Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is dominated by the Belmond El Encanto, the Four Seasons Biltmore, and the Rosewood Miramar — all chain-owned and excluded. The independents: San Ysidro Ranch (where JFK and Jackie honeymooned), the Inn of the Spanish Garden, the Simpson House Inn (a Queen Anne B&B), the Hotel Californian on the waterfront. Coastal Spanish-revival inns only.

What this looks like

Santa Barbara sits on a south-facing stretch of California coast, the Pacific to the south and the Santa Ynez Mountains rising directly behind town. State Street is the spine — six blocks from the beach to the courthouse, lined with red-tile-roofed Spanish-Colonial revival buildings rebuilt in mandated style after the 1925 earthquake. The Funk Zone south of the 101 holds the wine bars and the Hotel Californian. The Riviera neighborhood climbs the foothills east of downtown — where El Encanto sits (excluded) and the Simpson House lives. Montecito is the wealthier cousin five miles east, with San Ysidro Ranch up Cold Spring Creek. Architecture is overwhelmingly Spanish Colonial Revival — adobe, courtyards, fountains, tiled stairs.

The standouts

• San Ysidro Ranch — where JFK and Jackie honeymooned, thirty-eight cottage suites on 500 Montecito acres.
• Hotel Californian — a Moorish-Spanish design hotel by Martyn Lawrence Bullard on the Funk Zone waterfront.
• Inn of the Spanish Garden — twenty-three Spanish-Mediterranean rooms around a courtyard fountain, downtown.
• Simpson House Inn — an 1874 Eastlake Victorian on an acre of English gardens, the only AAA Five-Diamond B&B in North America.
• Cheshire Cat Inn — two 1894 Queen Anne Victorians joined by gardens, twenty-one Alice-in-Wonderland-themed rooms.

When to come / who it's for

Santa Barbara's micro-climate runs sixty to seventy-five nearly year-round, with the famous "May Gray" and "June Gloom" coastal fog that clears by midday. Late summer through fall (mid-August through October) is the peak window — warmest water, clearest skies, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in late January-early February as the off-peak counterweight. Spring (March through early May) is wildflowers and whale-migration. Winter is mild and the rain comes in spurts; Montecito mudslide risk is real after heavy storms. The region rewards three to four nights — one for State Street and the courthouse tower, one for the Funk Zone and the Urban Wine Trail, one for a Santa Ynez Valley winery day, one for a Channel Islands National Park boat trip out of Ventura. Couples and friends; families do well at Hotel Californian and the Riviera-area inns.

Nearby / what else

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse — the 1929 Spanish-Moorish-Colonial building with the El Mirador clocktower for the city's best view. Mission Santa Barbara (the "Queen of the Missions"). Stearns Wharf and the working harbor. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in Mission Canyon. Lotusland in Montecito (reservations only). The Channel Islands by Island Packers boat from Ventura. For wine: the Santa Ynez Valley (Los Olivos, Solvang, Lompoc), forty-five minutes inland — the Sideways corridor. For dinner: Bell's in Los Alamos (Michelin-starred), The Lark in the Funk Zone, La Super-Rica Taqueria (Julia Child's old favorite), Cold Spring Tavern up the pass.