I have lived in Montecito for a few years both part time and full time. I’d best characterize it as an oasis of profound beauty that caters to low key living in a small hamlet hugged together between unparalleled stunning beach and mountain panoramas. You can disappear here and you can embrace all your senses and impetus to expand your horizons and indulge all your creative and inspirational instincts.
The mornings and evenings enclose a great expanse of opportunities. The mornings greet you with the most spectacular of sunrises – the skies opening up with the slow-growing light that skims along with the slow awakening power of your coffee until the light is just so that it calls you out to embrace the day. The early hours are quiet and often the most powerful moments are beach side as the day unfolds. The landscape is indeed a culmination of heavenly gifts. The combination of air, light, salt, and breeze are buoyant to those who are called here. All says let the possibilities begin. Do all you wish or just nothing at all until the sunsets call for a peaceful cocktail and a quaint but superb dinner. Surrounding locales offer more bustling vacation amenities if desired.
What is perfection about Montecito is that you can be as quiet and isolated as you wish and breath in the sanctity of anonymity or step in, albeit quietly, to your heart’s content. You can take your box of paints and easel to the beach and lose yourself there. You can write, work, and suffuse the hours with something as tangible or intangible as you like and no one will bother you. Or, you can do the opposite and embrace a multitude of activities beach side to mountain top.
Yes, most people come here seeking peace and quiet in an otherwise incomparable setting. It is indeed a mixture of the old guard and the new, a great supply of dedicated workers and the subtle seeker. It offers a salve to the everyday draining skulk of stress, pressure and falsehood that emanates from city life and crowded stress-producing stifling. You can walk down the street unimpeded, stroll into the grocery store in your pajama pants, order coffee in a bleary eyed stupor without reproach. It is an overstatement to present this place as defined by a collection of celebrity residents. They come for anominity too. Their kids go to nursery school here. They read, rest and restore as in other vacation venues. It works to not be a see and be seen destination. This is no Aspen.
Montecito offers a hand-curated repertoire of go out venues that suits all needs – food, rest, services, astounding beauty, invigoration of the senses and physical outlets. If you want attention and hoopla, this is not your destination. Drive down the main thoroughfare at 9 pm and you’re alone. You can however, do as much or as little as you please.
The working people here are unassuming and kind. Everybody’s grateful. Occasionally an attitude will emerge in a rant but you’ll instantly feel the people back away in dismay. This is not the place to throw your weight around. Its tranquility is its banner.
Offerings of food and lodging are carefully crafted to attend to a low key yet sumptuous standard. You’re free to choose from the top of the line accommodations at San Ysidro Ranch or the Rosewood up top. More unassuming offerings are available as well. The charming old-school Biltmore continues to be under its long term post-covid evolution that nobody quite understands. Shops cater to the uniquely selected. However, don’t come here looking for your forgotten sport coat or a pair of designer flats. All manner of basic shopping here and downtown as found in other destinations has gone the way of the dodo bird. On most days you’re more likely to see strollers in a pair of UGGS and a light puffy coat and domed with a knit cap, hair askew, than any designer garb. Weekenders do tend to stick out like a sore thumb and come complete with unfortunate Friday to Sunday traffic clogs on our low volume thoroughfares.