04.06.2017

72 Hours in Santa Barbara

Because I love a road trip…

Day One

I haven’t been to Santa Barbara in years (probably since the time Nadine and I randomly went there for Cinco de Mayo on a whim – #memories), so when Chevrolet reached out and offered to take me on a little road trip I knew I had to say YES. And it was actually more like “YESSSS, please.”

I brought my friend Devon along for the ride and after a quick “tutorial” on the Chevrolet Bolt, we were off.  Truth be told, I was a little nervous about driving my first electric car…”what if the battery goes dead?”  “what if I can’t find a charging station?” Yeah, I had a lot of questions when they dropped off my Bolt, but everything was 100% seamless as I’m sure any non-nervous nelly would’ve predicted.  I was super impressed with a few things:

1-) The car has wifi: My friend Devon did work on her laptop for almost the whole drive and said the internet speed was super fast, as if she were at home. Pretty impressive considering that doesn’t even happen on planes!

2-) The car gets about 238 miles per charge: Since Santa Barbara is only about 95 miles from LA I didn’t have to charge the car at all on the drive up. However, when you DO have to charge the car, there’s an app that easily locates the nearest charging stations.

3-) The big screen: It sounds silly but I LOVE the big screen (it looks a lot like your iPhone) and the fact you can control everything from it (touch-screen, natch). Oh and let’s not forget Apple CarPlay (for all you Podcast lovers, like myself).

We stayed at the Bacara Resort, which is infamously known as the resort in Santa Barbara. And, I mean, this view though…

Our first dinner together as a group was at Sunstone Winery and it was totally rustic and gorgeous.  I ate shrimp, sipped fantastic local wine and gazed up at the stars…with no LA light pollution.

Day Two

We drove the Eco Bolts to go on a quick beach-side hike with some insane ocean views…

We came back to lunch at the Bacara, on the ocean terrace obviously, and then prepared ourselves for some serious spa time…it’s a tough life. 🙂

The Bacara spa is fantastic; I got a facial and the spa’s signature diamond rose body treatment (seriously swoon) before heading back to the room to shower before dinner at the hotel’s Angel Oak restaurant.

Just me, sipping some local wine before dinner…I mean.

Day three

We drove the Bolt back to LA, fully charged by the hotel.

So there it is. 72 hours in Santa Barbara, which consisted of driving my first electric car, eating tons of fresh seafood, getting spa treatments and, of course, drinking a ton of California wine.  I’m already planning my next weekend in Santa Barbara…just saying.