Cruising: Weekend in Santa Barbara

Sometimes you travel for work. Sometimes you travel for holiday gatherings or family reunions. Sometimes, though, you travel to get back to yourself. To feel the sand on your feet, the sun on your skin, the salt water in your hair. To unplug and unwind and leave your to-do list blissfully undone. We get it. Which is exactly why we’re launching Cruising, a series of blog posts about our favorite beach towns and how we’d spend a weekend getting lost - and found - in them. 

The first stop on our Cruising tour is sunny Santa Barbara, tucked away on a south-facing stretch of California’s coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“The air is sweeter here,” says Carve Designs ambassador, Anna Quinlan. “The weather is always perfect, but somehow the people never get over it. We greet each other every morning by commenting on what a perfect day it is. You’ve got to love a town that fosters that kind of gratitude.”

Start your weekend by checking in at Harbor House Inn, where you’re just one block from the beach and 3-speed cruiser bikes come standard with every room. 

Throw on an all-day bikini and a cover-up — like the Catalina Racerback Bikini  and the Luisa Dress — and head to Leadbetter Beach ASAP to officially kick-off your mini vacay.

If the surf is breaking you can enjoy the mellow point break, or take your cruiser out on the pier at Stearns Wharf, where you can enjoy an old-fashioned ice cream break on one of the longest piers on the Pacific coast. 

When you’ve worked up an appetite, ride on over to State Street. To lunch like a true local, veer one block off the main drag and grab a sandwich at Panino. Take.  your sandwich to go and continue your ride to Alice Keck Memorial Gardens for a lush picnic amongst the flora and fauna. 

You’ve definitely earned a drink by now, so push those pedals on over to the Funk Zone where you can hit up a number of local wineries’ tasting rooms. Bonus: Wildwood Kitchen, a new mouth watering barbecue joint, is just steps away once you’re ready for dinner. The shaded outdoor patio is the perfect location for trying a famous Lavendar 75 cocktail. 

On day two, find the trailhead for Seven Falls to enjoy a moderate hike with amazing views of the coast and plenty of streams and pools to play in along the way. Discover a secret cliff jumping spot (good thing you wore your bikini and some quick dry Rockaway Boardshorts!) before you head back down the trail. 

Congratulate yourself on a weekend well-spent with some wine (hopefully you bought a bottle at one of the tasting rooms) in paper cups at Butterfly Beach, where you’ll get one of the best sunset views in town. 

Head home with a full heart and sandy toes, and the reminder that a trip to the beach is always a trip back to yourself. Cheers to the weekend!