Carpinteria, California
Carpinteria, California TRAVEL GUIDE
Welcome to my Bite Sized Travel Guides series. What exactly is a Bite Sized Travel Guide, you ask? Well, it’s essentially a short and sweet travel guide, a summarized version of where to eat, where to stay, what to do and quick tips, my favorite “bites” of a destination, if you will. Because sometimes I haven’t spent enough time in a location, or don’t know it well enough, or don’t have enough professional photos from somewhere, to qualify for a full blown travel guide, but I still want to share the spots I do know, love and recommend, as well as ones I have bookmarked for future visits, in a simple, minimal and easy to digest format with small tips and tidbits as well as any relevant and correlating blog posts and links. The Bite Sized Travel Guides are perfect for someone just looking for quick recommendations, and not wanting to scroll through a whole guide and paragraph after paragraph just to find a spot for dinner. The Bite Sized Travel Guides will also be added to and refreshed anytime I re-visit the featured location and have something new to add. I hope you’ll find these bite-sized bites of a destination just as tasty as I do!
If you haven’t yet heard of Carpinteria, well let me be the first to introduce you and tell you that you’re in for a real treat because it is just one of the cutest little coastal California towns. And while you may be tempted to skip on over it in favor of it’s more well-known neighbor to the north, Santa Barbara, I’m here with today’s quick travel guide to convince you otherwise.
We actually first stopped into Carpinteria two years ago on a day trip where we were making the rounds through a few of our favorite spots- Ventura, Ojai, Summerland, Montecito and Santa Barbara. As we were driving around I saw the exit sign for Carpinteria, I place that I myself had never heard of at the time. Intrigued to find out more, I did a quick Google search and immediately knew we needed to check it out. So a u-turn and one exit later we found ourselves cruising through Carpinteria, a sweet little town made that much sweeter by the golden glow of the late afternoon summer sun. We made our way to Apiary Beverage Co. where we enjoyed a delicious tasting and it was honestly just one of those perfect summer afternoons that you know you’ll savor forever because it somehow feels so special even though nothing special really happened.
It’s wild to see just how much the town has expanded in the short two years since our very first visit. More places to eat and drink, more local breweries, more boutiques to shop in. But despite all that, the quaint, small town charm and friendly, welcoming locals still remains. And so does my instance that you make Carpinteria a stop instead of a skip next time you find yourself driving up the coastline.
WHERE TO EAT + DRINK
LUCKY LLAMA
Coffee is lovely (they use Dune Coffee Beans, which are great), but the real star is their acai bowls! They’re huge, delicious and incredibly inexpensive (as far as acai bowl prices go).
APIARY BEVERAGE CO.
Cozy little taproom serving up their meads, ciders and kombucha brewed from local honey, apples, florals and whatever else might be in season; get a flight so you can taste several things and if you get hungry place an order for empanadas from Che Empanadas next door
CARP KITCHEN
Think of this as an upscale bodega of sorts. You can pick-up prepared meals, snacks, treats, baked goods, baguettes, provisions or order from their menu of things like sandwiches, salads and soups. Pro tip- order a sandwich to-go and then head to the beach for a little picnic.
SUNBURST WINE BAR
Fun wine bar with a mix of natural wines, canned bevs and wine and beer and beer on tap; lots of local selections; live music on the weekends and sometimes even food pop-ups
LITTLE DOM’S SEAFOOD
Perfect for brunch, afternoon oysters or post-beach dinner and drinks; they have happy hour during the week and a different main course special every evening, plus they do things like summer bbs
RORI’S
An outpost of the SoCal based artisanal ice-cream brand; go for a post-beach scoop (or two)
ON MY LIST TO TRY // Rooster Coffee Cart (cute little coffee cart serving up bevs in the equally cute 500 Maplesurf shop), Brass Bird Coffee (for coffee and their food looks yummy, too), The Good Plow (all organic food, lunch and dinner look amazing as do their pizzas and they even have an ice-cream window serving up soft serve), Mollie’s Italian Market (from the chef behind Oprah’s favorite Montecito restaurant), The Spot (old school local beach shack serving up breakfast burritos, burgers, ice-cream and more), Island Brewing Company, Siam Elephant Thai, Padaro Beach Grill, Che Empanadas (yummy empanadas available on the weekends; they do sell out so order early), Chocolats du CaliBressan (artisanal handcrafted chocolates)
what to do
DOWNTOWN
Stroll around the cute downtown area via the main street, Linden Avenue; including a few of the shops and not-to-miss stops here, too
THE FARM CART
Located right in downtown, pop by to pick up fresh local organic produce and/or some fruit and veggies to snack on at the beach
LOCAL BEACHES
You have a few accessible options right in town, between Carpinteria City Beach and State Beach, and you also have Santa Claus Beach to the north and Rincon Beach to the south
SHOPPING
A few spots to check out-Heritage Goods and Supply (they have a lovely curation of goods for kids, women and men as well as homewares, ceramics and provisions) 500 Maple Surf Shop, Robitaille's Candies (old school family-owned candy shop), Murphy’s Vinyl Shack (for records), Coastland Carp (a little shop with a collection of products handmade by local highschool students)
THE USED BOOKSTORE
Fun for browsing used books, just be sure to have cash if you want to purchase anything as they don’t take cards
THRIFTING
Homestead Antiques & Trading has some great gems (I scored the coffee table of my dreams here), Angels Antiques is definitely a bit more of a treasure hunt so don’t go with any specific expectations and definitely allow your self some time because there is a lot to sort through here
ON MY LIST TO DO // The Carpinteria Bluffs Trail to check out the seal sanctuary and a tour of the Canzelle Alpacas farm
