Just completed a three night stay here after Christmas. Rates were high and I redeemed points for the stay. I previously visited the hotel in 2015 and found Santa Barbara stunning so wanted to return. A few notes:
- What I recall from my last stay as the main building of the hotel is completely closed for renovation right now (that is, the eastern-most building). Most of the hotel's facilities (e.g. pool, restaurants, etc.) are also closed.
- A temporary lobby is setup in the western-most building. I don't think the lobby has any heat and it was really really cold at most times, I felt awful for the reception staff - who were standing around in winter clothes, scarfs, and hats. If I had to guess it was probably 45-50 degrees in the "lobby" once the sun went down. It was somewhat warmer during the day. The temporary lobby doesn't have any facilities to speak of but there is coffee available in the morning.
- Breakfast is being served in a conference room that, as far as I could tell, also did not have heat. They had one space heater which was completely laughable given the size of the room. My wife ate breakfast each morning fully bundled up in her winter coat, I think my son even kept his winter hat on during breakfast (we were lucky to have traveled here from the northeast so had all of our winter gear with us).
- As far as food - the first day we had the huevos rancheros which I thought were really good. Subsequent days I had the eggs benedict and the avocado toast with poached eggs, both of which were alright. The eggs had been poached really really hard, I'm not sure what type of kitchen setup they have so they may have been pre-poached elsewhere. Given the current situation I wouldn't expect a great breakfast. I remember the breakfast from my last stay being much better, although that was five years ago.
- We were upgraded to a "deluxe" King Room which had a small balcony and overlooked the parking lot. You may be noticing a theme by now, but the room itself also did not have proper heat. The wall-mounted air conditioner could be set to "heat" but I only found that useful if you stood directly in front of it. The hotel had provided a rollaway for our son but he was so cold overnight he had to sleep in between us in bed, which was alright but does illustrate how cold it was. With that said, I am a little more warm-blooded and I slept great in the cold
- With the parking lot view that we had, you can clearly hear the train when it blows its horn. The first night this woke me up twice, however I never heard it after that. I may have been cold enough that I entered into a hibernation.
On the positive side:
- The hotel is hosting a free yoga class on Saturday mornings on the lawn in front of the hotel, which my wife enjoyed
- It's wonderful to be able to walk right across the street to the beach and my son had a blast playing on it
- I loved the walk from the hotel into "town" along the water, but it could get old depending on how much you like to walk. We took Amtrak into and out of SBA and that worked well, it's probably a 25 minute walk to the train station and downtown
Things to do:
- One day we went to Carpinteria, just a few miles east of Santa Barbara. We both LOVED it there and agreed if we win the lottery, that is where we will move. I highly recommend a visit
- My wife and I aren't wine drinkers but we love beer, and especially enjoyed Third Window Brewing and Institution Ale Company, and in Carpinteria Island Brewing Company
- I walked up to Habit Burger the night we arrived for a snack and really enjoyed the burger, then it seemed everywhere I went in Santa Barbara people were talking about Habit Burger. It's along similar lines as In-N-Out with a more extensive menu, I recommend it for a casual meal.
- Regarding the Zoo, we took our son there and it's certainly pretty, he also enjoyed the Zoo Train. It feels more like a botanic garden that has some zoo elements. I found the California Condor to be one of the more interesting animals on display, I had no idea their wingspan was so massive. In general it doesn't compare to something like the National Zoo but it is a pretty spot to walk around for awhile.
In summary - I don't think I can recommend this hotel until the renovation is complete, or until the weather warms up. If I had've had my parents or in-laws with me I would have had to have left, they would have been freezing cold. As it was it took a whole lot of coaxing to get my son out of (our) bed in the morning. From here we went to the JW Marriott in LA and it was night and day in terms of quality.