Day trips & drives
Ojai, the wine country, the Central Coast, Big Sur and beyond — an honest drive time and the stops in the order you'd take them.
45 min over CA-150
Ojai in a day
The closest escape — a book town in a bowl of mountains, best ended at sunset.
55–65 min — loop out via 101, home over the 154
Santa Ynez wine country
A full day of tasting rooms and one-block food towns, closed out at a stagecoach tavern.
30 min south on the 101
Ventura & the Channel Islands
An un-precious beach town and the ferry to a national park most locals never visit.
2–2.5 hr up the 101
Hearst Castle & the Cambria coast
A hilltop palace, a wild elephant-seal beach, and moonstone-strewn bluffs.
1.5–2 hr — the easiest full day, no overnight needed
San Luis Obispo & Paso Robles
A hikeable morro, a gloriously weird downtown, and walkable wine with no designated driver.
~4 hr one-way — an overnight, not a day trip
Big Sur
The great California drive, open end-to-end for the first time in three years.
1.5 hr down the 101 — or car-free on the Surfliner
A day in LA
What a Montecito resident actually drives down for — and how to skip the driving entirely.