What: - Walk along 22 historic places in the Santa Barbara…read moredowntown More Info: - Free admission inside a few historic landmarks - Free parking on the streets - Check out the map of the Red Tile Walking Tour here: http://www.santabarbaracarfree.org/pdf-files/redtile.pdf The Red Tile Walking Tour is a walk in the Santa Barbara downtown, along the historic places. We totally underestimated the amount of time that it would take to complete the tour. It covers about 12 blocks and we did not have sufficient time to cover all the 22 historic places. After parking the car on the streets, we started the tour from Presidio Avenue, the oldest street in Santa Barbara. The Spanish style architecture of the buildings and shopping malls impressed me a lot. I could not help but keep staring and admiring the beautiful Santa Barbara downtown. Our next stop was at the El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park. It was founded in 1782 and was built by the Spanish along the coast of Alta California. There is a $7/adult admission fee to explore this historic park. A map serves as a guide to explore the park and the placards in several rooms educate one about the history of each room. One can easily spend at least an hour exploring this park and more time if you are a history lover. We then walked to the Santa Barbara County courthouse. I was looking at the courthouse for a very long time thinking how beautiful a courthouse could possibly look. Designed in a Spanish style with an 80-foot clock tower, the courthouse seemed to attract a lot of people. One is allowed to go to the clock tower for free We entered the courthouse and were amazed to see the interior décor, murals, tiles, painting, etc. A 360 degree of Santa Barbara invited us when we walked up to the clock tower. The ocean could be seen from one end, the Santa Ynez Mountains could be seen from another end and several other landmarks. After enjoying the magnificent view, we walked down and ended our Red Tile Walking Tour.

When I was researching for someplace for my wife and I to vacation on our anniversary, I was having…read morea hard time choosing Santa Barbara as I was unsure of what all we would do. Then I came across the Red Tile Walking Tour and we decided on SB. The walk is flat and only a couple of miles that winds around and near State Street. Download the podcast by John O'Hurley (Seinfeld's J. Peterman) that gives a nice audio/video spin to the walk. You can also pick up a small pamphlet at the County Courthouse (where the walk starts) that gives a little synopsis of each location on the walk. Take the time and actually go into the places that you can (some locations are not open to the public) it is worth the small fees to visit the museums.

We had a fantastic fun 4 hour tour eating our way through Santa Barbara today!…read more To start, it's not just a food tasting tour because one learns all about Santa Barbara history. Our guide, Manuel, was not only a great guide but a fun person to talk with, ask questions to and gave the 8 of us on this tour an insight into the city, it's good and much more. One of the great things about this company is they are open to understanding any food issues one has. In our group we had people who don't eat dairy, others who don't eat beef and another who can't have much sugar and when told ahead of time they ordered food that each of us could eat. We started with macarons (not macaroons), had Italian food, wine, Mexican food, empenadas, beer, ice cream and more as we toured State Street and other places in the area on what turned out to be a 4-hour tour. If we had a suggestion, it would be not to start with macarons, but to finish with them, as it seemed a bit weird starting with a cookie-type baked good, although they were delicious. One of the nice things about our tour is that there were just the 8 of us good friends, and Manuel fit right in. So if you're looking for bites of good food and learning about the city, the Santa Barbara Tasting Tour is a great way to do it, and kudos to Allison for setting this up for us!

We've never been to Santa Barbara or a food tour before. After looking around we decided to go with…read morethis tour. They do discourage kids, but to contact and let them know upon booking if you will be bringing kids. We have 3 kids (7,5, and 2 years). They did great! It was just enough walking and resting/stopping and eating for them. We met our tour guide Manuel (I think that's what his name was) along with the rest of the group at Arlington theater. He then gave use a quick history of Santa Barbara and the town. He also passed out a summary of the 6 different places that we'll be stopping at. First stop was Renaud's Patisserie and Bistro where we got a quick lesson about macaroons. We tried an assortment of them. We had Lemon, Raspberry, Vanilla, Salted Caramel, pistachio, and strawberry. It was a good start to the day. Second stop was Ca'Dario where we tried brow butter and sage spinach ravioli and a bolognese. This stop was our favorite. It was so good. Even the kids ate the sage! Third stop was II Fustino for Olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. Eh, wasn't our cup of tea. Fourth stop, Empty Bowl Gourmet Noodle Bar where we had potsticker (just one potsticker) and yellow chicken thai curry. The potsticker was soft and when you dip it in the spicy sauce it tastes even better. The chicken curry came with some type of noodles. It wasn't too spicy. The kids were able to eat it, but they preferred the potsticker instead. Fifth stop was at Chocolats du CaliBressan where we all had a Buddah shaped chocolate that filled with an ooey creamy caramel that oozed out when you bit into it. SO GOOD! We also got to choose one more chocolate of our choice from the counter. This was our other favorite spot! The last stop was at Cebada Winey where we got to taste some wine. The owner was actually there pouring and presenting the wines. Cebada wines are very light and not too sweet. We got to taste a 2013 Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and a Blueberry dessert wine. All were very light, but me and husband liked the Chardonnay best. We stayed and our kids got to taste the jams. They tried 3 jams. Blueberry, citrus and one more (I forgot). They liked the blueberry one, so we ended up getting a jar. This tour was very informative and a great way to try a bunch of spots Sanata Barbara has to offer. I would suggest having a lite snack before touring. Otherwise, you might still be hungry. We ate a little something before the tour started and we left feeling contented. We weren't full but weren't hungry. Water is offered at most of the stops and there are restrooms practically everywhere. The tour ran about 2.5 hrs. We did a bit of walking so I would suggest comfortable shoes just like their website states. I would suggest this tour especially if it's tour first time to SB. You get to see some cute shops and plazas along the way that you could stop at after the tour is over. You also learn about some of the buildings, statues and history of the town.

We had a fabulous time with Manuel, he was very knowledgeable in the history of San Buenaventura…read more We stopped at six local historical restaurants to taste the amazing food & drink items. If you want to do something fun, this tour is a MUST. We shared the tour with an amazing retired couple The Hanks they where great and fun! Until next time Ventura, much love!! Shout out to my company Waterton Property Management for this amazing experience in honor of my 3 year anniversary with the company.

I took the Taste of Santa Barbara Tour in late February 2024. I am 38 and I took my wife and my…read moremother along with me. We all had a great time and learned a lot. The food was delicious and was filling, none of wanted or needed to get more after the tour was over. The amount of walking and sitting time is well balanced, it was probably like walk for 15 and sit for 20. Our guide was a long lime local, very knowledgeable and had answers to just about every question asked. What we really liked is that the tour was small only 6 people, and by the end of the last stop we were sipping wine with our new tour friends and the whole tour enhanced our visit to SB.

What a great deal--absolutely free tour, no reservations necessary, led by a very knowledgeable,…read moretrained local volunteer docent. The 1929 Moorish/Spanish Colonial Revival Courthouse is both a state & national landmark, said by some to be the most beautiful government building in the U.S! Every day at 2pm, and some days at 10:30am too. Starts in the "mural room" on the 2nd floor. Takes about 1 hour, and you can join or leave at any time. Gives you a good feel for the history of the building, the town and the region, going back to the first European landing by Cabrillo in 1542. Really stunning tile work, ceiling and wall paintings, adobe, beams and arches. Still houses 6 county courtrooms, hall of records etc. The 'sunken' garden on the east side of the main archway is gorgeously landscaped with dozens of different palm varieties; you can often see weddings going on both there and in the mural room. Booth from which you can buy postcards, brochures etc (or make a donation to their Foundation, which supports the ongoing renovations). Don't forget to go up to the top of the famous tower at the end of the tour for a 360-degree view of the entire city and bay!

Just took the tour yesterday-the docent was knowledgable, personable and provided interesting…read moredetail on the history and architectural details of this stunning treasure. The Tunisian tiles, the Spanish Mudahar influence throughout, and even a "Bridge of Sighs' from the courthouse to the old jail! The Italian rosette stained glass window, conch shell archway pattern in one area and Masonic cornerstone (with a Masonic date convention!) are some of the treasures within. We lucked out, the Law Library was opened to us during the tour by someone using the library; one wall had a painted "California Island" map-I've seen some of these maps at Stanford, it was a treat to see one as part of the design here! Absolutely worth the time, this a active, historical treasure not to be missed.

My husband and I picked Solvang for our Memorial's day weekend and we wanna try a tour that doesn't…read moretake too long and this Pedicab Tours are the right decisions! Our tour guide were awesome and gave us an awesome tour,It was so relax and chilled riding with him.The end of the tour he drop us off for wine testing and it was awesome end. If this is your first time visit Solvang or you wanna do a tour,I highly recommended this one.

My wife and I went on this tour for our anniversary and it was absolutely wonderful! We got extra…read morelucky and had two tour guides, one on another bike, as she was still learning the route. John and his daughter Ashanti (the two tour guides) were amazing. They were both extremely friendly, knowledgable, and really set us up for a great rest of our anniversary. They pointed out things that we never would have noticed had we not gone on this tour, and warned us that most things close pretty early in solvang which helped us plan our trip better as well. I can not recommend this tour enough.

After hearing good things, my best friend and I decided to go on a SB safari. Chuck, the tour…read moreguide, picked us up from our hotel. He was on time, gave a friendly greeting, and we already felt like we would be in good hands. He had a beautiful car, a pretty new land rover--very comfortable. Chuck was enthusiastic, and seemed to know the area very well. He was even able to give us some good recommendations for authentic SB restaurants. Our first stop was a painted cave. The art in the cave is about 2000 years old! Chuck knew all about it- the materials used, which Indians painted them, what they were for, etc etc. It's the little details like this that makes an experience memorable. Next we went up the road and passed some horses. We took a couple breaks to take pictures and have snacks (provided by Chuck). The view was amazing!!! One side was a view of the beautiful ocean, and the other was of the mountains and Lake Cachuma. At one point we went into this area and did some off roading. Good thing we were in a land rover - that car took it so well! Also, I should mention that we saw some wildlife on our trip. We saw some deer, foxes, quail, lizards, etc (one previous trip even saw a bear!). When we got to the top we had some champagne and white wine (he has a whole cooler of drinks and snacks to choose from), and were just in time to see a gorgeous sunset. On our way back down the mountain we saw some more wildlife, and then Chuck drove us back to our hotel. My friend and I had a great time and would definitely recommend SB safaris to anyone coming to Santa Barbara. Chuck is so personable and fun, he'll really make sure you have a great time. He is really flexible to people's needs (for instance he can pick you up anytime you want for your safari, even if you're coming from LAX). The safari seems like it would be great for families, couples, or even friends.

My husband and I signed up for the Mountain Safari. Our guide Charles picked us up from our hotel…read moreand up the mountains we went!! The views, wildflowers, and experience all exceeded our expectations-we even saw a bob cat dart across the road! The off-roading was a little bumpy, but being in the LandRover made it fun and comfortable (especially with wine and champagne at the top), My husband was sad when the tour was over, so Charles took us the back way home and extended our safari and didn't charge extra. We would definitely do this again when we visit Santa Barbara in the fall.

Celebrated my niece's 21st birthday with a 6hr private wine tour and it was amazing! Jerry, our…read moredriver, was very nice and professional. He took us to three classy wineries and even included an olive oil tasting. The lunch and snacks he brought for us were delicious and was more than enough for the six of us. On the last winery we were able to walk around to others close by and explore on our own. We we ran over time by a good amount, but Jerry was very patient and accommodating. He even took us through Solvang after to just pass by and actually stopped at the Ostrich farm. When we arrived at our hotel we thought we had taken everything but I had left my bag under the seat and Jerry came back immediately. A few minutes later he called to let us know we also left sunglasses at the very back of the car so he came back a second time to drop them off. Excellent tour all around and would definitely recommend!

**Tour begins at 100 E. Main Street, at the Ventura County Museum…read more This is a self-guided walking tour of the downtown historic core of the City of Ventura. About six blocks long, and several blocks of side detours off of Main Street comprise the tour. The website address listed is where you can print out a copy of the tour. Copies are also available at the Ventura Visitors Center. The guide offers quick overviews of the highlighted buildings, with when they were built, and what the significance was to the development of the city. Even for frequent Ventura visitors, you might find a few surprises, as Dear Hubby and I did yesterday when we walked the route. Along the way, you'll likely be interacting with others hanging out in Ventura. Most will not be on the same historical journey that you're on, but might be enjoying seeing the unique architectural facades, especially along Main Street. From the Mission, to several beautifully restored Victorians (now housing various businesses), to the "unique" conversion of the Carlo Hahn House into The Tavern, to charming hotels, to stately bank buildings, and a very early themed shopping plaza, there's much to see along the way. Two magnificent Moreton Bay Fig trees are on the tour, as well. Fortunately for weary feet, there are lots of places to stop and rest / grab something to eat or drink along the way. You might want to save shopping for before or after the tour, as carrying around purchases might make for an even longer walking experience. I know I was ready to put my feet up and relax when we were finished! As likely intended by those at the Visitors Bureau who put the guide together, doing the walking tour lets you know about so many places you might not notice otherwise. That can invite a return visit to get to know those spots more in depth. We did it! Where's my t-shirt that says so??!!