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Daily wine tasting excursions depart from most area hotels, and you can pick from several different approaches. The Grapeline Wine Country Shuttle, (888) 8-WINERY, offers a flexible day aboard shuttles. Stagecoach Wine Tours offers wine tasting tours in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County. Cloud Climbers Jeep Tours offer a wine tour in open air jeeps. Sustainable Vine, +1 805 698-3911, focuses on the producers employing sustainable practices,Golden Rooster Transportation & Wine Tours offers wine tours in limousines and party bus vehicles. Golden Limo Santa Barbara offer limousines and conduct wine and other tours. Destination Drivers offers wine tour planning and referrals to local drivers.
Built in 1929 and the grandest building in the town. A working courthouse, this Spanish-Moorish castle has frescoes, murals and Tunisian tilework. The El Mirador Bell Tower provides great views of the city and the bay. The grounds contain a collection of palms and specimen trees from more than 25 countries, and a printed guide to the plants is available.
Known as "The Queen of the Missions," Santa Barbara's "Old Mission" is a superb example of California's Franciscan Spanish architecture. The tenth California Mission to be constructed, it was consecrated in 1786 as the first of Father Lasuen's nine missions. Today, Mission Santa Barbara is both a scenic wonder and a fine anthropological study of original native culture in the surrounding area. Santa Barbara is the only California mission with twin bell towers, owing to its status as a cathedral in the early days of California statehood. It also has had a longer continuous association with the Franciscans than any other mission, and a longer continuous history of choral music than any other mission. The headquarters of the mission system in the 1830s and 40s, it is where many of the archives of the California missions are held. Note the adjacent pottery kiln and tanning vat ruins. The mission also features a small but well-regarded rose garden. The mission continues to be used as an active church, with regular masses on Wednesdays, Sundays, and holy days. Admission to Masses is free, but a small donation is customary.
This large, well-presented museum is - literally - a hidden treasure. Highlights in the eleven exhibit halls include regional natural history, a life-size Blue Whale skeleton, and a rare skeleton of a pony-sized "pygmy mammoth."
A remarkably well-provisioned museum considering the size of the town, Santa Barbara's main art museum features a strong collection of Roman antiquities, as well as an impressive lineup of classical European and modern art. Frequently rotated exhibitions are among the strongest in California.
El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park
A military fortress founded in 1782, only parts of which remain. Some parts are gradually being rebuilt.