I’m really excited to interview Lauren Wood of Travel is the Cure about Santa Barbara, California. Lauren’s tips for the best things to do in Santa Barbara are awesome because she moved here for college and lived here for many years afterward. She loves the laid-back vibe, perfect weather, and beautiful riviera with ocean views.
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Fiesta at Mission Rose Garden
Santa Barbara, California
We share a lot of resources and local suggestions in today’s podcast, but you should also check out Santa Barbara – The American Riviera, the local visitor’s bureau. They are a wealth of information and can help you plan an itinerary based on your time, budget, and interests.
If you’d like to learn how to travel for free using airline miles and hotel points, check out my free 7-day email course.
Enjoy brunch at El Encanto and savor the views of the ocean.
Getting around Santa Barbara
The local airport is Santa Barbara Airport (SBA), which is less than 10 miles from downtown. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is a larger airport with more flight options, but it is about 1 hour and 45 minutes away. The Santa Barbara Airbus offers 10 trips between the city and LAX every day, so that’s a great option if you don’t want to rent a car. Use our Expedia tool below to find flight, hotel, and rental car options.
Lauren says that, if you’re staying downtown, there’s no need to rent a car. While exploring the city, you can use the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District buses or sign up for one of the Santa Barbara Trolley Tours. Uber and Lyft are excellent ways to get around. If you need to rent a car, click here for the best offers from Avis, Budget, or Hertz.
If you only need a car for a couple of hours, you can rent by the hour with Zipcar. Join now to get $25 loaded into your account.
Order some cocktails at Tydes
Places we talked about on the podcast
Here is a map of all of the places we talked about on the podcast episode with Lauren Wood about Santa Barbara, California. You can zoom into the map and click on each dot to explore the city.
- Red dots = best places to eat in Santa Barbara, California
- Green dots = best things to do in Santa Barbara, California
- Yellow dots = best places to stay in Santa Barbara, California
Who is Lauren Wood?
Lauren has a tattoo on her arm that reads: “Travel is the cure for ignorance.” Those are not only words that she strives to live by but a mantra that she firmly believes in. Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer – richer in experiences, richer in forming bonds both with the individuals you love and those whom you meet while traveling, and richer in an understanding of the way the world works, inevitably gaining a human lesson on understanding, compassion, and empathy.
She decided to start her travel website Travel Is The Cure because she wanted to give back to the community that she heavily relied upon in formulating her own travel plans. Over the years, Lauren often relied on travel review sites like Tripadvisor, travel blogs like Blonde Abroad and Young Adventuress, and even doing research through social media – primarily on Instagram – in making her own decisions on where to go, where to stay, where to eat and what to do. She gained so much valuable information using these mediums throughout the years that she feels the need to give back to this community and add to it what she can.
Lauren enjoying a beach day with her dog Tank
Here are a few articles that she’s written:
- Why Maui is the Best Place for a Babymoon
- Portable WiFi: the New Everyday Essential
- Riviera Maya’s Tulum and Playa del Carmen: The new Caribbean vacation hot-spots
You can connect with Lauren on her website and on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter.
Click here to download our one-page guide of Lauren’s tips for Santa Barbara.
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The best shopping in Santa Barbara is at Whiskey and Leather
Stay tuned for our next episode
Grant Samson and his family
Listen to the next episode when we visit Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with Grant Samson. In this episode, Grant and I talk about exploring the Batu Caves, visiting the Kuala Lumpur Tower, and enjoying amazing culinary experiences. We hope you’ll join us when We Travel There.
What’s your favorite part of Santa Barbara? Send us a Tweet, let us know in the comment section below, or continue the discussion in our Facebook group!
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To see which cities we’ve interviewed and scheduled, please visit WeTravelThere.com/map. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, please submit an application at WeTravelThere.com/guest.
