A new video podcast tour of Santa Barbara’s original pueblo district brings group travelers another dimension to the city’s official web site, www.santabarbaraCA.com
Before their trip, groups heading to the American Riviera can watch Beyond the Rooftops: Santa Barbara’s Red Tile Walking Tour to get a preview of historic adobes and more recently constructed buildings that embody the best of the seaside city’s Spanish-style architecture, with its wrought-iron details, white walls of adobe or smooth stucco, and memorable red tile roofs. Or they can download the tour to a personal music device and, once in the city, spend a morning or afternoon visiting the sites in person. Either way, their memories of the distinctive Santa Barbara architectural style will be that much more vibrant and personal – and they’ll probably know more about the city’s architectural heritage than some locals do.
The video can be viewed or downloaded at www.santabarbaraCA.com/podcasts (or go to www.santabarbaraCA.com, click on “Fun Stuff,” and select the tab titled “Podcasts”). The companion map can be downloaded from the site, and is also available at the Visitors’ Center (1 Garden Street at Cabrillo Boulevard) and several locations on the tour.
Narrated by John O’Hurley, who played catalog king J. Peterman on the TV series “Seinfeld”, the 16-minute-long video podcast leads visitors on a relaxing amble through the oldest part of town, the original Santa Barbara pueblo. Encompassing 12 small, easily navigated blocks, the tour includes 17 stops and 22 historic adobes dating from the late 1700s through the 1800s, plus many of the structures built in the Spanish-revival and Moorish styles mandated by community leaders after the devastating earthquake of 1925. Podcast amblers will also discover flower-bedecked courtyards, hidden passageways, and notable restaurants, theaters, museums, and architecturally significant government buildings. The terrain is flat, the distances between stops are short, and because everything is either on State Street or just off it, a revivifying snack or an iced mocha is never far away.
Courtesy of grouptravelblog.com
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