Anyone know Santa Barbara CA?

[BreakfastCricket]

Four of us are going for two nights- our youngsters are 13 & 16 so I want to book a hotel quite soon to get a family room.

Should we head for Santa Barbara town centre or stay out of town in a beach area such as Goleta. Would like to be able to have a wander on foot and not need to drive of an evening. We're not after exceptionally fine dining but would like to have relaxed meal and peole watch. There are more of the big 'chain' hotels in Goleta all very reasonably priced and with pools but for about £30 more we could be in the centre, albeit with no pool, but near the fashionable areas.

Our other accommodation for our break is in a residential area in Orange Ccounty with a private pool so the pool isn't a deal breaker.

Any ideas gratefully received.

Sorry no advice on Santa Barbara, but nearly did book there recently and have the madly scribbled on piece of A4 to prove it! In the end decided to stay longer on the pacific highway route and stop at Pismo then onto LA/santa monica area. Are you doing a tour, if so would be interested in your stops and hotels! We have 4 nights in a SF apartment then 2 nights in house near Yosemite, followed by 2 at a hotel in Monterey. Have yet to book LA area, looking at VRBO/Homeaway sites for residential places rather than hotel as there are 5 of us.

Over the weekend we have decided that SF is out of reach for us on this trip so the furthest north we are likely to head is probably an hour beyond Santa Barbara. Have booked accommodation there downtown as rooms were filling up fast.

So we have two nights there and the rest (14 nights) about 15 minutes' drive from Anaheim in our Orange County rental villa We are probably going to concentrate our time having days at the beach... Laguna Beach, Huntingdon Beach, Newport Beach, a visit to a friend in Hollywood hills... maybe do the Joshua Tree desert and then just chill and take it easy.

Residential holiday rental sites are probably the way to go when you have five people to accommodate. I suspect that time spent surfing the web doing multiple searches in individual areas will pay dividends. Santa Monica would be my preference to Los Angeles but your trip is shaping up very nicely indeed. We are in the 'don't try and do it all at once' camp as we've had holidays before where we have tried to cram in too much activity and felt under pressure. Either that or we are just getting old! Sounds though as if you are going to some lovely places and have a good balance of types of accommodation and locations.

Sounds like a similar trip mrs wobble
Five of us, start in Los Vegas(no choice)2 days
Grand Canyon 2 days
Then maybe Disney(dh does not want to go)
Drive up the coast to montery 3 days
SF stay for a week in an Airbnb House
Then house in Yosemite for 2 days
Drive back to Vegas via national parks, death valley 4 days
3 weeks in total.

Stayed a couple nights Santa Barbara , was lovely wished could stay longer. Fantastic beach, good restaurants and a relaxed vibe. It was the nicest place we stayed between san Francisco and los Angeles.

Never stayed before so no advice but we are staying here, just for 1 night on our drive from San Francisco to Laguna Beach in September.

We loved Santa Barbara too, though were only there for 1 night last April. We stayed in a B & B near the beach, fairly central, which lent us bikes so we could cycle along the seafront and up into town which was great.

Had dinner at a good restaurant out on the pier.