SANTA BARBARA, CA HOTELS - MOTELS - GREEN SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA LODGING

Santa Barbara is a city in Santa Barbara County. It is also referred to as California's "South Coast". Due to its climate it is also known as also "American Riviera”. The historic character and architectural beauty of our community add distinct charm to Santa Barbara. According to the census of 2000, there are 92, 325 people who call Santa Barbara their “home”.

Due to its geographic and Mediterranean climate, Santa Barbara is often considered the "American Riviera”. The climate in Santa Barbara is reminiscent of the French and Italian Riviera coastline along the Mediterranean. Several peaks exceedingly rise dramatically behind the city creating a scenic backdrop for the city. Every couple of years, snow covers the peaks for several days.

Santa Barbara is renowned for its light weather, downtown beaches, performing arts, and architecture buildings. In fact, the city contains several performing art venues, including a favorite venue for small concerts, the Granada Theater, the tallest building downtown. Classical music lover can enjoy the symphony orchestra and many non-profit classical music groups.

Several festivals take place in Santa Barbara but there is one that stands above the rest which is the annual Fiesta. The festival takes place during August. There are several components to the festival yet their main attraction is the Fiesta Pequeña also known as the kickoff of Fiesta. Many Flower Girls and Las Señoritas march during the celebration. There also a variety of arts and crafts available all year long.

Santa Barbara has 47 hotels listed in the iStayGreen directory of which 10 are listed as environmentally friendly lodging. Currently 7 hotels have completed the online Environmental Audit and earned the Green Eco-Leaf Rating while the other 3 properties are purported to be "Green" but have not yet shared their eco-initiatives with iStayGreen.org.

In Santa Barbara there are 37 properties where the environmentally friendliness is unknown and they have not yet verified their sustainability efforts with iStayGreen.org. In the state of California there is a total of 3965 lodging properties listed in the iStayGreen.org directory of which 425 are represented as eco-friendly. Currently there are 177 lodging properties that have earned the Green Eco-Leaf Rating. Included in the properties working toward a more sustainable travel future are Santa Barbara hotels, Santa Barbara resorts, Santa Barbara bed & breakfasts, and Santa Barbara extended stay accommodations.

When planning your Santa Barbara vacation, or travel to Santa Barbara we encourage you, before you book, to check rates and availability of "Green" rated hotels and lodging. In most cases we have found eco-friendly Santa Barbara CA accommodations to be price competitive with the unrated Santa Barbara hotel room rates.You may even save money and at the same time be doing something good for our environment!

Click here to view all environmentally friendly lodging in Santa Barbara