THings to do in Santa Barbara
 

I have rented a house in Summerland, Santa Barbara, and will spend 2 weeks there with my toddler and my parents ( starting this saturday ).

Do you have ideas ? Hikes ( my parents can run marathons ;) )? day trips ? restaurants ? nice things to do ?

Thank you!!!!

Mission Santa Barbara, of course.

The beach, also of course.

A day trip to Hearst Castle or Solvang is possible, but sort of a long day with a toddler.

The Santa Barbara zoo is very nice. You might even consider a train trip up to San Luis Obispo. Have the grandparents take the toddler on the train, you and hubby drive a car up (stop and taste some wine on the way) then meet them at the train station. If you do this on a Thursday, you can then enjoy the Farmer's market. It will be about a 90 minute drive back to SB later at night.
You could also do a day trip to Solvang--while it's "kitchy" there is an Ostrich farm on the way into town.

THank you for the great ideas

This sounds unexciting, but it's one of my favorite places, and it could "work" for all 3 generations.
Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens.
http://www.sbbg.org/

Cachuma Lake is really nice, too...and the drive there (20 - 30 min.) is gorgeous.
http://www.sbparks.org/DOCS/Cachuma.html

Hike Refugio Beach ( any tour book of the area will contain this information), walk on the pier, feed the pelicans, zoo, walk around State Street, eating shopping and picking up theh local color, kayak in the bay if it's not too windy, rent the three wheeled bikes at the beach and take the kiddo for a fun ride, drive to Santa Ynez and see the miniture horse farm or the ostrich farm, get a picnic lunch from the Los Olivos Deli and eat it at Gainey Vineyards picnic grounds, watch volleyball players at East Beach, have high tea at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Montecito, go to farmers market Friday mornings in Montecito, drive around Montecito looking at beautiful homes, walk through the grounds at Westmont College, go to Butterfly Beach and sit on the wall people watching, go to the park on Micheltorena (behind State Street) and enjoy the shady trees,see a movie at the Arlington Theatre and see if the Santa Barbara County Bowl is having any concerts you'd like to see while you're in town, it's a beautiful venue. Enjoy!

everything sounds great, we will try do do at least the Botanical, Cachuma, los Olivos/winery picnic, Ostrich farm and Solvang...

and of course the beach :)

Don't forget to go south, too! Ventura has a lot to offer...one of my favorite places to soak up local color is the Ventura Harbor.....also the Promenade at California St. and the beach there. Main St. has a lot of interesting restaurants and cool shops. The Thursday Ventura Star (newspaper) has a weekend section that lists all the events going on, not sure what day it is in the Santa Barbara paper. Also, not far south of Ventura is Malibu...worth it just for the drive and the gorgeous coast. Stop at Neptune's Net on PCH (Pacific Coast Hwy) for some great seafood in a (very) casual atmosphere.

Take a hike up Rattlesnake Canyon. Not overly taxing, but still, the first part of the hike is going up into the hills. Wonderful views from up high.

Visit the Botanical Gardens. Sounds corny, I know, but am I glad my wife and I went. I'll always remember that part of the trip.

Just back from SanTa BArbara. We went to a wedding in Ojai and teh wedding was on top of a mountain Ojai meditation retreat or something close in name. Views were nice and lots of hiking. Town of Ojai very cute and lots of things to do including Ojai Spa..

Hello euripede, one of my favorite places in that area is Old Town Ventura as marionkp posted about. I think you, your parents and your little one would enjoy a visit there.