Desire suggestions for restaurants, wineries, walking areas, and other activities for Santa Barbara, CA. We will be visiting right after Thanksgiving 2002.

Thanks.

Good luck. You will need it. This from a California person.

Santa Barbara is a no growth city; The best hotel is not even in Santa Barbara (even though it claims to be) It is the Bacara in Goleta.

Lots of transients, bohemians, low lifers there. Just a wierd city in IMHO.

Well, well well, a really brave comment here on Fodors. I grew up in Ventura and for all my life I have disliked Santa Barabra. I constantly hear people carry on about it, especially here. But along comes a like-minded traveler. Thanks "too frequent" for making my day!

We stopped there on a vacation trip last year from LA to SF. And were pleasantly surprised. Visit the mission, of course. Don't miss the courthouse. The library deserves a look. Stearns Wharf.... I've got a few pictures up at http://community.webshots.com/user/bookhall in the 1st album. For food recommendations, best place to check is chowhound.com .

We enjoyed it--hope you do as well.

Santa Barbara is a great city. It has some of the best weather in California because the whole area is south facing and protected by the mountains. There are a lot of good restaurants on State Street. One of my favorites is The Palace. It is on Cota at State St. They serve New Orleans style dishes. It's fun to take a morning walk to the beach and walk out on Stern's wharf. The mission there is very beautiful. If you have kids traveling with you, you might try the zoo.
Most cities in California have quite a bit of homeless people due to our mild climate. I've never really noticed a lot of homeless in Santa Barbara at all. I think you will also find very few low-lifers as well. I imagine you can find a low-life any where if you look hard enough. If by Bohemian you mean an educated artistic individual, then yes, luckily Santa Barbara is blessed with many people that fit this category.

Alright Too Frequent & X - I was in Santa Barbara this spring, not impressed. I did enjoy the mission & botanical gardens. The rest of the town was boring! I liked Long Beach much more (this was on the same trip).

Yep I've been........spent a week there one night

Long Beach nicer than Santa Barbara? Wow, now I've heard it all. I guess there is no accounting for taste.

Don't understand all of the negativity towards Santa Barbara. Sure it would be expensive to live there, but in my opinion, it is one of the beautiful spots on the CA coast and a great place to visit. There are so many good restaurants in SB and, not knowing your taste or budget, suggest checking out the Zagat dining guide or online restaurant review sites for suggestions. Wine tasting over the hill in the Santa Ynez valley is really fun. It is a short drive over the Cachuma Pass and the valley is spectacular - there are quite a few top wineries there. As mentioned previously the mission is interesting and there is good strolling/shopping on State Street. Bike/pedal car rentals are available on Cabrillo that parallels the coast (where Stearn's Wharf is), but weather after Thanksgiving may be a factor. Don't really recommend the seafood restaurant on the wharf, but drinks/appetizers upstairs is fun. You could contact the SB Chamber of Commerce to see what is happening around SB when you are there. Hope that this helps.

I wouldn't take advice from anyone who would choose Long Beach over Santa Barbara. Absolutely one of the most beautiful towns on the West Coast.

Palace Cafe, Arnaldo's, Joe's Cafe, Citronelle, The Big Yellow House in Summerland, Palazzio in Montecito, The Montecito Inn, Brophy Bros. Seafood

We were at HiltonHead last december and it was about 70 degrees all week.

If you're from Indianapolis, that's considered W A R M !

For a great meal, go to the Bay Cafe. Delicious food and wonderful service.

The bigest reasons I did not like Santa Barbara:
1) overpriced resturants & mediocre food and service.
2) many people were sullen or rude. Granted not everyone, but enough to get a bad feeling.
3) The pretetious attitude of the people - "we live here & we have $$$ (or atleast pretend we have $$)"

When we were in Long Beach, there are areas that should be avoided granted. They are in every good size town in the Country, but the people were friendly & more helpful - The variety & quality of resturants were better - more places to go & see (and closer to LA if you have an desire to go there.) I feel that many people would like Santa Barbara, but you should hear from both sides.

Here is this Californian's opinion: Santa Barbara is one of my favorite cities! I had to spend many days there on layovers while I was a flight attendant. I enjoyed their near-perfect weather, and variety of activities. Yes, I agree, there is a lot of glitz and pretention, but that is just ONEfacet of a MANY-faceted city. On my layovers I took many pleasant, quiet hikes surrounded by natural beauty on the beach, in the residential neighborhoods, and in the hills. I toured the mission, many gardens, and the Natural History Museum. I enjoyed the shopping and many fine restaurants (cheapies and higher end). There are many festivals by normal, interesting, AND artistic-eccentric individuals! The Santa Barbara Bowl is one of the nicest venues to see a concert (I saw Jewel and Chris Issak there). I love the variety and diversity of this town. Wish I had enough money to live there myself! I think a lot of the negative you hear is from resentment (toward the pretentious part of the community) and/or lack of exploring the town in-depth, and seeing what else is there. I'm not a flight attendant anymore, but I do live only 1 hour north of Santa Barbara, so it continues as a favorite weekend or daytrip destination for me.