Day 25: Santa Barbara to Santa Monica

An early check-out meant that we left Santa Barbara by just after 10am this morning.   It is such a beautiful place and is probably my favourite of everywhere we have visited on this trip. To think we only came here because Yosemite was closed, we certainly got lucky with our choice of alternative venues! Santa Barbara is impeccably clean, laid back and just a really classy place with amazing beaches and spectacular views. I’d be back like a shot!

The route to Santa Monica was quite straightforward on Route 101 and only a couple of hours drive so we stopped off on-route in Camarillo, at a Premium Outlet shopping centre. It had Adidas, Nike, North Face and many other factory stores with great discounts! After a good look around, we eventually got back in the car and continued to Santa Monica.

The last 20 miles were back on the Pacific Coast Highway, Route 1, which was a lovely way to finish our road trip and we arrived in Santa Monica via Malibu with some amazing views over the Pacific. We now only have the short drive to the airport to contend with on Monday morning!

We checked into our hotel and had a quick swim in the lovely pool before walking to Santa Monica Pier. We deliberately went past the Wyndham Santa Monica at the Pier. This hotel was previously the Holiday Inn; Becky and her family stayed here 40 years ago for 3 weeks whilst her Dad was studying at the University of Southern California, so it was lovely for her to see it and reminisce.

We walked down Santa Monica Pier, which was absolutely packed and total chaos, the complete opposite of the calm serenity we had in Santa Barbara, but not in a bad way. The atmosphere was just fantastic and there was so much to see. We perused the various stalls before heading back to our hotel via McDonalds much to the girls delight!