As Labor Day approaches and our trips to the Jersey shore come to an end, my thoughts of next summer begin. It has been a few years since we have spent time during the summer in California and I have always wanted to visit Santa Barbara and the nearby Danish town of Solvang.

From the Santa Barbara visitors website:
Imagine London, Sydney or Buenos Aires – great food, great shopping, great culture. Now shrink it to about 20 square miles. Delete traffic and noisy, crowded streets. Keep the pedestrian-friendly, easy-to-get-around part plus the great architecture. Add wine. Now surround it with beautiful mountains, rolling valleys and miles of beautiful beach. Don’t forget beautiful hotels and outstanding restaurants! Welcome to the American Riviera.

Santa Barbara sounds wonderful, a perfect destination for my husband and I. There are no direct flights from Philadelphia to Santa Barbara. While looking into flights for this trip, I saw one of our options is a stopover in San Francisco. We find it is best for us to take the direct flight home and make a stop on the way to our destination. So we plan to start our trip in Santa Barbara including a visit to Solvang and then fly up to San Fransisco for a couple of days before flying home.

My plan is to use either US Airways or United miles for this trip.  There is a Hyatt hotel in Santa Barbara and many choices in San Fransisco for us to use hotel points for our stay.

Should we take a day trip from Santa Barbara to Solvang or stay one night? Any suggestions regarding how many days we should plan to be in Santa Barbara?