Santa Ynez Valley

A trip to a beautiful valley, Santa Ynez, wineries, Solvang, and lavender farm.

Modeled after a small town in Denmark, Solvang, California, attracts many tourists who come to enjoy its architecture, stores, Smorgasbords, Danish pastries, Hans Christian Anderson Museum, and the 209-year-old Santa Inés Spanish Mission. The Fables of Hans Christian Anderson are world-known; “The Little Mermaid’ adopted by Disney, is among my favorites. In the village, you can see a small replica of Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue.

The thatched roofs, windmills, ice rink, warm mulled wine, Danish pastries aromas, and shops reminded me of Europe. The local bakeries are great places for breakfast, lunch, or grabbing a cold or hot drink with a couple of cookies during the mid-afternoon. I loved the way the “Aebleskivers” (cooked pancake dough balls) were prepared; only turned over by an expert hand when golden brown. The Danish pastries and cookies were a disappointment, though, as they were made from a mixture of butter and shortening, rather than pure butter, which would have given them the flakiness and taste I expected.

Over the years, Solvang has become not just a Danish town attraction, but also a gambling and wine-tasting destination. Its modern Indian Casino looks like a smaller version of one of those off-the-strip Las Vegas hotels and casinos. I am happy to report that it has a non-smoking section on a second level of the building, which really isolates the smokers from non-smoking gamblers. However, its non-smoking section is very small, mostly a couple of dozen slot machines and one poker room with a bar. We did not gamble or stay long there, as our trip was mostly about wine resting and tasting.

We walked through Solvang, shopped, and even enjoyed a couple of wine places such as at Dascomb and Jule Hus. Later, we dined at a great local Thai restaurant, enjoying chicken with vegetables and a wonderful spicy red curry.

We drove through the beautiful valley and the Victorian village of Los Olivos on the stagecoach road. It is a well-located central place for the valley, which has attracted many wineries to offer wine tastings here. No doubt, this quaint place survives today by attracting wine tourism. We visited a darling little lavender farm. I got seduced by the charming architecture, which reminded me of the traditional lavender, blue, yellow, and orange colors of Provence.

In a tiny shop, the combination of English and Italian lavender aromas excited my senses. I tried the body cream on my hands; it was so smoothing on my dry skin. I loved the pure, refreshing lavender aroma. Cooking lavender, dried lavender branches, lavender body creams, facial creams, scrubs, oils, and diffusers reminded me of the various selections you would find in lavender specialty stores in Provence.

We finally reached Los Olivos, a wonderful destination for wine lovers. The well-maintained village houses host local winemakers, and you can easily spend a day tasting an endless list of wineries there. Names like Alta Maria, Andrew Murray, Qupe, Coquilot, Verdad, Bin2860 International shop, Carhartt, E&T, Epiphany, J. Ludlow, Kaena, Longoria, Toretti Family, Consilience & Tre Anelli, Presidio, and Verdad attracted us. As the merchants were fine with it, we enjoyed sharing our wine tasting to limit how much we drank. We encountered wonderful people from all over the world, exchanged experiences, and found sellers very helpful and friendly.

In the center of town, we enjoyed a small gourmet shop that offered a variety of local foods and kitchen gadgets. Then we stopped at Panino Restaurant, where we enjoyed wonderful, freshly made sandwiches. As we were going down the main street of this small town, we reached the famous Fess Parker Wine Country Inn and Spa, a great place to stay overnight. Across the street, a couple of buildings away were a store for horses and wines, a combination we found interesting. After a few glasses of wine, who wouldn’t!

To the left then, we ran into Felix Mattei’s Tavern. The hotel opened in 1887 and accommodated rail and stage passengers making north and south connections in Los Olivos. Across the street was St. Mark church, which, by the way, had great public bathrooms.

The crust was thin, with a good crunchiness on the edge, while the pizza ingredients were fresh, light, flavorful, and well-proportioned. The smoked mozzarella was amazing and added so much flavor to the pizza. We did not order wine, and our waiter understood why we just wanted water, after drinking so much wine all day. The service was excellent, and I definitely recommend this place if you are in Solvang. Just make sure you make a reservation, as the place is very busy with locals and tourists.

Before heading home, we easily charged our electric car close by the hotel. Thought I'd mention this for people wondering about that charging situation there.