Visiting Central California with Kids

Gorgeous beaches, an historic castle, and seeing elephant seals were top on our list when visiting Central California with kids.

Our tour of California continues, but I’m breaking up central California into a few posts. I took so many photos of Moonstone Beach and Heart Castle that I felt I needed to devote an entire post to this area. After this, we’ll be moving onto Big Sur, Monterey, and Santa Cruz.

In my last post we just left The Garland in North Hollywood and decided to break up the drive with a stop in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara

Friends recommended lunch at the Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach. We had a great lunch sitting outside. I hear you may see a few celebrities here…

The beach here also so fun! We loved watching all the dogs frolic in the sand.

Whilst in Santa Barbara we also visited the Mission which was beautiful and strolled another beach. We’d love to go back to this area so let me know if you have other recommendations and must sees for our next trip!

Solvang

We decided to spend a night in Solvang so after a very quick visit to Santa Barbara we detoured off the coastal route and headed for the mountains. The town of Solvang is adorable. It was settled by the Dutch and has such a charming atmosphere.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner at the Succulent Cafe ordered flatbreads, a charcuterie board, and Hitching Post II Wine. Oh, yes, if you don’t know Sideways was filmed here. We also had an incredible and affordable breakfast at Brekkies. Another celeb hang out I’m told…

After a delicious and filling breakfast it was time to hit the road again. En-route to Cambria we found some beautiful places to stop.

Avila Beach

This beach took our breath away! Avila Beach was a cute little town with a beautiful beach and lovely little shops.

Some photos I took and I don’t even know where we were, like the below photos. We just pulled off the road and were in awe of nature’s beauty.

Pacific Coast Highway

Harmony

We stumbled upon Harmony on the way to Cambria. Harmony is the smallest town with only 18 residents.

Harmony began as a dairy settlement by the Swiss, the dairy closed in the 1950s, but its home to a glass blower, pottery studio, ice cream truck, and also has a wedding chapel.

The ice cream was delicious, as I’m sure you can imagine.

From there it’s a very short ride to Cambria.

Cambria

We absolutely fell in love with this seaside town. We stayed at The Fog Catcher Inn. What we loved most about this hotel was it’s location. It was right across the street to Moonstone Beach. Our kids (and us) are real beach lovers so it was heaven to walk across to the beach whenever we wanted. In fact, the first thing we did was drop our bags in the room and walk over to the beach.

After all the driving and city visiting, it was just nice to sit on the beach. The top photo in this post is from Moonstone Beach, never before have I seen such big pieces of driftwood formed in sculptures dotted on the beach. Our boys kept trying to build their own.

The first night we just got take-away pizza, and sipped wine on a bench watching the sun go down.

If you look close you can see Luke on the bench:

Moonstone Beach was magical, we loved collecting moonstones and rocks and seeing such a gorgeous sunset over the beach.

Hearst Castle

We heard so much about Hearst Castle while planning our trip, we booked tickets ahead of time. I’m so glad we did as they tickets for 11am were sold out when we arrived. For those who don’t know, Hearst Castle is the estate or William Randolph Hearst in San Simeon. He used to stay in tents with his family on the hillside and when he was in his 50s he said that he was tired of staying in tents. The publishing tycoon collaborated with his architect, Julia Morgan, from 1919-49 on Hearst Castle. He was constantly updating his plans and adding more treasures to his collection. We did the Grand Rooms Tour which was perfect with kids, but I’d love to go back and do the Architecture Tour. I took way too many photos, but wanted to give you a taste of this beautiful estate.

The inside to the castle is very ornate but we were mesmerized by the architecture an all the beautiful plantings.

The tour was a timed entry but we had as much time to stroll the gardens and visitor center, after the tour. Hearst Castle really is like no other place I’ve been before and our whole family enjoyed our day there.

Elephant Seals Rookery

We spent that afternoon exploring San Simeon. A short drive from Hearst Castle is where Elephant Seals mate. This was our first time seeing them and it was amazing.

They are so BIG and it seemed to take all their energy to just move a tiny bit.

While in San Simeon we highly recommend a stop at Hearst Valley Winery for a tasting.

We got the boys cheese and crackers and they snacked while we sipped. In Cambria we also loved strolling the town. There’s about 5 antique shops, tons of adorable boutiques, an organic grocery store, and lovely restaurants.

We also enjoyed the Moonstone Beach and Grill, which was a 5 minute walk from our hotel, and overlooked the beach. The Coconut Shrimp are amazing!

We loved our time in this part of Central California.

Even though we only had a few days here it was so relaxing. Now, I know we missed tons so let me know what we have to see when we go back.

Next up on our trip will be Big Sur, Monterey and Santa Cruz! If you missed part 1 and 2 you can read them below:

Planning a California Family Road Trip

Things to do in Southern California with Kids