The Ritz-Carlton Bacara and Rancho San Julian make a perfect pairing. Book your stay to experience the full magic of Elizabeth Poett’s Ranch Table Gatherings.
Any visit to Rancho San Julian, spring or summer, for a home-cooked “Gathering” event hosted by Ranch to Table’s Elizabeth Poett should be paired with an equally tasteful spot to stay during your time on California’s Central Coast. Accommodation options are everywhere in vast Santa Barbara County — stretching from its elegant namesake city to several charming satellite towns dotting the Santa Ynez Valley’s famed wine country less than an hour up the coast.
But there’s only one Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara.
The area’s most refined-yet-relaxed seaside resort is pretty tough to outdo —once you manage to actually spot it. Tucked like a Mediterranean mirage on a fringe of Cali-coast dubbed “the American Riviera,” the resort’s secluded cluster of red-tiled-roof villas is set on 78 acres of prime Pacific shore just west of downtown Santa Barbara in Goleta, and a gorgeous 30-minute drive upcoast to Rancho San Julian.
Laid-back luxury at Ritz-Carlton Bacara includes guest rooms with Frette linens, flat screens, deep soaking tubs, and patios or balconies with postcard panoramas and a faintly pounding Pacific soundtrack. Several dining options on the property include the resort’s signature Angel Oak steakhouse with its cliffside vistas and Wine Spectator-lauded 12,000-bottle cellar — while Club Level rooms include breakfast, afternoon tea, and evening hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. There’s a 42,000-square-foot spa, three infinity-edge pools, four clay tennis courts, and a 211-seat theater for scheduled champagne-and-popcorn movie nights.
If you manage to get up at sunrise here (a good challenge), taking a predawn stroll along the resort’s jasmine-scented Chumash Nature Trail leads to a big empty beach and the perfect SoCal sunrise — with or without dolphin sightings. In centuries past, this very spot was home to a Native Chumash community that named the area Hel’apunitse — after an ocean-dwelling ray. Today, there’s still no seductive stretch of Santa Barbara shore quite like it.
From our May/June 2024 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara
