Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens

Visiting botanic gardens is one of my favorite things to do on vacation. I love being in nature - in a *controlled* way. Plus Jason and I love to take walks together, so doing that in a gorgeous place is an added bonus! We saw gorgeous pictures of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden when we were looking up things to do on our trip, so we had to go!

First things first - it’s pretty easy to get to the gardens. We entered the address on apple maps and it took us right there. There is a small parking lot at no added cost to your ticket. Tickets are $20 for adults, but if you have a botanic garden membership at participating gardens, you can get in for free (check with your membership). You do need to make a reservation before you visit, just FYI!

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has 11 whole sections! We didn’t have too much time to spend, so we picked just a few. Our first stop was the meadow. Pictures of the meadow filled with poppies with a background of mountains was what got me interested in coming to the garden in the first place. Seeing California poppies has been on my bucket list for quite some years, so I was extremely excited!

Jason loves redwood trees, so we circled the meadow and hiked (I say “hiked” lightly), down to see them. Jason really appreciates being outdoors near trees because of all the oxygen. That might sound like a joke, but we live in the concrete jungle of Chicago, so we really do appreciate fresh air!

Read my blog about what to do in Santa Barbara to find out where to stay, what to do, and where to eat!

We kept “hiking” after the redwoods into the canyon and back country. This was not my favorite part, as it started to feel like real wilderness. Mind you, I have a fashion blog and love living in the city. I don’t have much experience in nature (other than summers spent pollinating corn), so I’m a little bit of a baby when it comes to being in the wild. However, it was still pretty, so there’s that!