The Best Hotels in Santa Barbara, California

"Arriving at Rosewood Miramar Beach, with its military-straight rows of white roses and pristine clapboard cottages, feels like landing on a postcard-perfect street in Cape Cod. If it all seems a little too perfect, well, there was time to get things right. The former Miramar by the Sea Hotel occupied these 16 oceanfront acres from 1889 until it closed for renovations in 2000. The hotel sat half-demolished for years, its second act tangled in red tape. It took SoCal billionaire developer Rick Caruso and the Hong Kong–based Rosewood Hotel Group to push the project through. And while it may have been tempting to scrap the past after such a treacherous road to reopening, the new Miramar deliberately throws back. Lemon-yellow-and-white striped umbrellas flank a rectangular pool where the Scoop Shop serves up fountain drinks, ice cream cones, and burgers. Overlooking the ocean, there’s Caruso’s, the type of place where you order a martini with your cacio e pepe alongside a heaping dollop of la dolce vita (the chef hails from Harry’s Bar in Rome)—and, in a state where “formal flip-flops” are a thing, one that blessedly enforces a dress code. In case you start to feel too lost in the 1950s, an outpost from Malibu Farm and a Goop boutique remind you that this is indeed modern-day Cali. —Rebecca Misner"