Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is a smallish beach town on the West coast of the USA, which is definitely worth a stop if you're travelling around California. While it may be less famous than some of the other town and cities you can find in this area, it has just as much to offer. This hostel we stayed in was the 'International Hostel' and was kind of in a great location, but equally in a bad one. I say this because it is just a 5 minute walk to the beach and the town centre where you'll find all the shops and bars, yet it is also stepping on the toes of a railroad track! Which is not ideal. The owners and staff were helpful and polite, obviously just backpackers who had made ...  Read the complete review

I have been lucky enough to visit the beautiful coastal town of Santa Barbara a couple of times when visiting friends in California, it is a really lovely place and well worth a visit if you are in the area. It is easy to see why many celebrities choose the Santa Barbara area to settle in, only an hour or so north of Los Angeles on the coastal route Highway 101 and referred to (with good reason) as the American Riviera. The beach is gorgeous, the surrounding area is full of green rolling hills coming down to meet the stunning blue pacific and the town itself manages to mix an amazing array of shops, bars and restaurants with a cool and offbeat surfer town ...  Read the complete review

Beautiful, breathtaking Santa Barbara! Santa Barbara is a Southern California coastal city located approximately 80 or so miles up the coast from Los Angeles. In my opinion it is one of the most beautiful locations in the world. It is often called the "American Riviera" because of its beautiful year round Mediterranean climate. It is generally always sunny, hot without being too hot and very enjoyable. Santa Barbara is accessible from the 101 freeway and the drive up there on the is lovely as you can look out to the coast for a good part of the journey. With lots of bends in the freeway too you can see the coastline sprawled out in front ...  Read the complete review

Santa Barbara sits on the Calfornia central coast, about 100 miles north west of Los Angeles and overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. It is served by the 101 freeway, which is an excellent link to LA and San diego in the south, Monterey and Sanf Francisco in the north. Also the small, charming airport provides a 20 minute 'pond-hop' to LA, as well as other further destinations. The city suffered from a huge earthquake in the 1920's and as such, most of downtown Santa Barbara dates from that time, and was re-built in the Spanish colonial style, which together with the fabulous year-round climate gives the place a ...  Read the complete review