Santa Barbara with Kids Travel Log
Written: Sep 02 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Zoo, Beaches, Brown Pelican Restaurant, East Beach
Cons: West Beach kind of rocky and dirty.
The Bottom Line: A nice vacation with the wife and kids.
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| gainey's Full Review: Santa Barbara |
My wife and I traveled to Santa Barbara from San Jose with a 3 year old and a 9 month old in August. Plan was to spend two nights in Santa Barbara for a vacation.
Friday. Left San Jose at 8:00 PM. Drove to Santa Maria to stop by early. Arrived at 11:30 PM at the Motel 6. Even though I reserved and paid in advance, could only get smoking room with a double bed. Worst room ever due to the smokers stench. The hotel was packed, so very glad that I did make reservations. Would never go to a Motel 6 again since they cannot guarantee non-smoking rooms.
Saturday morning. Went to Solvang. Danish tourist trap. Ate at Paula's Pancakes. Danish pancakes are very large pancakes that are very thin and can soak up lots of butter and syrup. Danish sausages don't taste so good. Danish bacon is really good, nice and thick. Not really worth the stop. Might as well go to Denny's. However, to be fair, by the time we left, it was very crowded outside, so some people like this food. Decided there was not much going on in Solvang and drove on.
Reached East beach at around 10 AM. Was able to park right across from Chase Palm Park. Went to beach and then to park. Right next to beach is a biking path. You can rent these 4 people bicycles and go up and down the path. East Beach had very gentle surf. It is very long and not crowded at all. The water is cold, but not freezing like Northern California beaches are. It was a little bit cold and foggy on this morning. Chase Palm park has a nice little park with a playground and a carousel for the little kids. It also has these really good hot dogs that just burst with grease.
Later went onto Stearns wharf. Stearns wharf was not too exciting if you have been on one. There are Pelicans if you walk to the very end, but it is very crowded with cars.
Ate dinner on State Street at this Santa Barbara Pizza and Pasta place. It was fairly cheap for Santa Barbara and the food was OK. This was right next to the train station, so the kid had fun watching trains go by and walking on the little rocks that line a nearby park.
Stayed at Days Inn which is a decent place to stay for about $165 a night. Again, place was booked, so lucky to make reservations well ahead of time. The bad part about staying at the Days Inn is that it is a long walk to go to East Beach. It is close to West Beach, but west beach is not so nice. It is also close to State Street, but if you are not into shopping or night life, then State Street is not that great. You could stay at the Fess Parker Double Tree hotel. That hotel looked OK. It was across the street from East Beach and near the zoo.
Sunday. Went Hiking up to 7 pools. Not the best hike with little kids since most of the hike is exposed on a cement path which is not very exciting. It is also straight up. However, towards the end of the cement path, you get to walk up a nice dirt trail that leads to a creek. At that point you are supposed to hike up the creek to get to the 7 pools. All this looked fun, but not with 2 kids. In addition, it is hard to park near the trail head. Probably would have been better off going to the botanical gardens which was near the trail head.
Spent time on West Beach, contemplated kayaking, but decided against it since the kayak rentals were around this busy harbor. I did not want to kayak were all these boats were coming in and out of. Did not like West Beach because it was rocky and a little dirty. Plus it was small.
Ate at the Brown Pelican for dinner which is located at Arroyo Burro Beach. If it is not too cold, you can eat outside under the heat lamps. The service was slow, but the seafood was excellent. Try the seafood pasta or salmon. Highly recommended. The beach by the restaurant looks really nice. I wish we had spent some time there instead of at West Beach.
Monday. Went to Santa Barbara Zoo. We had tried to go on Saturday at around 4 PM, but unfortunately, that was the wrong time to go. The parking lot at the zoo was , well , a zoo. I think this is because there is not much parking by the beach and the zoo is about one block from the beach so beach goers park there on the weekend.
On Monday, not nearly as bad. This is a pretty big zoo and took about 1/2 day to go through. Very pretty grounds. There is a petting zoo and you can feed the lorikeets, which are tropical birds. I recommend that you feed the lorikeets. I don't recommend the train ride which goes around the outside of the zoo, but does not show you much of anything. (Look at the garbage dumpsters! Behind that cement wall are Gorilla, you really should go in the zoo and see them!) In addition, the line is very long for the zoo.
Overall it was a pretty good vacation. You really can't do as much as you want with kids, but we knew that going in. The weather and beach is nice. Nothing too exciting, but enough to make a go of it for a weekend.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
gainey
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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