Refugio State Beach is a beautiful, family-friendly beach that’s located about 20 miles west of Santa Barbara. The beach is beautiful – it’s lined with 30-feet tall date palm trees that separate the brown sand on one side and a large parking lot and campsites on the other. You’ll find a lot of good amenities here – nice bathrooms, showers, a general store, picnic tables, barbeques, fire pits, and seasonal lifeguards. And there’s also plenty to do – swimming, snorkeling, surfing, fishing, kayaking, whale / wildlife viewing, and tide pool exploration. If you like biking, there’s a three-mile-long bike trail between Refugio State Beach and nearby El Capitan State Beach to the east. The beach is awesome – but there’s a $10 parking fee to enter.
Gaviota Beach is a small but beautiful brown sand beach that’s located 33 miles north of Santa Barbara on U.S. Highway 101. The beach is located on the western end of Gaviota State Park which features a well-known campground with 39 single-family (mixed-used) campsites for tents, trailers and RV’s – all of which are a short walk to the ocean, beach, and pier. There’s a $10 parking fee to enter the park, and you get to the beach by walking under the iconic Southern Pacific railroad bridge that crosses Gaviota Creek above the parking lot. The campground has a store, drinking water, nice toilets, and showers – and each campsite has a table, fire ring, and grill. There’s a lot to do here including swimming, surfing, kayaking, and biking. There are also two great hikes here – one to Gaviota Peak which is 1,325 feet in elevation and the other to Gaviota Wind Caves which are sandstone formations. You’ll also find tide pools here, and you can also ride horses in the park. This is a great, quiet beach, and if you want more action El Capitan State Beach is only 13 miles to the south.
