BoomerGirl Diary

The Danish certainly know how to delight visitors. Just came back from what my friend Ginny and I consider “The Perfect Place for a Girlfriend Getaway.” And we do mean perfect.

Solvang charms you even before you get into town. It’s located in the Santa Ynez wine valley — rolling green hillsides with a big blue sky overhead. A bit north of Los Angeles, just outside Santa Barbara. The air smells fresh and springlike. Flowers dot the countryside. Exactly what we needed as we had just left (if only temporarily) a long, cold winter in the Midwest.

As we drove into town, we saw a quaint Danish village, complete with Danish architecture and lots of flower boxes overflowing with blooms. We saw at least 4 Danish bakeries/cafes, a number of very nice looking hotels and resorts, and many, many blocks of unique shops and restaurants. Every one of them was designed in authentic Danish style. Solvang is a delightful place to stroll, browse, shop, dine and relax.

A bit of Solvang history

The small community was founded in 1911 by Danish-American immigrants that included farmers, carpenters, educators and artisans. Although Solvang has become a popular tourist destination, the community’s Danish-American residents continue to live and share their Danish heritage. This is not a “themed” community designed to be a tourist trap. It’s a genuinely nice, quaint village that happens to cater very well to curious visitors.

Recline, dine and enjoy the spa

Our Solvang accommodations could not have been better. We chose the Hadsten House Inn and Spa right on the main street of Solvang. A perfect location for walking around town, the inn was also a terrific choice for beautiful accommodations and dining. You’ve got to check out its Web site and see what I mean about luxurious room accommodations! And I would highly recommend its brand new spa — the Haven Day Spa — that offered a terrific range of services. Ginny and I indulged ourselves in the 75-minute massage! Probably the best massage treatment I’ve ever had!

Seriously. Now I’ve got to add that the Hadsten House has a chic little dining room and comfortable lounge. We dined there two nights and enjoyed excellent appetizers one evening and a great meal and wine service another night. Plus Hadsten House treats its guests with a complimentary appetizer and glass of wine each evening! How pleasant is that to start your evening!! Oh yes, I forgot to mention — complimentary breakfast, too!

We spent many hours strolling up and down Solvang’s village streets and walkways, stopping in many of the 200 shops around town. Only one or two had “souvenirs,” the rest offered unique, beautiful and well made clothing, home décor items, imported pieces, artwork and wine tastings. This is definitely the town to shop for those on your Christmas gift list!

We especially enjoyed the quilt shop call Nodding Place – hundreds of quilts on display at reasonable prices, plus an eye-catching line of quilted designer purses, also reasonably priced (several of which we purchase for ourselves and for gifts). And speaking of reasonable prices, check out Beach Bum’z on Copenhagen Drive where everything is always 50% off. It’s a chic little shop with trendy clothing, not just beachwear.

We stopped for coffee and Danish (of course) at several bakery cafes. We spent an evening at the Chumash Casino about 2-3 miles outside of town. We visited a lavender farm. Oh yes, we also visited Madame Rosinka to have our palms read – a fun experience that kept up chatting all day. Madame Rosinka really knew how to “read” our personalities and what was going on in our lives. We were impressed — since we had never had our palms read before!

Solvang is also wine country

If you enjoy wine, you’ll love the fact that the Solvang area offers seven wine trails, each dotted with multiple vineyards, totaling close to 75 in all. Now that would have taken us a few more days to visit them all!

Solvang is indeed picturesque and it’s located amid spectacular green hills. Your drive up from Los Angeles airport takes you along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. The people are pleasant and welcoming. Every shop and restaurant is unique. And you, too, will find this a perfect place for a getaway with your girlfriends.

Drive up the Pacific Coast Highway.If you have a notion that you’d like to drive up the coast between LA and San Francisco, Solvang is a great stop-off point. Spent a night or two — it’s perhaps twenty minutes from the coast.

Ginny and I can’t stop talking about our Solvang getaway. It’d be a terrific place to go with a whole group of girlfriends — or even a group of couples. Gals can shop; guys can sample the fruits of the vineyards!

TIps:

North of Santa Barbara. Solvang is about a 2-hour drive out of LAX along the gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway. It’s inland from Santa Barbara, nestled in the rolling green hills of the Santa Ynez Valley.Check out the Solvang Visitors’ Bureau Web site and be sure to send for the travel guide.

Fly into LAX. Midwest Airlines flies into the Los Angeles Airport.Check out schedules and good airfares. Car rental was inexpensive ($91 for a 4-day rental from Thrifty — on the Thrifty site.)

Finding Your Way. I used my Garmin Street Pilot GPS to guide our car from LAX to Solvang. Very easy. But to be safe, I also printed out a TripTik from AAA online. Not only gave us directions (which, by the way, coincided exactly with the Garmin) but helped us get a better “picture” of the roads and where we were headed.