ON THE ROAD AGAIN:

SANTA BARBARA

Welcome to my series ‘Poppie Lady On The Road Again,’ where I am sharing the most recommended tips and places to visit (children optional) in my favorite cities in California. You can view more photos and videos of these tips under my highlights ON INSTAGRAM.

Santa Barbara was the perfect place to meet up with my boyfriend in college AND has been a great place for us to return with out kids, years later. One town down in Montecito is where major celebs (like people who only have one name) live, such as Oprah and Ellen!

WHERE TO EAT:

• SOUTH COAST DELI:

Amazing sandwiches and salads, multiple locations. Super Casual and reasonably priced (great for grabbing lunch).

• LUCKY PENNY

This is a premium pizza place and it was right next to a bar (The Lark), so you can get adult drinks and have a space for the kids to spread their wings. Everything was good here! We walked around and got ice cream at McConnells after dinner.

• FINCH AND FORK

They call it “Santa Barbara on a Place” and “Fresh. Simple. Local.” It is also expensive as hell and worth every penny. Fancy, Fancy, and I was ready to run into Meryl and Steve from ‘It’s Complicated’ any second during our dining experience (if you know, you know). OK, I’ll tell you. You should definitely watch ‘It’s Complicated’ before you go to Santa Barbara. You’ll love it!!

• MCCONNELLS ICE CREAM

OMG, this place puts other ‘premium’ ice creams to shame. We have loved every flavor we have tried, but Turkish coffee (so good it will make you grow hair on your chest) and the Peanut Butter have my heart (worth the wait in line, trust me!!).

WHERE TO GET GOOD COFFEE:

• DUNE COFFEE ROASTERS

(Formerly The French Press). My husband is a coffee enthusiast, so this is an important piece of your visit. We love the avocado toast from Dune and all of their pastries are great. More importantly (or equally important), their coffee is one of the most consistently roasted and delicious tasting according to my husband, and he’s hauled my ass to MANY a coffee shop in the continental US.

Another great thing about Dune is that it’s right across from the FARMER’S MARKET, so you can pop over and it’s almost open every day!

• HANDLEBAR COFFEE

Another A+ coffee shop that delivers consistently great drinks. They have an outdoor patio which provided a family-friendly space to enjoy our drinks. There is also a great view of a Mission-type building and is just around the corner from the most incredible park, Kid’s World.

WHAT TO DO:

• STATE STREET

There are plenty of shops (including Anthropologie) to walk around and window shop. State Street is basically the downtown and where most of the great shopping is.

• THE SANTA BARBARA ZOO

We really loved this zoo, so much that we came back within our long weekend trip! It was very reasonably priced and has a nice, sprawling property. It’s a “zoo with a view” because when you get to the giraffes, you have an incredible ocean view. I loved doing the train ride around the perimeter and seeing “Jake the Fake Mosaic Snake.” I was SO excited the second day we came and the giraffe feeding deck was open. You get 3 pieces of lettuce to hand feed to the giraffes for $8 (which my son proceeded to hurl all at once directly at the giraffe).

• KID’S WORLD PARK

This quite literally is a kid’s dream world. It’s a little bit of a maze, but it mostly enclosed and has swings, slides, and plenty of places for kids to climb and explore. We only wished we found it earlier because our 1 and 3 year olds LOVED it!

• THE SANTA BARBARA MISSION:

A Must visit (although we didn’t). Every time we drove by we said “what is that gorgeous building?!). Would be the perfect afternoon activity to walk the grounds.

• SHORELINE PARK

This park felt VERY ‘locals only’ (but all the locals were nice!). It is perfectly perched to give an expansive view of the ocean. There are swings, a big play set, a spinning-wheel piece of equipment and some ocean animal statues to play on (along with sang). Our kids played here for an hour each morning.

WHERE TO STAY:

• THE MAR MONTE

O.M.G. A physician I work with told me about this hotel and we were absolutely BOWLED OVER. It was SO. NICE. Everything about the property and room gave you a true ‘Santa Barbara Experience.’ We truthfully would have been perfectly happy never leaving the property and just spending time in the pool, riding around on the complimentary bicycles, or drinking wine and looking out at the ocean (literally RIGHT across from the hotel). I could have just stayed in the lobby for hours. The hotel is also one minute from the zoo, so the location is awesome! All of the staff were so kind and accommodating. Parking was really easy on the street/we never paid for parking.

• AIR BNB

I have to add this as an option because our family generously snagged a place for everyone to stay together (Sadie was teething, so we opted to stay in a hotel and come to the house to visit during the trip). It’s quite nice to be able to cook all of your meals during your stay. Depending on how many people you have, the cost-benefit-analysis is worth looking at.

• HYATT PLACE SANTA BARBARA

It’s kind of hard for me to be impartial since we came from the Mar Monte and then stayed here for 3 nights to be close to our friends. There really is no comparison. HOWEVER… if you are OK with just having a place to sleep and will be out and about for most of the day, it is a totally nice and serviceable hotel. When we went the pool was closed, which was a bummer. Overall it is nice, clean rooms and has quick freeway access. The ‘free breakfast’ was literally awful, but the patio area is gorgeous to sit and enjoy your coffee.