Hummer Tours of Santa Barbara and Wine Country

When you come to Santa Barbara, don't deprive yourself of that great California weather! Come aboard the finest fleet of OPEN air vehicles in the Central Coast.

Santa Barbara Backroads offers daily wine tasting tours.  They are like 2 tours in one. You will pass the historical areas of Santa Barbara including State Street, the famous courthouse and the Mission. Your guides are local experts and will follow the old stagecoach road to the San Ynez Valley and the danish community of Solvang to taste the finest wines. Join us on the backroads and see what you've been missing! 

All Tours provide:

• Daily Departures
• Open Air H-1 Hummers
• Tasting fees included at four vineyards including where the filmed the hit movie, "Sideways".
• Expert guides and wine stewards
• A gourmet picnic lunch is included - 19 gourmet sandwiches served at a winery or vineyard.
• Taste 30 different wines
• Open air experience, better then a bus or limo

For more information, call them at (877) WE-HUMMER!!! or www.santabarbarabackroads.com 


Contact Wish Upon A Star Travel for pricing on a hotel or for more information.  You can reach them at (805) 964-3601 or e-mail. 

Wine Tours

Sideways put Santa Barbara's pinot noir in the spotlight, but let's not forget the award-winning chardonnays and great cabernet. Wine country is only 30 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, with 80-plus wineries to choose from—unless you have a willing designated driver, take a tour.

Cloud Climbers' Back-Country Wine Tour has a terrific young staff and six-passenger open Jeep Wranglers that make vineyard-hopping fun and easy (805-646-3200; www.ccjeeps.com).

For the vine huggers out there, Sustainable Vine Wine Tours offers guided tours of organic and biodynamic wineries in a soybean-powered van (805-698-3911; www.sustainablevine.com).

Then there's Wine EdVentures, an educational safari of the Santa Ynez Valley in a plush van (805-965-9463; www.welovewines.com).

All pick you up in Santa Barbara and offer private tastings of six to eight vinos at a minimum of four different wineries each day, plus a gourmet picnic lunch. Don't have an entire day to devote to wine? You can always explore Santa Barbara's Urban Wine Trail on foot.

The self-guided tour leads you through eight wineries and tasting rooms conveniently located downtown. Key stops include Cellar 205 Winery & Marketplace, Santa Barbara Winery, Jaffurs Wine Cellars, and East Beach Wine Company. There's even a tasting room on Stearns Wharf.

Most wineries offer wine purchase drop-offs at local hotels as well as maps to guide you through your grape adventures.

Solvang

Solvang, means "Sunny Field", and is located about 45 miles north of Santa Barbara on highway 246 midway between Highway 101 and the San Marcos Pass (hwy 154). The temperature difference between Santa Barbara and Solvang can be quite dramatic. Solvang regularly gets down to freezing during the winter nights and there will be the occasional snow on the mountains east of town. Solvang is a quaint Danish town. When you drive down main street and some of the nearby streets you will see Danish windmills, old-world architecture, gas streetlights, and Scandinavian restaurants and hotels.

At night the town becomes a blaze of light as small lights decorate most of the buildings. There are over 300 small shops in town, most selling small collectibles, furnishings for the home, and antiques.

Solvang was founded in 1911 as a Danish American colony by Danish educators from the Midwest. These people were searching for a site to build a college. The college was eventually built but was demolished in 1970 to make way for a convalescent facility. Solvang has a Danish custom which involves celebrating the raising of the highest rafter on a new building. This celebration called rejsegilde is observed with most new construction in the area. You may notice a large number of artificial storks on the roof tops of many buildings. These storks are here because they are supposed to bring good luck to the occupants of the house.

The Solvang Theaterfest is a repertory theater presenting plays by the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. The theatre contains 780 seats and holds performances from June through September.

The 19th of California's 21 missions is located in Solvang. This mission called Old Mission Santa Ines was finished in 1804 and remains one of the best preserved missions. Mission furnishings, artifacts from the early 19th century, and a colorful landscaped garden are open to the public.

Visit the Visitor's Guide website: www.solvangusa.com Solvang was featured along with Buellton and other parts of the Santa Ynez valley in the popular Oscar Award winning movie called Sideways.