Santa Barbara County is a perfect destination for a spring break family road trip itinerary. There are so many things to do in Santa Barbara with kids that are either FREE or really cheap. But to fully appreciate this post and this specific road trip itinerary you should be a fan of the movie Sideways. If you have not seen it yet I highly recommend that you do – it is one of the best comedies out there, which is really funny and smart, it is a winner of 2 Golden Globes Awards for a reason. If you have seen the movie, let me assure you that all the provocative scenes were replaced on this family friendly trip by the cool kids attractions in Santa Barbara 😉
Santa Barbara County is about 4.5 hours drive from San Francisco Bay Area so the trip is easily doable in 1 day but we won’t rush as we have cool stops planned on the way.
“Sideways” family road trip itinerary: Day 1
The first stop on our “Sideways” road trip itinerary is Paso Robles, since we are drivign from the North. This beautiful wine region became one of our favorite stops on the way to Southern California. The wines are fantastic and the tasting prices are nothing compared to Napa. To prepare yourself for an enjoyable and educational winery experience, please, refer to my introductory post about basics of wine tasting.
This time we decided to stop at Sculpterra winery which is famous not just for its tasty wines (tasting flight of standard 8 wines + a bonus desert one cost us only $10 pp!) but a unique sculpture garden on site which includes about 20 sculptures indoors and outdoors..
To top it all, the winery also has an outdoor games area perfect for kids called “Central Park West”, which includes two stone chess tables, a bocce ball court, a cement Foosball table, and a table tennis table. Could you have asked for anything better? While we were enjoying some vino inside, kids were having a ball outside.
“Sideways” family road trip itinerary: Day 2
We started our exploration of the area early in the morning from the town of Buellton (which was our home base for this vacation) from the now famous Sideways Inn and the Hitching Post restaurant, just to give an anchor to our tour and snap a couple of cool photos.
Then we moved to a nearby Ostrichland USA. It is an ostrich and emu farm featured in the movie. Here you can feed the birds (favorite with the kids) or just watch them run, graze and interact with each other as in a small zoo. This place also has a fun collection of ostrich eggs signed by various celebrities who visited the farm – for me, personally, nobody beats Ray Romano’s sense of humor 😉
After Ostrichland we proceeded to Solvang – a picturesque Danish village along route 246, which was also featured in the “Sideways” movie. It is a lovely place with postcard-perfect houses that give you 100% impression that you are indeed in Denmark. Solvang is a Mecca for Danish bakeries lovers (us included) so we decided to have a lunch here. But since we arrived early in the morning (an Ostrichland visit will only take you 30-45 minutes), we decided to spend some time in town and visit a couple of attractions before we are hungry for Danish delicacies.
Our first stop in Solvang was at an Old Mission Santa Ines. It is a small but beautiful mission, a must stop if you have a 4th grader attending a U.S. school as they are studying missions this year at school. We visited a couple of exhibit rooms, the church and a charming garden.
After the Mission we still had about an hour before lunch so we took the kids to the Sunny Fields park in Solvang (off Alamo Pintado Road) to run out their energy. The park has a huge wooden playground, Denmark themed, naturally, with gingerbread houses, a windmill and a viking ship in addition to everything else you would expect on great playground that could entertain any kid for hours. I am sure my kids could have easily spent here half a day.
Finally, it was lunch time and we headed back to Solvang’s main street. The hardest part about lunch here is to choose a restaurant – there are dozens of them trying to lure you with hearty Danish sausage and pancakes or endless displays of elaborate desserts. We ended up at Paula’s Pancake House and couldn’t be happier.
After lunch we picked up Jack and Miles’ trail and drove to the town of Los Olivos for some good wine tasting. On the way there we noticed a neat attraction which the movie characters overlooked because they were not so much into baby animals but any family with kids will absolutely love – Quicksilver Miniature Pony Ranch (address: 1555 Alamo Pintado Rd, Solvang, CA 93463, they do not have a working website). It is a working ranch, they do not do tours but the entrance is FREE and there are many ponies roaming the fields. When you call them some of the animals will come to the fence and you can pet them (just don’t give them any food). The best time to visit the Ranch is during the spring break because that’s when baby ponies are born and they are so cute! We saw one who was just 1 day old, barely standing on his feet.
It was very interesting to observe him and his mom interacting. At this tender age he was a little intimidated by strangers so he kept his distance from us but in the nearby field we got acquainted with 1 month old baby, still cute beyond words and fluffy but this one already did not have any fear of people. He eagerly came to the fence and my kids had all the time they wanted to pet, brush and hug it. Please, note that the ponies are brought inside from the fields at around 3 pm so plan your time accordingly.
Finally, we arrived in Los Olivos. We did not visit the wineries featured in the “Sideways” movie because our goal was to find the ones that are family friendly and we succeeded in doing just that. The first one we stopped by was a Saarloos and Sons tasting room in downtown Los Olivos. What’s great about this place is that you can also try some wine themed cupcakes here (Peach Bellini and Blackberry Chocolate Shiraz were my favorite), so while the adults were tasting wines, kids were preoccupied with dessert.
Next we went to a winery just outside of town called Beckmen Vineyards. What attracted us to this place was a huge outdoor area – an enchanted garden with 2 ponds and a stream where kids can look for fish and frogs and observe multitude of birds.
When we came back to our hotel and looked back at our day we felt like we had a nicely balanced trip with enjoyable moments for adults and exciting activities for kids and the best part – the whole drive was extremely easy which was just about 10 miles one way.
Santa Barbara with kids: Day 3
It was a sunny and warm day with temperature in the high 70s F – perfect for outdoor activities so we headed to Santa Barbara which is only about 45 minutes’ scenic drive from Buellton through the Santa Ynez mountains and then along the Pacific coast. We wanted this day to be a day of relaxation so we had only 2 stops planned.
First, we went to Santa Barbara Zoo. It is one of the best middle-sized zoos that I have ever visited. The first thing you notice when you enter is a cacophony of birds chirping and singing. The zoo claims to have 120 birds of their own, add to this all the visiting free-flying birds and a lot of trees grown for shade and you get a feeling right away that you are in a tropical rain forest.
The animal population in Santa Barbara Zoo is quite impressive as well including a lot of big animals: giraffes, gorillas, elephants, a lion and a snow leopard.
In the middle of the Zoo there is a neat shaded playground which kids will definitely appreciate. There is also a train that runs around the Zoo once every half hour but you have to pay for it separately. Frankly, the Zoo is definitely at the top of my list of things to do in Santa Barbara with kids.
We spent about 3 hour at the Santa Barbara Zoo including a picnic and then proceeded to one of Santa Barbara beaches which is conveniently located just a couple of blocks away where we spent the second half of the day. Santa Barbara is famous for its beaches and on a weekday you can have them all to yourself (I believe local spring break ended a week before we arrived so it was peaceful and quiet). Even though the water here is too cold to swim in April (and most of the year anyway) kids always have fun at the beach with sand castle building, searching for wildlife and playing beach games.
Santa Barbara with kids: Day 4
We did not plan to see all kids attractions in Santa Barbara on this trip as they are many but we decided to devote at least 2 days to it so on the second day we returned into town to visit 2 great museums.
The first one we stopped at is MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration and Innovation conveniently located right in the center of Santa Barbara. All exhibits at MOXI are interactive and you are expected to try things out, create, make and test. To be honest, adults have as much fun here as do kids. Our two most favorite exhibits were the sound recording studio and the Institute of Cardboard Engineering.
In the sound studio (there are 3 of them to be exact) you are invited to record a sound track for 1 minute clip from a famous Hollywood movie (each studio gives you 4 clips to choose from so all in all you have 12 options). The sound making equipment is provided in the room and it is typically of an unusual kind: metal pipes, wooden clogs, rubber balls; in our studio we even had a bag of dry beans. First, you watch the clip with an original sound track and then you have to create your own. For us it was a true team effort where each person was responsible for a part of the recording and we had so much fun doing it!
The Institute of Cardboard Engineering at MOXI provides you materials for a different type of challenge – you have to create something unusual within the object category you are given. This time the challenge was “a shelf”. As benign as it sounds one needs a lot of imagination to come up with a unique shelf. After over an hour of hard work my older son created a shelf in a shape of a tortoise, my younger son (with a help of his dad) created a shelf within a cardboard doll house (they made a house from scratch) and yours truly designed a “masterpiece” in a shape of a Christmas tree. And though our creations were not as elaborate as the ones created by the technical staff at MOXI (see the T-Rex image below) it was just our first lesson and we fully intend to continue to improve our inventions. This was one of the very few occasions when all members of our family were so involved with their work that we all forgot about lunch.
Luckily, there is a great lunch spot right across the street from the museum called Enterprise Fish Co (225 State St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101). They serve absolutely delicious, reasonably priced seafood in a nautically themed room with several aquariums with living fish and lobsters.
After lunch we proceeded to explore 2nd and 3d floor at MOXI (building race cars and testing them out on a race track was an absolute hit) and once we were done we headed to our second cool kids attraction in Santa Barbara- the Sea Center of Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History located just about 0.5 miles from MOXI on the Sterns Wharf.
We were surprised to find out that a lot of exhibits here are hands-on as well. We could touch sharks in a shark tank, touch sea stars, urchins and cucumbers in a tide pool but the coolest area was a “wet lab” where kids could perform tasks typically performed in a working marine laboratory. The “wet lab” had a big opening in the floor right over the Pacific ocean so kids could take and analyze water and sand samples as well as pull the nets to see what sea creatures stopped by for a visit.
Out of regular aquarium exhibits at the Sea Center of Santa Barbara my favorite one was dedicated to decorator crabs. These creatures love to use crafts supplies to decorate themselves for camouflage. You just need to drop some yarn into their tank and voila:
Day 5: Buellton and Lompoc attractions
On previous days we already explored the areas North, East and South of Buellton so the only thing left was to go West. We started the day with Buellton itself. It has a beautiful park called River View Park. It has several attractions:
1. a small but interesting botanic garden (entrance is FREE), which is dedicated to local plants and Chumash Indians who live in this area;
2. two excellent playgrounds;
3. trails for walking or riding a bike or a scooter and
4. the most beautiful picnic area – but this beauty can only be observed late March – early April when wisteria is in bloom (see below).
From Buellton we proceeded to Lompoc where La Purisima Mission State Historic Park was our prime destination. We have seen several missions on our trips already but this one stood out as unique. The missions that we visited previously were located in town and were quite small compared to this one. They would typically have a church, a museum and a small garden (similar to the Mission Santa Ynez describe above). La Purisima on the other hand is located outside of town. It has a huge territory with about 12 fully furnished buildings that represent the life at the mission over 150 years ago, gardens, a farm with animals, hiking trails and a visitors’ center.
We spent 2 hours exploring the mission and that was without hiking. We learnt so much about the missionaries as well as Chumash Indians tribe. For instance, we learnt that Indians were keen on bathing and below is a photo of the pool where they took their baths. The Europeans on the other hand, did not bathe at all.
For lunch we went to the town center of Lompoc where I was keen to try the food at a new establishment called Scratch Kitchen. It fully embraces “farm to table” “source locally”, “make everything from scratch” concepts (I guess, hence the name) and serves absolutely delicious New American/New Californian food and local wines.
On this last day day in Buellton we decided to spend the afternoon at our hotel and I will tell you why. We stayed at a newly constructed Hampton Inn and Suites
, which reminded me more of a resort than just a hotel but with unbelievably low lodging prices. The whole backside of the hotel faces a wilderness area (no cars, roads or buildings – just hills and trees full of birds) and along the entire length of the building runs a “resort” area with a pool, a hot tub, a bocce ball court, a fountain and a cozy area with fire pits surrounded by comfy arm chairs. During the 5 days that we spent here my kids became pros at bocce ball game. We absolutely loved our stay at the Inn and we are sure to come back.
“Sideways” family road trip itinerary: Day 6
On this final day of our trip we were driving back home. The day we return from vacation is usually the saddest day so I try to make it as fun and memorable as possible so that it does not consist of just driving for hours. We decided to stop at Paso Robles again so in a way we completed a circle. This time we decided to visit another family friendly winery – J Dusi. And boy, we had a blast here as well! My husband and I enjoyed $10 tasting (7 wines on the list + 1 offered at random) while the kids roamed around a huge outside area where there were swings, small tractors and cars to climb on, games and even a table with wooden blocks for building. At the end we were also offered a FREE tasting of their signature deserts, including Chocolate Sausage (highly recommended).
After the winery we decided to have lunch in town and do a tasting of a different kind. This area of California is also famous for its olives. We Olive store sells different products made from olives and many other delicasies. You can taste a lot of their products for FREE at the store. We tasted olive oils, pestos, balsamic vinegars, jams and sauces – yum-my!
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and brought home several bottles of great wine for our collection and tons of wonderful memories. If you found “Sideways” road trip itinerary useful and liked our advice on thins to do in Santa Barbara with kids, please do me a little favor and share this trip with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their travel plans. 🙂 Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram where I post many more cool photos and videos about our trips than I could include in a blog post and organize some nice giveaways!
Additional tips:
- If you travel to Santa Barbara and Buellton in spring, days may be warm but evenings rather cold, so pack accordingly also with proximity to the ocean it can be windy.
- Buellton is the best home base for this trip as it gives you easy access to attractions in all directions: North, South, East and West.
- Bring a good binocular with you for wildlife watching at the beach and bird watching – there are so many of them in this area.
- For a great wine tasting card to take with you for tasting (wineries don’t usually provide any), please, visit my SHOP page. I have designed this handy card so that it is easy to use for both experienced wine lovers and beginners alike. You will receive a PDF file which you may re-use as many times as you like.
- If you love itineraries that include fun for kids and adults with great wine tasting options, then check these out as well:
Kid Friendly Wineries in Sonoma – Sonoma County one day family road trip itinerary
Napa Valley 1 day trip itinerary in the footsteps of the movie “Bottle Shock”
Santa Cruz Mountains wine region 1 day family road trip itinerary
Kid Friendly Wineries in Paso Robles
