The Best Hotels in Santa Barbara

Spanish Colonial Revival bones dressed up with Moorish tilework and Moroccan touches give this Forbes Four Star hotel a look that's hard to place geographically, which seems to be the point. Three buildings arranged like a small village sit a short walk from East and West Beach, with two restaurants, a rooftop pool, and enough fountains and red-tiled rooflines to make Santa Barbara feel like a foreign country, which Santa Barbara sort of already does.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Spanish Colonial Revival bones on the outside, near-monastic calm on the inside. This boutique hotel on State Street sits within walking distance of the beach, and its interiors lean hard into warm organic textures and clean lines while the building around them quietly dates itself. Two in-house bars, Dawn and Dusk, handle coffee and oysters respectively, which covers most of the hours you'd actually need covering.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The rooftop pool sits above a city that takes its Spanish Colonial architecture very seriously, which is partly why it's funny that this boutique hotel is named for the Canary Islands rather than any particular shade of yellow. It's a genuine escape in a town that, for all its mountains, coastline, and proximity to Central Coast wine country, took a while to get a place like this. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award