Solvang Danish Village & Santa Ynez Wine Country

Founded in 1911 by Danish educators seeking a community in which to preserve Scandinavian culture, Solvang grew into a town of 6,000 that has maintained its Friesian and Danish architectural character across four generations. The Hans Christian Andersen Museum occupies a 1926 building on Mission Drive with original Andersen manuscripts, first editions, and the paper-cut artwork Andersen created compulsively throughout his life. The windmills are functional reproductions; the æbleskiver pancake balls at Red Viking Restaurant are the town's best morning food.

Operating since 1986 on Copenhagen Drive, Paula's serves Danish-American pancakes — Danish æbleskiver balls, paper-thin crepes, and American short stacks — in a compact dining room that fills by 9am on weekends. The æbleskiver with house-made lingonberry jam is the dish that defines the Solvang morning. Cash only; the line moves fast.

A Santa Ynez Valley pioneer founded in 1975, producing Sauvignon Blanc and Bordeaux blends that helped define the valley's identity as something distinct from Napa. The estate Sauvignon Blanc — labeled 'Cuvée Nicolas' in the top vintage — is consistently one of California's most interesting whites: herbaceous, mineral, and complex in a way that owes nothing to the Loire Valley or New Zealand.

A converted hardware store on Grand Avenue in Los Olivos that has been serving California comfort food since 2004 — the wood-fired rotisserie chicken, the house-made pasta, and the seasonal vegetable sides from local farms are the anchors. The wine list focuses entirely on Santa Ynez Valley producers.

The 'Queen of the Missions,' the only California mission continuously occupied by Franciscan friars since its founding (1786). The 1820 church facade is the only California mission built in the Roman temple style (copied from Vitruvius's pattern book preserved in the mission library since 1786); the intact 18th-century baptismal records and the rose garden date from the mission's original garden plan.

The museum of the 1782 Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara (the last and finest of California's four Spanish presidios), housing the original Spanish garrison chapel, the Chumash artifacts collection, and the photographic archive documenting the 1925 earthquake that rebuilt downtown Santa Barbara in Spanish Colonial Revival style.

A 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival building that is the most beautiful courthouse in the United States — the sunken gardens, the Mural Room with a 60-foot painted panorama of California history, and the clock tower with 360-degree views of the red-tiled roofs and the Santa Ynez Mountains behind. Admission is free; the tower is open during court hours.

Located at 136 E. De la Guerra St in the heart of the Spanish colonial district, the Santa Barbara Historical Museum holds collections spanning Chumash prehistory, the Spanish colonial and Mexican rancho eras, and early American statehood — one of the most complete records of cultural continuity on the California coast. Free admission; the adobe courtyard and the rotating exhibitions on Chumash material culture are the highlights.

A 14-block former industrial district below State Street that transformed in the 2010s into Southern California's most vibrant urban wine and food scene — over 20 wine tasting rooms, a sake brewery, a bourbon distillery, and some of the city's best restaurants in renovated warehouses. The area fills on weekends; Scout bar at the eastern end is the neighborhood's best cocktail spot.

Founded in 1916, the museum houses the largest collection of Chumash artifacts in existence — 3 million objects documenting the people who occupied the Santa Barbara Channel region for 13,000 years. The Chumash tomol (plank canoe) on display is a working vessel; the museum's Chumash team completed a channel crossing in a tomol in 2001.