My husband and I are staying a week in Santa Monica (7-14).

A few tips, please?

Favorite restaurants in Santa Monica and West Hollywood area?

We plan to take day trip up to Santa Barbara. Anyone have a restaurant (lunch) suggestion?

Is Pasadena worth the time? We love to look at gardens and architecture and we understand there are Craftsman homes there -- can they be seen by walking or driving around town (or hidden by walls and gates)?

We plan to see the Getty Villa; have tickets for the Jay Leno audience; will do the Paramount tour. My husband has a nephew (an actor) who is going to take us up a secret path to the Hollywood sign.

Any other special tips are appreciated.

Thanks!
Cameron

Have you seen the Bay Area Tendrils Blog? She has great posts on gardens in California. She recently did a series on the Getty Villa and has several other garden places to see in the area. Here's a link the posts she has tagged with Los Angeles.

LA Garden tag on Bay Area Tendrils

Are you going to go to Lotusland in Santa Barbara? It is wonderful garden. We also enjoyed visiting the nurseries in the area. Seaside Gardens Nursery has a great display garden. We did not make it to the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden last trip but it is also worth a visit.

For food, we did not eat out much since we had a rental. We did go for lunch one time at Super Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara. It was good but crowded very popular. We waited in line about 30 minutes.

Cameron,
If you search this forum you'll find a recent thread that Jane started about visiting Santa Monica. It should give you some ideas for restaurants, etc.

Near Pasadena, the Huntington in San Marino has several gorgeous gardens on the extensive property. The art collection includes the famous "Blue Boy" and "Pink Lady," and one of the original Gutenberg Bibles. Definitely worth a visit!

Colleen beat me to the comment on the Huntington Library and Gardens in the Pasadena area (they are actually in San Marino). If your interest is gardens and you are spending a week here, you should come out and visit. You could also do a drive by of Craftsman homes, or plan a visit to The Gamble House, a museum devoted to the Craftsman architects, Greene & Greene. It is not far from the Huntington Library, in west Pasadena.

I will check out the gardens more carefully as I've already opened your links to see what's there. I left a comment on the gardening blog - it's so cool!

I can probably get my husband to go to ONE garden! LOL :-) Unless I can convince him the other gardens involve good hiking with views...

We had been looking at Huntington and thinking we could catch it on a day trip to Pasadena. It sounds like the Craftsman homes are good for a drive as well as visiting the Gamble House.

Yes, I did see the Santa Monica threads for restaurant recs for Valentino, Anisette, Piccolo, etc., but a week is a long time when searching for food -- and we can't do high end everyday.

Good, but casual and affordable recommendations would be appreciated. I am allergic to seafood, unfortunately. :-(

THANKS for the help!

Cameron
PS - we're staying at The Ambrose for the entire time, which looks like it will be great. Eco-friendly, free parking, wi-fi and breakfast.

There's also a fabulous, and unusual, garden designed by Robert Irwin at the new Getty museum (not the Getty villa). It would be my first choice if I could only see one.

I think you'll enjoy the Ambrose. We always stay there when we go to the LA area.

Chris -- good to know on the Ambrose. This is the first time in many years when we've stayed more than 2 nights at a hotel. We usually rent an apartment for a week-long stay.

We got the special discounted rate directly with the hotel (that is non-refundable/no cancellation) and upgraded to a larger room with balcony.

Thanks

quote:

Good, but casual and affordable recommendations would be appreciated.

The area around the Third Street Promenade is good for mid-priced dining options. We had a tasty breakfast one morning at a British pub on one of the side streets between Ocean Avenue and Third Street.

Just found it on the map: "Ye Olde Kings Head Pub" on Santa Monica Blvd.

http://www.thirdstreetpromenad.../visitors/index.html

Hi Cameron, You'll have lots of choices along 3rd street Promenade and neighboring streets. Make sure you walk along Montana Ave. for some nice shopping and some little cafes as well. I've made a small list of restaurants and places for drinks that I like very much in the general area. My sister lives in the area so these are spots locals like and also where we bring guests when we are showing them the town.
I just went to Huntington Gardens this week. It's really lovely and I highly recommend. Also if you are into Craftsman style homes the Greene and Greene Gamble house that was mentioned in Pasadena is a great example of that style architecture. Tour times should be posted on their website. Here are the restaurants I like:
For breakfast in Santa Monica:
Cora’s Coffee Shoppe
1802 Ocean Ave. (between Seaview Terrace and Vicente Terrace
Santa Monica, Ca. 90401
310 451-9562

Amandine on Wilshire is wonderful for pastries just like you get in Paris. Delicious.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/amandi...tisserie-los-angeles

Cool spot for nice lunch/patio dining/not pricy
I recommend 3 combo salad (you choose any three salads..they’re all good.
http://www.rosecafe.com/About-Home.html

For a good burger and beer (noisy but fun... and good food)
http://www.fathersoffice.com/

also try the Counter in Santa Monica for a build your own burger. Can get crowded and noisy but also has nice sweet potatoe fries.
http://www.thecounterburger.com/

For Drinks with a view:
If you can snag a table by the huge picture windows (get a seat at 6 pm or earlier) have drinks and watch the sunset over the Pacific at the lovely “Casa Del Mar hotel”.
http://www.hotelcasadelmar.com/
Metered parking free after 6pm available to the side of hotel if you do not want to valet park.
This is right next door to Shutters (also a nice place for drinks).
Shutters Hotel. Just about where Pico runs into Ocean Blvd. http://www.shuttersonthebeach.com/

A very sweet, small family owned restaurant is Le Petit Café.
Locals love this quiet place that feels very much like it belongs in Paris.

http://www.lepetitcafebonjour.com/
Have fun. If I think of others I'll try to post again.
Barb Cabot

PS Also touring the UCLA campus is quite interesting and then there are lots of inexpensive places to eat in Westwood Village just by the campus (or on campus).

quote:

PS - we're staying at The Ambrose for the entire time, which looks like it will be great. Eco-friendly, free parking, wi-fi and breakfast.

Perfect choice for a gardener. If you haven't already, scroll through the garden blog's LA posts for several that she did on her stay at the Ambrose.

You might be able to get him to the Huntington since it is also a museum I think there is some hiking in the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden - it is not as formal as others. It is set in a canyon and is a great area to explore.

Santa Barbara Botanical Garden

All this info is awesome! You all have convinced us that we chose well for a winter getaway. There's so much to do (and eat, of course)!


We are excited about this upcoming trip. Hopefully, it will be sunny and warm there (unlike the frosty scene in my garden every morning in December).

Thank you all so much!

Cameron

Just save visiting the Pasadena area until after the BCS football game on 1/7 - the whole town will be full of football fans. Actually you are choosing a week that is generally brilliant for weather, unless it rains it will be cool, clear days with sun - I really like the beach in the winter, have a great trip.

Sunshine and cool temps works for us! We have a 7-day forecast here of highs in the mid-30s and lows in the teens.

We're excited about our trip!

Thanks,
Cameron

Hi Cameron,
My sister and husband live in SM Canyon, a couple of their favs are:

Hal's in Venice Beach - http://www.halsbarandgrill.com/pages/home.php

Il Fornaio - http://www.ilfornaio.com/

There is always the Cheesecake Factory on San Vincente - http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/#lobby

And as said there are all sorts of little cafes along Montana Ave as well as San Vincente.

And of course there are the restaurants in the hotels:

The Huntley with the top floor dining looking over SM beach, the pictures make it look extremely fancy, but for lunch and not in one of the curtained banquets, but on the other side of the rest. are reg. tables (salads, sanwhiches, chili, great breads - http://www.thehuntleyhotel.com/dining.php

Shutters on the beach - of course there is the high end rest. "One Pico", but they have their outside dining at "Coast". Again, normal lunches, sandwhiches, salads ... on a clear day it is really lovely to just sit and relax.
http://www.shuttersonthebeach....each_restaurant.html

Very hip is the lounge area at the Viceroy in SM - http://www.viceroysantamonica.com/dining/index.html

Just some ideas. You really can't go wrong, whether it is at a hotel, diner, cafe, hole-in-the-wall or restaurant. Enjoy your weeks visit.

More great choices! We really do appreciate the help with our trip planning. I'm saving off all of these links as web archives on my iPod Touch so that we'll have the info both offline and online while traveling.

Cameron

We're back and we had a great time!

With our cabin fever, we didn't use our tickets to the Jay Leno Show on Friday, opting instead to drive up the coast and be outdoors! Could have been an historical last show - oh well.

I will write a review of The Ambrose Hotel (we would stay there again). Great place and location for quiet, casual accommodations.

Cameron

Welcome home Cameron, glad to hear you had a great time.

Where did you end up dining? Inquiring mind wanting to know. W.

Cameron,

Glad you enjoyed The Ambrose - I feel confident recommending it!

I noticed Wendy & Rob mention the lounge at the Viceroy - we had a Saturday night dinner & drinks served to us in that intimate area of the bar, and found the food very good (I'm really picky!), and Kelly Wearstler's design also uber-cool.

Now, this being my first post! I'll attempt to add a San Francisco tidbit:
San Francisco Winter Color San Francisco Botanical Garden - Winter Color

I'll be adding entries to the LA Destinations tag on Bay Area Tendrils, too.

(I'm feeling my way around navigating SlowTrav, so bear with me, please)

I need to get my info organized, but I will say that we really enjoyed lunch at The Newsroom Cafe on North Robertson in Beverly Hills. It is across the street from the Ivy Room. I mention the location near that landmark because our GPS took us several blocks south where there was no 120 N. Robertson Blvd!

I had a fantastic Tandoori Chicken sandwich. They serve healthy foods with interesting spices. My husband had the Mahi-mahi with a chili pepper salsa. Prices were reasonable, given the location especially. A good lunch place. Public parking garage nearby or use metered street spaces or valet.

Another great place (we had a brunch because of a very early breakfast that morning at the hotel) is the cafe on the beach at Paradise Cove north of Malibu. We sat in chairs literally in the sand and had great granola with fresh fruit and good yogurt. They had pancakes/waffles/French toast, short order items, etc. We would go back there again for lunch (looked like a good selection) next time in the area. They have jazz on some evenings, too. After our brunch, we walked the secluded, but beautiful beach there.

More later...

Cameron

Cameron,
Welcome back, and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed sunny weather and good food! I look forward to reading your reviews.