Beach Trip

By Kevin Wing
Co-Host, Catch a Wave: A Journey to California’s 10 Best Beaches

(Editor’s Note: This regular column about America’s best beaches and beach communities is written exclusively for AARisings by Kevin Wing, an Emmy Award-winning San Francisco Bay Area-based television journalist who co-hosts Catch a Wave: A Journey to California’s 10 Best Beaches. Kevin is also a news writer/feature reporter at KRON-TV Channel 4 in San Francisco, and performs voiceover work in the Bay Area. He also writes another AARisings column, Suite Surrender, which showcases America’s best hotel and resort destinations. Where’s Kevin this month? He’s in beautiful Santa Barbara, which doesn’t need or require any introduction.)

It’s been called The American Riviera. Welcome to Santa Barbara, California. It’s one of the most beautiful places to live – and visit – in the world. Santa Barbara city officials know the term “American Riviera” is so uniquely Santa Barbara, it’s become a registered trademark of the city.

I’ve always had a special place in my life for Santa Barbara. Its gorgeous beaches, combined with the city’s lovely Spanish-style architecture, have always drawn me there. It’s easy for me to take a southerly coastal excursion from the Bay Area to spend a weekend in one of my favorite homes away from home. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had an affinity for Spanish-style architecture; you know, those beautiful red-tile roof homes and buildings surrounded by palm trees that look so appealing in the warm California sun.

The beaches of Santa Barbara are just as wonderful as the city that surrounds them. Most people know Santa Barbara’s main beach, a long expanse of semi-white sand stretching for two and a half miles along the city’s Cabrillo Boulevard, the gateway to the sandy shores of Santa Barbara from U.S. Highway 101.

As Santa Barbarans know, there’s something special about their share of the picturesque California coastline. Just by looking at a map of the Golden State, one can tell the difference almost immediately.

Santa Barbara fronts the only extensive coastline in California with an east-to-west direction (Santa Cruz is situated this way as well, but it’s not as expansive as its larger neighbor to the south), unlike the state’s north-to-south coastal configuration. This geographical splendor, believe it or not, adds to the appeal of the Santa Barbara beaches. With the city naturally configured this way, its coastline is sheltered from the Pacific Ocean’s crashing waves and surf. The ocean waters off Santa Barbara also tend to be slightly warmer because of this geographical design.

There’s a lot to do along Santa Barbara’s most well-known beach. Stearns Wharf, which juts outward from the beach area, is a great place to people-watch, try some world-class seafood and watch the sunset.

The beach is immensely popular, especially, of course, when the weather’s perfect – which is nearly every day of the year. I’m not exaggerating. Winter is a different story, but as you may know, winters in California aren’t the same as they are in any other part of the country.

There’s plenty to do on the beach. There are plenty of volleyball nets set up on the eastern side of the main beach. If rollerblading, cycling or walking are your thing, you can do them all on the wide sidewalk that parallels the beach along Cabrillo Boulevard.

On most weekends, especially Saturdays, you’ll find dozens of vendors lined up along the sidewalk on the west side of the main beach, selling their wares. Some are pretty good buys, too, depending on what you like and what your tastes are.

Between the main promenade and the sand is an expanse of greenery – lawn and ice plant – that stretch as far as the beach itself. If you don’t want to picnic on the beach, you can always do it on the lawn.

On Cabrillo Boulevard, across the street from the beach, are various bike shops where you can rent mountain bikes, cruisers and Surrey bikes – those red-and-white-striped canopied contraptions with the four wheels. They’re actually a lot of fun, whether you’re with that special someone or with a foursome. Just keep an eye on your friends behind you – they’re supposed to be pedaling like you.

Of course, you could spend a short stay in Santa Barbara and know that you’d be missing someplace special if you didn’t visit the beautiful city surrounding the beach.

Santa Barbara is a gem in every sense of the word. It’s a wonderful place filled with museums, art galleries, restaurants and, okay, I’ll admit it, nice shops. Yeah, nice shops. The El Paseo, a shopping center smack in the middle of downtown along State Street, of course has a lot of nice stores and restaurants. What I like about it the most is its ambience: courtyard patios to relax and unwind, maybe do a little people-watching, while your sweetheart or significant other is spending up your credit card inside at Nordstrom.

A visit to Santa Barbara also wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Mission Santa Barbara. I’ve always been a big California history buff, and, being a California native, it was part of my elementary school curriculum to learn about the California mission system. (I grew up in Fremont, in the Bay Area, and the city is home to Mission San Jose, the 14th in the chain of 21 California Spanish missions). Mission Santa Barbara was founded in 1786. One of the most stately in architecture of all of the California missions, it was known as the “Queen of the Missions.” Its majestic appearance still commands that kind of moniker.

There’s no doubt that Santa Barbara, although closer to Los Angeles than San Francisco, is uniquely “Southern California.” I’m a Bay Area native, proud of my region and all that it stands for in its place in the world, but there’s no doubt that Santa Barbara is more like southern California. It has a nice, Mediterranean feel to it, thanks to the required Spanish-style architecture of the city (a requirement since 1925, when the city was rebuilt following an earthquake and fire), its splendidly beautiful sandy beaches and the wonderful weather that graces the city nearly every day of the year.

How to get there: From San Francisco or Los Angeles, follow U.S. Highway 101 to Santa Barbara. It’s that simple. You’ll know you’re there once you spy the tall palm trees, the rocky backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains and that perfect blend of Southern California landscape and the Pacific Ocean.

Next time from Beach Trip: Kevin heads a few hundred miles east, to Texas, and famed South Padre Island.

To learn more about the Catch a Wave television show and Kevin Wing, go to www.catchawavetv.com. You can email Kevin and the Catch a Wave crew at catchawavetvshow@aol.com.

Beach Trip. Where It’s Summertime Year Round.
Copyright 2007
All Rights Reserved
Kevin Wing / American Travelers Television
Issue 12 / August 2007

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Photo used by permission courtesy of Kevin Wing. Photo copyright by Kevin Wing.