An ideal stay in Santa Barbara should be between 2 and 3 days. Although with 2 you are super fine. The main street is called State Street, where all the shops, bars and restaurants are.
The truth is that Santa Bárbara is more than a charming city of cute houses next to a paradisiacal beach surrounded by palm trees. Here you will also find a city whose architecture has great reminiscences of the Spanish colonial style. This is explained because the city was founded by Spaniards in 1782, and it only came under the control of the United States in 1846.
The beach is very nice too. It has a lot of life. Full of palm trees, artists' stalls, a very long pier where you can have a view of Santa Bárbara from the water, several restaurants on the street right in front of the beach...
A very good place to eat with a beach view is: Eladio's, which has a kind of a patio facing the sea, the food is super tasty, abundant and cheap.
For the night: THE PATIO, has several internal patios, full of plants and is very well set.
For drinks go to Sandbar. It's on State Street. It is a Mexican-style place, which also has very abundant dishes, and a large patio. By 10pm, the music starts to get better and better and a PARTY is set up. If you are looking for a night out and some dancing, this is the place!
To continue the road trip along the West Coast, the next destination is: San Diego, with two must-stops: Malibu and Laguna Beach. The distance between Santa Barbara and San Diego is 3 hours or so, which is why it allows you to make these two stops without hassle.
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