Dog Friendly City Guide: Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara is a city of beaches, patios and canyon trails, and that suits a dog. The city keeps a 68 acre preserve above the sea where dogs can run off the lead, four beaches where they can do the same on the sand, and a canyon trail that climbs beside a year round creek into the hills. Down in town, on State Street and in the Funk Zone, once the old industrial quarter, three of the places below say dog friendly on their own pages. This guide is built from our own venue and walk data and the hotels we have assessed and ranked in the city, with every park rule checked against the page of the authority that sets it. For the full list of ranked hotels, see our Santa Barbara city page.

Getting There With a Dog

Arriving from abroad, the rules that matter are set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they depend on where your dog has been. A dog that has spent the previous six months only in rabies free or low risk countries must be at least six months old at entry, carry a microchip that a universal scanner can read, and look healthy on arrival, and you must complete the CDC's dog import form; you can do it on the day of travel, and the receipt is valid for six months. A dog from that group can come in at any airport, seaport or land border crossing. If your dog has been in a country the CDC lists as high risk for dog rabies in those six months, the requirements are stricter and depend on where it was vaccinated, so start with the CDC's dog importation page, which also notes that the USDA and your destination state may add rules of their own. Our guide to taking your dog abroad puts the paperwork in the order it has to be done.

Where to Stay

The hotel to know is Kimpton Canary Hotel, ranked A and the best dog friendly hotel we have ranked in the city. It is a Spanish style house, and by its own account its crown jewel is the rooftop pool, at its best at sunset, with four poster beds in the rooms and Finch and Fork as its restaurant. Dogs stay free, with no deposit and no weight limit, so a big dog is as welcome as a small one, and most of the rooms take dogs. Our assessment found a dog bed, bowls and free treats laid on, a dog walker and a dog sitter the hotel can arrange, and the freedom to leave a settled dog in the room while you go out to dinner. The lounge is open to dogs. The hotel also runs an in-room dining menu written for dogs, delivered to the room with what it calls door to paw service, and the usual Kimpton hosted wine hour and free bikes are there for you.

Hotel Santa Barbara, ranked B, has welcomed guests on State Street for a hundred years and has just been renovated. Dogs stay free here too, with no deposit and no weight limit, in most of its rooms. Our assessment recorded a dog bed, bowls and free treats, staff trained in looking after dogs, a dog walking service and advice on where to walk, and dogs welcome in the lounge. At 36 State Street, Hotel Californian, ranked C, is a 121 room hotel with interiors by Martyn Lawrence Bullard and the Majorelle Spa, and its own site puts it steps from the Funk Zone and the beaches. It is unusually generous about where a dog can go: our assessment found dogs welcome in the bar, the restaurant, the patio and the lounge, with bowls and free treats and no weight limit. In the old Presidio quarter, Palihouse Santa Barbara, also ranked C, is a boutique house of 24 rooms and suites around a Mediterranean courtyard, with a garden café and a pool. Most rooms take dogs, there is no weight limit, a dog bed and bowls are provided, staff are trained in looking after dogs and can point you to the walks, and dogs are welcome on the terrace and in the lounge.

Eat and Drink

Start in the Funk Zone, the old industrial quarter by the beach that has turned, in the words of one family that has traded there for half a century, into an art lined urban wine trail. Figueroa Mountain Brewing runs its Santa Barbara taproom on Anacapa Street, and its own list of amenities there reads draft beer, wine, live music, an outdoor patio and, in its words, dog friendly. Founded in 2010, the brewery calls itself Central California's most award winning craft brewery. A short walk down the same street, Brass Bear Brewing opened in February 2016, one block from the ocean, with its own beers, guest taps, wine and cider and a menu built on local ingredients. Validation Ale on Yanonali Street has the neatest idea in town: in each style, the beer its taproom visitors order most holds the Validated tap until a new recipe outsells it. Shalhoob's is an outdoor barbecue joint of custom built tables and big rustic planters, run by a family that has cut meat in the Funk Zone since 1973.

On lower State Street, Santo Mezcal is a modern Mexican kitchen a few blocks from the ocean with, by its own description, a gorgeous patio, a seafood leaning menu and serious cocktails. Further up town, Eureka! in the Paseo Nuevo outdoor shopping centre is a burger and craft beer house whose own page offers its spacious dog friendly patio to locals and visitors alike. In La Arcada Plaza off State Street, Petit Valentien serves French cooking during the week and Ethiopian brunch at weekends, with tables out on the plaza. And for the morning after a walk on the preserve, Mesa Cafe on Cliff Drive, in business since 1984 and close to the beach, describes itself as a dog friendly restaurant with an outdoor patio; it opened for breakfast and lunch and now serves dinner too, with a full bar.

Walks and Parks

The walk that makes Santa Barbara is the Douglas Family Preserve, 68 acres of open space with walking trails and ocean views, given to the city in 1997 and sitting directly above Arroyo Burro Beach. The city's parks department lists an off lead dog area and a dog water fountain among its amenities, allows dogs off the lead in parts of the preserve, and calls it a popular destination for dog owners.

Below the preserve, Arroyo Burro Beach is on the city's list of off lead areas, along with Mesa Lane Steps Beach, Shoreline Steps Beach and Thousand Steps Beach, so a dog that likes water can have a long morning of sand and surf. Shoreline Park is the gentler version: almost 15 acres of grass and walking paths overlooking the beach and the harbour, with views to the Channel Islands, a whale watching area and a stairway down to the sand. Dogs are welcome there on the lead.

On the waterfront, Chase Palm Park covers about 41 acres on both sides of Cabrillo Boulevard, its ocean side a narrow park lined with palm trees, and dogs are welcome on the lead. For a proper climb, take the Rattlesnake Canyon Trail, which starts at a creek crossing off Las Canoas Road and makes what the city calls a moderate climb beside a year round creek, mostly in shade; past the meadow, a short connector heads west to the Tunnel Trail for a longer day. Dogs are allowed on the lead, and you will share the path with hikers, runners, bikes and the odd horse.

Good to Know

Off lead dogs on the preserve and the beaches must be under sight and voice control, and the city asks that owners carry a lead at all times and use it when needed; the rule is section 6.08.020 of the city code. Dogs are not allowed at East Beach, Leadbetter Beach or West Beach, at De La Guerra Plaza, or at any playground or sports facility, so check where you are before you let the lead go. Rattlesnake Canyon has poison oak along the trail, and you clean up after your dog there as everywhere. At Kimpton Canary and Hotel Santa Barbara the bar and restaurant are kept for people, and Hotel Santa Barbara asks that dogs are not left alone in the room. Hotel Californian charges $200 a stay for a dog and does not allow dogs to be left alone in the room. Palihouse charges $50 a stay, keeps its bar and restaurant for people, and asks that dogs are not left alone either. Tell every hotel you are bringing a dog when you book.