A Weekend Guide to Visiting Carpinteria & Santa Barbara

Last summer, I had the pleasure of visiting Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. Since my trip, I’ve often been asked for the best places to eat, drink, and explore, so here’s my weekend guide to these two really cool towns. Major shoutout to my roommate for showing me around one of her second homes. She made the best tour guide. Here’s our Weekend Guide to Visiting Carpinteria & Santa Barbara:

We stayed in Carpinteria, a small seaside town south of Santa Barbara. Note that many of my recommendations focus more on this town than Santa Barbara proper. While our weekend primarily included eating at all the hot spots around town (like any good trip does), I’ll try to sprinkle in nearby activities if you’re in the area.

We drove up from San Diego early in the morning and headed straight to Rincon Brewery (@rinconbreweryinc) for an early lunch of sandwiches and the best sweet potato fries of my life. This spot is right in town, so you can walk around after a bite. We needed a caffeine break after lunch, so we went straight to Lucky Llama (@luckyllamacoffee) for delicious lattes. Later in the weekend, we returned two more times for açaí bowls and even spotted Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis here. Word on the street is they have a house nearby.

In the afternoon, we shopped and visited Murphy’s Vinyl Shack (@murphysvinylshack) before grabbing a beer at Island Brewing Company (@islandbrewingcompany). After a little exploring in town, the sun started to set, so we headed to dinner at Teddy’s (@teddysbythesea).

We scored a lovely spot at the bar top on the front patio. The marg flight was delicious, but I questioned the amount of tequila in each one. Either my tolerance was up, or the tequila in these ones was low. The chicken sandwich was delicious, so highly recommend this order or the fish tacos.

On day 2, we took a long walk along the trails with views of the ocean and then headed to Lucky Llama for Acai bowls. Then, we spent a few hours at the beach working on our tans before heading North to Santa Barbara for Fiesta!

Santa Barbara is about 20-30 minutes from Carpinteria, so we took an Uber because of parking and planned to drink. I’m unsure if public transportation is an option here, but I did see the train tracks, so it might be something to look into. Regarding Fiesta, I had never experienced a street fair like this. Expect a big crowd and lots of confetti! People will throw eggs at you, so I did my best to save my hair and dodge these confetti eggs. This is a really fun (and busy) weekend to visit.

The lines for all the restaurants were very long, but we stopped at Sandbar (@sandbarsb) for delicious spicy margs and dinner. Next, we headed to Joe’s (@joescafesb) for the strongest drinks in town. I’m not kidding when I say one drink will have feeling some type of way. I'd stop here for lunch and drinks if you’re exploring Santa Barbara on a normal weekend. Otherwise, this place makes an unreal pregame or night-out stop. Drink at your own risk.

Finally, we went to the Funk Zone to explore the nightlife. We accidentally ended up at Studio Sound Room (@studiosoundroom), which provided immaculate late-night vibes and music. I would stop by this place and explore the nearby bars, breweries, and cocktail lounges.

And of course, if you’re not sick of it yet, we hit Lucky Llama again on the way home for one last delicious acai bowl and coffee.