Need some San Diego or Santa Barbara Ride Suggestions

[weaponsgrade]

I'm looking for some ride suggestions and places to stay and eat in San Diego or Santa Barbara. The general plan is for me to go for a ride while the wife goes shopping and then we'll meet back for dinner. I've got a car but ideally I'd like to roll straight from the hotel. A ride of around 50 or so miles would be good. So, anybody have any suggestions for a hotel with nearby shopping and that would be a good starting point for a ride?

[MattTuck]

Just a quick note, those two places are not near each other.

I'm not sure if you're in the early stages of planning or not, but if your wife is shopping in San Diego, it would be quite an expedition to go for a ride in Santa Barbara.

[weaponsgrade]

Yes, I know they're not close, but we're pretty much open going to either place. I'm actually about to book a room in La Jolla right now.

[velomateo]

I always enjoyed this ride. It has a little climbing and you get a taste of valley and beach riding, with great roads.

It's easy to pick up the south end of this ride by riding north along the coast from La Jolla, towards Torrey Pines.

http://www.mapmyride.com/us/la-jolla-ca/sdbc-d1-with-stud-loop-route-5430978

[SeanScott]

If you do SB you might as well rock Gibraltar. Epic views, climb and newly repaved.

[Ken Robb]

What hotel? The classic rides in SD include (among others) up the coast to Oceanside and around SD Bay going up or down The Silver Strand with a ferry ride to or from Coronado. Climbing up Catalina Blvd., Canon St. or Hill Street and riding to the end of Point Loma for 300 degree views is great and you can ride around Mission Bay to/from La Jolla.The weather on these rides will be 70-75F.

There is plenty of climbing in the eastern parts of SD County. Mt. Palomar is a challenging climb with great views and alpine forests. There is a vegetarian restaurant/bakery near the top which serves pretty good burgers and chili for a nice mid-ride refueling. Keep in mind that temperatures here can rise one degree or more for every miles we go away from the coast so the weather report may help you decide on a route for the day.

I'll pm my phone number so you can ask questions if you like.

[Saint Vitus]

What hotel? The classic rides in SD include (among others) up the coast to Oceanside and around SD Bay going up or down The Silver Strand with a ferry ride to or from Coronado. Climbing up Catalina Blvd., Canon St. or Hill Street and riding to the end of Point Loma for 300 degree views is great and you can ride around Mission Bay to/from La Jolla.The weather on these rides will be 70-75F.

There is plenty of climbing in the eastern parts of SD County. Mt. Palomar is a challenging climb with great views and alpine forests. There is a vegetarian restaurant/bakery near the top which serves pretty good burgers and chili for a nice mid-ride refueling. Keep in mind that temperatures here can rise one degree or more for every miles we go away from the coast so the weather report may help you decide on a route for the day.

I'll pm my phone number so you can ask questions if you like.

And don't forget the GWL...

[ptourkin]

And don't forget the GWL...

+1 My home away from home. You'll have to drive to the start, usually the Rancho San Diego Starbucks. 41 miles with 3,700 feet of climbing. Even with the new light at Sycuan, there are only two stop lights and three stop signs after the start. The best use of three hours in San Diego.

The coastal stuff is interesting for out of towners, but not very good riding -flat and stop and go. The SDBC ride you posted gets you off the coast into some nice stuff and is convenient to hotels.

[weaponsgrade]

Thanks for the suggestions. Im staying downtown at the Renaissance (421 West B Street). I downloaded this route last night:

https://www.strava.com/routes/3915802

But I'm looking at some of the other suggestions.

[ptourkin]

Thanks for the suggestions. Im staying downtown at the Renaissance (421 West B Street). I downloaded this route last night:

https://www.strava.com/routes/3915802

But I'm looking at some of the other suggestions.

Moment is a good shop but that ride is very stop and go. When you get to the terminus at Cabrillo, there's a nice quick climb called Tidepools if you pay for a day pass and go past the gate.

This is my four hour from yesterday which sends you into underexplored territory in the South Bay with some great scenery at Otay Lakes and the Olympic Training Center with not many stops. You can modify it to ride along the bay if you want. Just head south down Harbor and you'll pick up the Bayshore Bikeway. (skip the hill intervals)

https://www.strava.com/activities/630023482

[Ken Robb]

If a person has a National Parks Pass he can have free entry to The Cabrillo National Monument and the road down to the Tide Pools. The views and mini museum are worth seeing in any event.

[Ti_on_Steel]

I went to Santa Barbara last year and rode with these guys.

http://www.calcoastadventures.com/guided-road-bike-tours/
http://www.sbbikestogo.com/road-bikes/

They dropped of a carbon Cannondale at my rental house before I arrived so I could get it dialed in, then met me with a guide the next AM for a day of riding. It was a real blast.

I would also definitely recommend Gibraltar road, no need for a guide on that one since there is basically only one way up. Take a look at my strava as a guide, although instead of coming back the way I came, you can go west along the ridgeline and loop back around.

https://www.strava.com/activities/253599442

[adamhell]

i used to live in Santa Barbara. The classic ride to do is gibraltar, and you can either ride up gibraltar and come back down, or cross the ridge and descend painted cave and OSM (old san marcos), or first ride uptown to OSM, climb that, cross 154 and climb painted cave, ride across La Cumbre peak, and then descend gibraltar.

a mellower ride would be to ride mountain drive all the way south to carpinteria, then cruise back north through summerland and montecito. this is about 50 miles, but has a lot less climbing than the aforementioned OSM/painted cave/gibraltar variants, and isn't nearly as epic.

[bocarider]

Here are a couple of links to rides my wife and I did in San Diego a couple of years ago. We were staying downtown as well. We ubered out of town on this ride, rode up the coast for a while and then back to our hotel:

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/1884846

It was a very pretty ride, a little climbing and the traffic was not too bad.

This was a loop ride from downtown, out to La Jola, up Soledad and back. We found a great fish taco place called Rosa's along the way, which you can probably see on the .gpx track:

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/1880349

San Diego has a lot of fun restaurants. If you are a steakhouse guy, this place was really good, but it is expensive:

http://www.cowboystarsd.com/#best-steak-ever

[Waldo]

If you're planning on climbing Gibraltar or Old San Marcos/Painted Cave in SB, leave early in the morning, preferably with the sunrise or earlier. Last couple of weeks it was brutally hot on the climbs.