20 Attractions to Explore Near Mesa Lane Beach

The 70-acre Douglas Family Preserve is located near the intersection of Cliff Drive and Las Positas Road in the Mesa neighborhood. The property spans 70 acres of undeveloped ocean-front land, and represents the largest area of coastal open space within the city limits of Santa Barbara. A walking trail loops the park perimeter, with many smaller trails across and along the interior. There are several bluffs overlooking the beach, popular for watching whales, dolphins, and birds.

This is a long sandy beach that runs along picturesque bluffs, adjacent to the Douglas Family Preserve. It is good for swimming, surfing, stand-up paddleboarding, fishing, and more. It has a reputation as a dog beach and is a popular location for dog owners to walk their pets off leash.

This beach is just a ten minute drive along the Coast from downtown Santa Barbara. Hendry's is secluded by towering cliffs and a curving coastline. Surfers and children vie for territory as the waves tumble into shore. Hendry's is centrally located to a great deal of other fun.

This is a narrow beach below homes high on East Mesa bluffs. The dilapidated concrete stairs, originally constructed in the 1920s, show their age. It is not particularly popular for sunbathing but can enjoy fun tide pool exploration and beachwalking.

Elings Park is a 230-acre private park. It is one of Santa Barbara’s most beautiful gathering places for nature, athletics, and culture. It hosts weddings, special events, recreation activities, sports leagues, and more. The park consists of sports fields, hiking and biking trails, playgrounds, wedding/special event venues, and landscaped walkways. The park is a hub for mountain biking, youth sports, paragliding, and other outdoor activities.

Shoreline Park is a popular 14.6-acre coastal bluff park located west of Leadbetter Beach. Park amenities include a playground, two restrooms, individual picnic tables and barbeques, a group picnic area, sidewalks, park benches, and beach access stairs. This park is perfect for a family picnicThe beach below the bluffs is relatively narrow and rocky and is often covered in water due to tides.

Leadbetter Beach is a City beach and park between the Santa Barbara Harbor and Shoreline Park and across from Santa Barbara City College. The Shoreline Beach Cafe offers diners tables on a covered patio or even in the sand. Outdoor showers, restrooms, a grassy picnic area combine to make this a mecca for the young and active. It is also a popular location for kitesurfers and windsurfers during the summer, when the wind is consistent.

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is one of the best things to do in Santa Barbara, particularly for families. Discover 13,000 years of human interaction with the Santa Barbara Channel inside the doors of this hidden gem, overlooking the scenic Santa Barbara Harbor.Through the museum’s many hands-on activities, you can learn about sustainable fishing in a kelp forest, raising a sail, diving, sport fishing and more. Stop by the onsite gallery to see rotating exhibits of ocean-themed artwork.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, a contemporary art museum, is at Santa Barbara, United States.The categories covered by MCASB involve various fields of design. It includes the topic of male and female, media, race, and geological study. It aims at displaying, expressing, discovering, and exploring the potential of the art and design in this era.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is an art museum located in downtown Santa Barbara, California. It is home to both permanent and special collections, the former of which includes Asian, American, and European art that spans 4,000 years from ancient to modern. Its permanent collection includes more than 27,000 works of art, including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, ceramics, glass, jades, bronzes, lacquer and textiles

Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the family Moraceae native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region in the north to the Illawarra in New South Wales, as well as Lord Howe Island. Its common name is derived from Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia. It is best known for its imposing buttress roots.

This was the residence of the fifth commandant of the Presidio de Santa Barbara, José de la Guerra y Noriega, founder of the Guerra family of California. It is now a popular site for community and private events.The site is currently owned and operated by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation as a historic house museum. The address is 15 East De la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara, California.

This is a wiode sandy beach located in the west of and adjacent to Stearns Wharf Pier at State Street. This is also where the outriggers hold lessons and where many kayaks, windsurfers, and sailboats set out. Thousands of tourists on Stearns Wharf look out at West beach every day because the wharf is actually built on top of it.

Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara, is a former military installation in Santa Barbara, California, United States. The presidio was built by Spain in 1782, with the mission of defending the Second Military District in California. The park contains an original adobe structure called El Cuartel, which is the second oldest surviving building in California; only the chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano, known as "Father Junípero Serra's Church", is older.

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is located in Santa Barbara, California, U.S. It features relics from Chumash, Spanish, Mexican, Yankee, and Chinese cultures, including artifacts, photographs, furnishings and textiles, dating as far back as the 15th century.

Alameda Park is a two-block park in downtown Santa Barbara. As one of the city's oldest parks, it is home to a variety of rare trees and plants. These horticultural treasures include the soapbark tree, the white ironwood, and the bunya-bunya tree, just to name a few.

Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens is a stunning park spanning a square block in downtown Santa Barbara. There are 75 different tree and plant species and you can enjoy walking paths, picnic areas, and a picturesque Gazebo. The park also has a koi pond where you’ll find visitors feeding resident ducks.

Stearns Wharf is a pier at the cross section of the end of State Street and Cabrillo, in the harbor in Santa Barbara. The famous Dolphin Fountain, sculpted by local artist Bud Bottoms, marks the start of the wharf and welcomes visitors from around the globe. Steadfast wooden timbers support the wharf above the blue Pacific Ocean.

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Santa Barbara, California. The museum has ten indoor exhibit halls focusing on regional natural history including astronomy, birds, insects, geology, mammals, marine life, paleontology, plant life, and the Chumash Indians. It holds a research library, the John & Peggy Maximus Art Gallery and is the only museum to house a full-dome planetarium on the Central Coast.

Shipwreck playground is a shipwreck-themed playground that was thoughtfully designed and modeled after an ocean schooner from the turn of the century. At Shipwreck Playground children can play on two awesome climbing structures as well as several interesting sculptures such as surfacing whales, a conch shell lighthouse, and a nautilus shell play area – all situated in a white beach sand and other soft surface material.