Santa Barbara · Hotel shortlist
The best hotels near Stearns Wharf
Britt Sorensen India and the Himalaya
These are my five favourites in Santa Barbara, out of the 51 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.8 down to 4.7.
All five are inside 900 m of Stearns Wharf, so you can walk it.
Highest rated of the five
The Eagle Inn
★★★★★4.8 from 1,291 reviews
The Eagle Inn comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.8 from 1,291 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 3 star property, found under poi and around $353 a night on the dates we checked.
51 hotels in Santa Barbara qualified for this list and five made it. Harbor House Inn is the one I would book if the first is full.
All five, ranked
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1
The Eagle Inn
★★★★★4.8 from 1,291 reviews
800 m from Stearns Wharf, about a 10 minute walk
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2Harbor House Inn
★★★★★4.8 from 355 reviews
700 m from Stearns Wharf, about a 9 minute walk
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3Marina Beach Motel
★★★★★4.7 from 501 reviews
700 m from Stearns Wharf, about a 9 minute walk
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4La Playa Inn
★★★★★4.8 from 276 reviews
900 m from Stearns Wharf, about a 11 minute walk
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5ITH Santa Barbara Surf Hostel
★★★★★4.8 from 532 reviews
700 m from Stearns Wharf, about a 9 minute walk
How this list was put together
51 Santa Barbara hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating first and on how close they are to Stearns Wharf second, then took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Britt Sorensen India and the Himalaya
Her work season is winter, leaving whole summers free for mountains in the other hemisphere or trekking at altitude in Nepal and Peru. Carries the lightest pack of anyone she travels with.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.