Explore the Area

If you’ve come all this way, you might as well have an adventure.

We’re incredibly lucky to be celebrating in one of our favorite corners of California.

Between the mountains and the Pacific are beaches, old neighborhoods, good coffee, good food, and plenty of places worth getting pleasantly sidetracked. If you have some time before or after the wedding, here are a few ways to spend it.

Carpinteria

Stay awhile. There’s no hurry.

Carpinteria is our wedding-weekend home base: a small beach town about 12 miles southeast of Santa Barbara, where downtown, the beach, restaurants and breweries all sit remarkably close together.

Start at the beach. Carpinteria State Beach has a mile of coastline with sand, rocky areas and tide pools, and it sits right beside town. It's an easy choice for a morning walk, an afternoon with your feet in the Pacific, or a little recovery after the previous evening's festivities.

Find some coffee. Lucky Llama Coffee House is a relaxed local favorite with a patio, espresso, pastries and açaí bowls. Another good option is Brass Bird Coffee & Kitchen, which adds a more substantial breakfast-and-lunch menu and house-made pastries.

Have a beer. For a casual afternoon, Island Brewing Company is near the railroad and beach, while Rincon Brewery combines its house-brewed beer with a full food menu.

Wander down Linden Avenue. Don't overthink this one. Get something to eat, poke around the shops, continue toward the ocean and see where you end up.

That is, more or less, the proper way to experience Carpinteria.

Santa Barbara

For those inclined to wander a little farther.

Santa Barbara is close enough for an afternoon and substantial enough to consume an entire day. You can go from Spanish-Moorish architecture and downtown streets to the waterfront, restaurants, galleries and tasting rooms without ever getting terribly far from the ocean.

See Santa Barbara from above

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is genuinely worth visiting.

Completed in 1929, the Spanish-Moorish courthouse occupies an entire downtown block, with gardens, tilework and the historic Mural Room. You can also go up the 85-foot El Mirador clock tower for views across Santa Barbara toward the mountains and Pacific.

This one receives the official Amanda & Jake designation of:

“Yes, even if you normally don't visit courthouses while on vacation.”

Wander toward the water

Santa Barbara's waterfront is made for aimless exploration. Walk along Cabrillo Boulevard, head toward the harbor or Stearns Wharf, rent bikes, or simply find somewhere to sit and remember why people pay unreasonable amounts of money to live here. The waterfront also has a coastal bike path connecting several beaches.

Get a little Funky

The Funk Zone sits between downtown and the waterfront in what was once a warehouse and manufacturing district.

Today it's a compact, walkable collection of tasting rooms, breweries, restaurants, galleries, murals and little shops. It's also the center of Santa Barbara's Urban Wine Trail, with more than 20 tasting rooms in the broader trail network.

This is probably where I'd point guests who ask:

“We have four hours before we need to be anywhere. What should we do?”

Go there. Start walking. You'll figure it out.

The Coast

Sometimes the road itself is the destination.

This stretch of California rewards people who leave a little extra time between where they are and where they're supposed to be.

Rincon Point sits downcoast from Carpinteria and is internationally known for surfing; the state park provides access from the Bates Road area. The coastline between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara gives you plenty of opportunities to simply pull the pace of the weekend down a little.

Go for a drive.

Walk along the water.

Watch the surfers.

Find somewhere to watch the sun disappear into the Pacific.

You have somewhere important to be eventually.

Just perhaps not quite yet.

A Note from Us

There is much more to see around Santa Barbara than we could reasonably fit onto a wedding website.

These aren't commandments. They're starting points.

So have breakfast somewhere unfamiliar. Take the long way back to the hotel. Walk down a street because it looks interesting. Put your feet in the Pacific. Have another coffee. Find something we didn't know about and tell us about it when you see us.

After all, you didn't travel all the way to the California coast just to sit in your hotel room.

Go explore.