On Hwy-10l/Hwy-1, 93 miles South of San Luis Obispo/96 miles North of Los Angeles. Santa Barbara captures the spirit of southern California completely. A wealthy and conservative community with an enviable natural setting – the heart of the town lies between a palm-lined beach and forested hillsides – yet it is also a place where the pace is slow, the mood informal, and visitors immediately feel welcome. Quite deliberately, Santa Barbara also looks exactly how a southern Californian town ought to look. After an major earthquake in 1925, the local authorities took the state’s mission-style Spanish colonial architecture to heart, reconstructing the whole place with white plaster walls and red-tiled roofs, fitting arches and fake bell towers wherever space permitted.

Ironically, the one major building which deviates from this style is the Santa Barbara Mission, founded in 1786. At first a series of simple adobe structures, the mission underwent repeated modification until 1820 when, following substantial earthquake damage, it was rebuilt with the twin towers and columns which distinguish it today. There are also unusual neo-classical features, derived from a book on Roman architecture found in the mission’s library. This is the tenth link in the Californian mission chain, and it has a majestic presence rarely matched by its counterparts. After the proud facade, the interior is rather disappointing, as is the museum with its small collection of ageing objects and reconstructed rooms. But take a look inside the serene chapel and then walk through the cemetery, bearing the unmarked remains of 4,000 Chumash neophytes alongside the elaborate tombs of Spanish notables.

More can be learned about the Chumash and about past and present Californian wildlife – close to the mission at the Museum of Natural History (http://www.sbnature.org), 2599 Puesta del Sol Road. If spending a day in the open air holds more appeal, aim instead for the Botanical Gardens, 1212 Mission Canyon Road. ‘Gardens’ is an inadequate title for this imposing chunk of land with five miles of foot trails winding through canyons and creeks, passing a thousand different species of native Californian vegetation – from towering redwood trees to the bright orange California poppy.

The Spanish often erected their missions hand-in-hand with a presidio, or fortress, serving an administrative as well as a military role. In Downtown Santa Barbara, El Presidio State Historic Park (http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=608), 123 E Cañon Perdido, holds what little remains of the Santa Barbara presidio and is the site of a 40-year project to produce a detailed replica of the presidio. So far, only a very fine reconstruction of the chapel, decorated by numerous 17thC and 18thC religious objects and paintings, has been completed. The next major task involves restoring the gloomy and easily missed 1788 El Cuartel adobe, across the road from the chapel, part of the presidio’s residential quarters. A few minutes’ walk away, the rich and entertaining clutter of the Historical Museum (www.santabarbaramuseum.com), 136 E De La Guerra Street, provides a fuller record of Santa Barbara’s past.

There is no single example of Santa Barbara’s fixation with Spanish Colonial architecture more deserving of attention than the County Courthouse, 1120 Anacapa Street. Finished in 1929 at a cost of $1.5 million and built around a sunken courtyard, the courthouse’s lobby features fine Tunisian tile-work, Moorish ceilings and Italian urns. On the second floor, pass beneath Byzantine arches and Romanesque windows while tracing the history of California depicted by a vast mural, and then continue by elevator to the top of the El Mirador belltower for a fabulous view across the whole town. Around the corner, the Museum of Art (https://www.sbma.net//), 1130 State Street, devotes three floors to a small but mostly high quality collection ranging from Greek and Roman statuary to the artists of the American West and the California avant garde.

Despite being in plentiful supply, art, architecture and history are far from the minds of many who visit Santa Barbara. For them, the town begins and ends with the lovely stretch of beach a mile west of Downtown. Along the beach-side path, joggers and skaters glide beneath the palm trees, often dodging homeless people pushing their worldly possessions in carts – a juxtaposition of California’s hedonistic and poverty-stricken lifestyles much loved by TV news crews.

At the centre of the beach, the 19thC Stearns Wharf, once part-owned by actor James Cagney, offers a dreary selection of gift shops and seafood restaurants. The wharf’s Nature Conservancy Sea Centre is an exception, providing useful information on visiting the Channel Islands National Park and on other issues of ecological importance.

Perversely, perhaps, it is very easy to eat well and inexpensively in Santa Barbara but much harder to find low-cost accommodation. If costs are a problem, spend a day (or two) here and sleep elsewhere.

Detour  – Chumash Painted Cave

Off Hwy-154, 10 miles North of Santa Barbara. Living in the coastal hills between Ventura and San Luis Obispo, the Chumash Indians were much admired by the earliest Spanish arrivals for their technical skills – notably their canoes, made from lashed-together planks caulked with asphalt. The Chumash also had great artistic skills, expressed through basketry and ornament-making, and also in their cave paintings. Protected by an anti-vandal mesh, this cave holds an excellent example of the tribe’s artistry.

Detour – El Captain State Beach

Off Hwy-101, 19 miles West of Santa Barbara. Occupying a slender headland cloaked with sycamore trees and ending in spectacular bluffs, El Capitan State Beach is the most popular of several south-facing beaches lying west of Santa Barbara. The waters are ripe for swimming and surfing, and there’s a well-equipped campsite for those who like to be soothed to sleep by the sound of ocean waves. A 2-mile cycle and footpath leads west to Refugio State Beach.

Detour – Refugio State Beach

Off Hwy-101, 23 miles West of Santa Barbara. Flanked by rows of palm trees, the broad cove that holds Refugio State Beach makes a relaxing picnic stop. Once here, it is tempting to do nothing but gaze for hours at the pretty beach. Should you be feeling energetic, explore more of the coastline on the 2 1/2-mile cycle and footpath which runs to El Capitan State Beach.