the fore, after an early turn of the 20th c. earthquake, & purely because of its positive & light-hearted feel, Santa Barbara is a great place to take-in for a visit, a conference, or for an extended vacation. When you come to visit us, we strongly feel that you will thoroughly enjoy the various accomodations that we have to offer. Wether you're looking for a qiute bed & breakfast, a luxury hotel with all the right conveniences, a stay in the mountains or an outing by the sea, Santa Barbara is perfect for vacation!
Join us for a seaside swing at some of the best seaside resorts on the coast, take a little drive into the mountains for a look at California's reserves, or celebrate life's wonderful occasions in a tucked-away, quiet setting in town. Whatever your goal, the lodging experience of Santa Barbara is truly breath-taking!
Santa Barbara is a year-round tourist destination renowned for its warm weather, downtown beaches, and Spanish architecture. In addition to the city's cultural assets, several iconic destinations lay within the city's limits. Mission Santa Barbara, "The Queen of the Missions," is located in Santa Barbara. It was founded on December 4, 1786 on a rise about two miles inland from the harbor, and is maintained as an active place of worship, sightseeing stop, and national historic landmark. The Santa Barbara County Courthouse, a red tiled Spanish-Moorish structure, provides a sweeping view of the downtown area from its open air tower. The Presidio, a Spanish military installation built in 1782, was central to the town's early development and remains an icon of the city's colonial roots.
Also famous is the annual Fiesta (originally called "Old Spanish Days"), celebrated every year in August. Fiesta, in Santa Barbara, is synonymous with food, music, and riotous parties, ranging from the annual Covarrubias Adobe Pre-Fiesta Tea, to the Fiesta Peque n the steps of the Mission. Fiesta is hosted by the Native Daughters of the Golden West and the Native Sons of the Golden West in a joint committee called the Fiesta Board. Fiesta was originally started as a tourist attraction, like the Rose Bowl, to draw business into the town in the 1920s. 80 years later, it has become a several-day-long bash of Mexican food, Spanish dancing, and traffic tie ups all along State Street.
Flower Girls and Las Se tas are another attraction of Fiesta, as they march and participate in both Fiesta Peque the kickoff of Fiesta) and the various parades. Flower Girls is for girls under 13. They throw roses and other flowers into the crowds. Las Se tas are their older escorts. Many Se tas join the Native Daughters at the age of 16.
For over 40 years the Santa Barbara Art and Craft show is held on Cabrillo Blvd., along the beach, attracting 1000s of people to see artwork made by artists and crafts people that live in the Santa Barbara county. All the art and crafts displayed in this show have to made by the artists and crafts people themselves, without assistance, and the same people must sell their goods themselves. This show started in the early 1960s and has over 200 booths varying in size and style on any Sunday of the year. This show is also held on some Saturdays that are national holidays, but not when there is savvier rain or windy conditions. On Saturdays the artist and crafts people are all mixed together.
In recent years, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival [6] (SBIFF), another local non-profit, has also become a major draw bringing over 50,000 attendees during what is usually Santa Barbara's slow season in late January. SBIFF hosts a wide variety of celebrities, premieres, panels and movies from around the world and runs for 10 days.
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