Lodging

Four Seasons Biltmore		El Encanto Hotel and Garden Villas		San Ysidro Ranch
Santa Barbara, CA		Santa Barbara, CA		Montecito, CA
Red roof tiles, ivory adobe and graceful archways accent this Spanish Colonial treasure, the West Coast’s classic resort set at the foot of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Phone: 805-969-2261 Fax: 805-565-8329		Birds of Paradise bear their fiery plumage at every meander of the garden path. Bougainvillea, flowering aloe, bottle brush, and banana palm have taken over the ten meticulously landscaped acres. Below are the red tile roofs of California's Riviera - Santa Barbara - and the endless Pacific Ocean. Fortunate travelers have been drawn to this site since 1915, when El Encanto Hotel first opened its doors to the public. Franklin Roosevelt couldn't stay away from the place; he came as assistant secretary of the Navy, then as governor of New York, and finally as President. In the fifties Hedy Lamarr used to motor up from L.A. to escape the rigors of stardom - the only problem was that plenty of other movie stars came here too. Phone: 1-805-687-5000 Fax: 1-805-687-3903		San Ysidro's luxuriousness belies its humble roots as one of the Santa Barbara Mission's working ranches. It became a guest ranch in the late 1800s after cottages were added to the 1825 adobe, which still stands, and became famous in the 1930s, when owners Ronald Colman (the actor) and Alvin Weingand (a state senator) attracted stars, writers, and royalty. Here Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier married, John and Jackie Kennedy honeymooned, and Winston Churchill wrote some of his memoirs. Nestled in the hills above Montecito, one of the country's wealthiest small towns, the Ranch, as it is known to faithfuls, had become shabby by the '60s. New owners restored the cottages and added some luxurious new ones, and Hollywood was once again in residence. In 1987, Claude Rouas, owner of Napa Valley's luxe Auberge du Soleil, took over and set out to bring the atmospheric stone restaurant, the ranch's old packing house, up to France's country-inn standards, a goal he and American chef Gerard Thompson have achieved in spades. Phone: 1-805-969-5046 or 1-800-368-6788 Fax: 1-805-565-1995