Passing through Santa Barbara to spend one night. Any suggestions for a very nice place to stay? Making our way up to San Fran.

San Ysidro Ranch where JFK and Jackie honeymooned..up in the hills.
Four Seasons,.by the water.
Fess Parker Resort, by the water.

BTW - remove the term "Cali" from your vocabulary before you arrive

The Canary Hotel, a newly refurbished hotel, is lovely, almost dreamy. My wife especially loved the place.

it's downtown, so within walking distance of a dozen or more restaurants.

Just personal pref, Fess Parker is you want to be near the beach and San Ysidro if the beach isn't importnat. OR an excelletn B&B - Inn on Summer Hill.

You'll love the drive up the Cali coast!

Since it's just one night, Harbor View Inn would be my suggestion. You can walk the wharf across the street, and also walk or take the trolley to downtown restaurants.

I'm a native Californian, of an age when there were not very many natives.

PLEASE DON'T CALL IT CALI. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard!! Before I read your post, I was going to say it's as bad as calling San Francisco, "San Fran", but I see you did that too!

Argh!

Or 'Frisco'!!!

Iroche, I hope your one night in SB isn't a Friday or Saturday because most hotels have a 2-night minimum on weekends.

Agree. Saying 'Cali' or 'Frisco' will identify you as a tourist immediately and silly or not will subject you to eye-rolling or smirks from the locals.

The hotel recommendations up above are all good, depending on what kind of experience you want.

http://www.sbcastilloinn.com/

This is a very nice little motel, right by the water.

It isn't so much that these terms will label you as a tourist - people will figure that out pretty quick when you are touring around when most people are working And being a tourist is not at all a bad thing. Tourism is a big part of our economy here and we love that tourists come. There are just come terms that grate on people's nerves - I think it is mostly because it seems that people from other places think that they are in-the-know by using the nicknames, but the nicknames are ones that only people from elsewhere use.

As a second generation Californian I should be laid back enough not to let such things bother me.
But please do not use that name for our state. It was coined by the idiot gangbangers in their "music" and should stay with them.

I am a big fan of hip hop and those who coined the term "Cali" were not gangbangers, nor were they idiots. I believe we have LLCoolJ to thank for the term, and while I love LL and think he is one of the finest male specimens ever to walk the planet, I do not thank him for introducing "Cali" to the vernacular.

I have the same reaction to logandog referring to "idiot gangbangers in their "music" " Puhleeze.

November moon please read the lyrics to ".357 Break It on Down" by Mr. CoolJ and tell me the theme is not violent murder by firearms.

People have been calling it Cali for many years and will continue to do so.

What's more annoying is that people who are annoyed by "Cali" can't get over it, and ruin travel threads with their nitpicky pet peeving.

Keep using Cali, San Fran (or Frisco is even better). Not that it matters, but it labels you as a tourist. Which of course you are, which explains why you use those terms.

Clark, I don't know anyone who calls it Cali, other than a few rock singers.

It matters only in that, if your name was Clarkgriswold and people called you Woldy and you didn't like that term it would annoy you - that is all this is about.

Clark, You've been around Fodors for a long time. You know this is how we roll

logan - I know the lyrics to that song, thanks. I never said that the man didn't rap about violence, just that he wasn't a gangbanger - big difference.

I'm also a second generation native Californian. In fact I've moved back to my home 'town', which is a city not a town, some 30 years ago.

It's called California, nothing else.

Personally speaking, I don't think people who try to shorten it are tourists or ignorant tourists...I think they're idiots.