Solvang on our own?

[cruzrbachoua]

Hi does anyone know if it is possible to do Solvang on our own?  We are not wine drinkers so don't want a wine tour, we are just looking for a pickup at the dock to Solvang and then a ride back.....is Uber there...does that seem doable? 

[Philob]

From which dock/port?

Edited June 1, 2023 by Philob

[princeton123211]

58 minutes ago, cruzrbachoua said:

Hi does anyone know if it is possible to do Solvang on our own?  We are not wine drinkers so don't want a wine tour, we are just looking for a pickup at the dock to Solvang and then a ride back.....is Uber there...does that seem doable? 

Assuming you mean from Santa Barbara-- yes, very doable. Drive time is a little under an hour so will cost a bit.

 

Uber is pretty good in SB and Solvang is covered in the service area (although a pickup might be slower than in downtown SB so factor that in.) We used Uber to go back and forth from SB to Montecito a few weeks ago and pickup times were reasonable even though we were up the mountainside a bit. I would be checking the Uber app for wait time about a half hour before you want to head back to make sure its not significant. 

[cruzrbachoua]

1 hour ago, Philob said:

From which dock/port?

Santa Barbara 

[cruzrbachoua]

32 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

Assuming you mean from Santa Barbara-- yes, very doable. Drive time is a little under an hour so will cost a bit.

 

Uber is pretty good in SB and Solvang is covered in the service area (although a pickup might be slower than in downtown SB so factor that in.) We used Uber to go back and forth from SB to Montecito a few weeks ago and pickup times were reasonable even though we were up the mountainside a bit. I would be checking the Uber app for wait time about a half hour before you want to head back to make sure its not significant. 

Sweet great thank you..that will be our back up in case princess doesn't offer the bus there like we had on another cruise but never made it into SB as it was foggy and princess just pulled anchor and made it a sea day..currently they don't have the bus but it is still early as we go next year April. 

[KeepCalmBearOn]

6 hours ago, cruzrbachoua said:

Hi does anyone know if it is possible to do Solvang on our own?  We are not wine drinkers so don't want a wine tour, we are just looking for a pickup at the dock to Solvang and then a ride back.....is Uber there...does that seem doable? 

 

Uber is easy to get there, getting back, you might ask your driver going there if he'd be interested in picking you up too. Ubers are not as ubiquitous in the Santa Ynez Valley.

[linksgolf]

9 hours ago, cruzrbachoua said:

Hi does anyone know if it is possible to do Solvang on our own?  We are not wine drinkers so don't want a wine tour, we are just looking for a pickup at the dock to Solvang and then a ride back.....is Uber there...does that seem doable? 

If you make it to Solvang, I'd highly recommend the Danish pancakes from Paula's Pancake House.

[jeromep]

A number of years ago we did the Solvang on your own "tour".  Yes, it was a coach from the dock to Solvang and back.  I can't imaging trying to do it via Uber or Lyft.  The drive on the bus was rather long and Solvang feels pretty remote and far away from Santa Barbara.  We are glad we did it.

 

The first thing we did in town was visit the Solvang Restaurant and have Aebleskivers, the ball shaped "pancakes", or rather quick bread, that are supposedly Dutch.  There is a regional chain in the Spokane and Pullman, WA area called Old European that also makes Aebleskivers.  The ones at the Solvang Restaurant were as good or better than the ones from Old European.  Nice place, a little dated inside, but the product and service were good.  It was kind of charming.  Felt like a place the locals go.

 

Solvang reminded me, in principal at least, of Leavenworth, WA, which is a Bavarian themed town.  Solvang feels much bigger than Leavenworth, but both cities work hard to enforce building rules that keep the structures Dutch or German in appearance and keep up the tourist vibe.

 

Oh, and if anyone is into movies, Solvang is the central city in which the movie "Sideways" takes place.  The restaurant the main characters are seen eating at in many scenes is an actual restaurant in Solvang.  Watch the movie before you go if you want to see some of the sights before you end up there.  It is a kind of funny movie too.

[cruzrbachoua]

Thank you all this is most helpful.  I will look into that movie it sounds familiar and we love visiting movie sites..we did the Goonies house when in Astoria along with the other sites there.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

3 hours ago, jeromep said:

A number of years ago we did the Solvang on your own "tour".  Yes, it was a coach from the dock to Solvang and back.  I can't imaging trying to do it via Uber or Lyft.  The drive on the bus was rather long and Solvang feels pretty remote and far away from Santa Barbara.  We are glad we did it.

 

Solvang is only about 35 miles from Stearns Wharf, so not that far and well within the normal range of an Uber.

 

3 hours ago, jeromep said:

The first thing we did in town was visit the Solvang Restaurant and have Aebleskivers, the ball shaped "pancakes", or rather quick bread, that are supposedly Dutch.

 

Æbleskivers are most definitely Danish.

 

3 hours ago, jeromep said:

Solvang reminded me, in principal at least, of Leavenworth, WA, which is a Bavarian themed town.  Solvang feels much bigger than Leavenworth, but both cities work hard to enforce building rules that keep the structures Dutch or German in appearance and keep up the tourist vibe.

 

Solvang is Danish, founded by evangelical Danes and built as part of a Danish religious and educational movement in the late 1800s. They arrived in what is now Solvang in 1911 when the Danish-American Colony Company bought land there so they could pursue their ideals. They created a town that reminded them of their homes in the old country. They opened Atterdag College and then Bethania Lutheran Church to pursue their ideals. When I was younger it was quite common to hear Danish in the village and Bethania had Danish language services. Now sadly, much of the younger generations have stopped learning Danish, only oldsters like me remember the old ways.

[jeromep]

6 hours ago, scottca075 said:

Solvang is Danish, founded by evangelical Danes and built as part of a Danish religious and educational movement in the late 1800s. They arrived in what is now Solvang in 1911 when the Danish-American Colony Company bought land there so they could pursue their ideals. They created a town that reminded them of their homes in the old country. They opened Atterdag College and then Bethania Lutheran Church to pursue their ideals. When I was younger it was quite common to hear Danish in the village and Bethania had Danish language services. Now sadly, much of the younger generations have stopped learning Danish, only oldsters like me remember the old ways.

The roots of Solvang are then very genuine, having been established by Danes.  That is really quite remarkable.  I really liked the place.  We didn't get any history on it when we visited.  In fact our port day was a Sunday, Easter Sunday.  When our bus arrived the whole town was just about dead.  There was one tourist shop open, and the restaurants were open.  We really needed that tourist shop because we had our then 22 month old daughter with us and the bus ride hadn't been good for her and my wife needed a new shirt.  You can fill in the blanks.

 

Leavenworth becoming Bavarian was almost totally to save the town from oblivion.  The small towns and cities that dot the Cascade foothills, especially on the eastern side of the range, existed due to the logging industry, coal mining industry, (yes there is coal in the Washington Cascades, it isn't very good coal, but it was once economically viable to mine it) and railroad support.  All of those industries are a shadow of what they once were, and so most of the towns have shriveled up and nearly died.  In the 60s Leavenworth got the idea to convert itself into a tourist town, it had been a logging town, it sits in a narrow valley carved by the Wenatchee River and has high cliffs that surround the town, so it is rather Bavarian looking, at least environmentally.  The city's name was good for pretending to be a German town, so all they had to do was to enforce building appearance standards on the central business district, create a plaza or two, put down brick pavers in the intended tourist areas, and then schedule the various typical Bavarian seasonal events and voila, you have a tourist town.  I make it sound simple, but it wasn't.  Now it has little hotels or pensions that sit on top of little shops and restaurants on street level, it has a very expensive and extensive resort/destination spa hotel, a number of 3.5 star non-chain/franchise, hotel properties, a number of near town campgrounds and quite a few adventure sports concessionaires.  We usually visit a couple of times a year considering that it isn't a terribly long drive from home.

 

You get a couple blocks away from the touristy area and business district and residential Leavenworth looks a lot like other former Cascade industry towns, like Cle Elum.

 

Thanks for the insight on Solvang.  I certainly didn't get any from the cruise line.  And I didn't notice on our port day many historical markers.  I must not have been looking close enough.

6 hours ago, scottca075 said:

Solvang is only about 35 miles from Stearns Wharf, so not that far and well within the normal range of an Uber.

 

I kind of guessed that was the distance it was from the dock.  The drive in the coach felt like the time on board matched up with what a 35 mile drive would feel like.  I guess for me, in response to the OPs original question, if a local says there are plenty of Ubers to get you back to the dock then great, but it didn't feel that way 5+ years ago.

[Grimix]

On 6/2/2023 at 1:53 AM, jeromep said:

The restaurant the main characters are seen eating at in many scenes is an actual restaurant in Solvang.

Technically Buellton, just off the 101. I'm assuming you're talking about the 'Windmill' which is Pea Soup Anderson's. It's about 5 miles from Solvang. Grew up in nearby Santa Maria so passed it a bunch when visiting the grandparents in L.A.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

2 minutes ago, Grimix said:

Technically Buellton, just off the 101. I'm assuming you're talking about the 'Windmill' which is Pea Soup Anderson's. It's about 5 miles from Solvang. Grew up in nearby Santa Maria so passed it a bunch when visiting the grandparents in L.A.

 

I think they mean Hitching Post II, which figured prominently in Sideways.

[Grimix]

2 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

 

I think they mean Hitching Post II, which figured prominently in Sideways.

 

I guess I haven't seen it in a while. They 'stayed' at the Windmill. Still nearby! The tunnel they travel through is a few more miles down the road. It's only on the northbound side, so you'd go through it on the way to Buellton/Solvang.

[wheezedr]

1 hour ago, Grimix said:

 

I guess I haven't seen it in a while. They 'stayed' at the Windmill. Still nearby! The tunnel they travel through is a few more miles down the road. It's only on the northbound side, so you'd go through it on the way to Buellton/Solvang.

Your right that the tunnel is only on the northbound side, even though Dustin Hoffmann managed to go through it heading south in the Graduate.  You will miss it also if you take the shorter route over the San Marcos pass on 154.

[Lido deck main]

On 6/1/2023 at 1:33 PM, cruzrbachoua said:

Hi does anyone know if it is possible to do Solvang on our own?  We are not wine drinkers so don't want a wine tour, we are just looking for a pickup at the dock to Solvang and then a ride back.....is Uber there...does that seem doable? 

We had been to Santa Barbara three times already so decided to go to Solvang.  We used the ships tour, it was just a transfer, no wine tour included.  The bus was late picking us back up as was rush hour traffic for the way back, so be careful about that if you do DIY.