Pacific Coast Bike Tour

The "LA to LA" ride: Los Altos to Los Angeles.

Day 7 · Friday, September 11

Solvang → Ventura

Distance
82.5mi132.8km
Elevation gain
2776ft846m
Elevation loss
3216ft980m
Max elevation
950ft290m
Solvang → Ventura Switch basemap (elevation / vegetation / plain) top-right; click any point for Google Maps, Apple Maps or Street View.
Download GPX — Day 7 Open in Ride with GPS

Google Maps Apple Maps Neither opens this route — they take only a start and an end over a link, so each draws its own way between Solvang and Ventura. Use them for the lie of the land; the GPX and Ride with GPS have the line we ride.

The day at a glance

Leaves the Santa Ynez Valley and runs the Gaviota coast, which is cattle ranchland and largely undeveloped — a rare stretch of open California coastline. From Goleta onward it turns to lemon and avocado groves on the slopes above the road, and Carpinteria is cut flowers and nursery glass, an industry that has been there for a century.

Worth looking up for

  • The coastal miles are the prettiest of the trip: Gaviota, Refugio, El Capitán, then Santa Barbara and Carpinteria.
  • Best-served day by far — 12 water points, more than any other day, and the shortest dry stretch at 19 mi.

What to watch for

  • Longest day of the trip at 82.4 mi, but the climbing is front-loaded: the hardest pitch is mi 7.9–8.6 at 7.1%, and everything after mi 10 is gentle.
  • Sections through the Gaviota corridor are ridden on the US-101 freeway shoulder. It is a wide shoulder — noisy and fast alongside, but there is room.

Towns along the way

  1. 1 Solvang
  2. 13 Las Cruces
  3. 40 Isla Vista
  4. 45 Hope Ranch 1.0 mi off
  5. 48 Las Positas Meadows
  6. 53 Santa Barbara 1.0 mi off
  7. 57 Montecito 0.9 mi off
  8. 61 Toro Canyon
  9. 64 Carpinteria
  10. 67 Shepards 1.6 mi off
  11. 71 Mussel Shoals
  12. 76 Faria Beach
  13. 82 Ventura

Stops along the way

Mapped in OpenStreetMap and carried in the GPX as waypoints, so they show on a head unit too. Distances are miles from the start. Tap a name for Google Maps, or the arrow for Apple Maps. Not verified on the ground — opening hours and whether a tap actually runs are anyone’s guess. Water and restrooms are not listed here, because they are long lists you find on the road rather than plan around — but they are in the GPX, so a head unit still shows them. A marks a stop somebody picked by hand and vouched for, rather than one the OpenStreetMap query happened to return. Everything else here is within a quarter mile of the line; the few that are further say how far.

Shops & markets 10

Food & drink 13

Worth a look 9

Restaurants in Ventura

Places to eat at the end of the day, gathered by hand rather than from OpenStreetMap, so these are not the same as the stops above and are not in the GPX. Most are a short walk from the hotel; where one is not, the address says so. Nobody has eaten at them. Opening hours are deliberately not listed — they change, and a stale hour on a page is worse than none — so tap through before you set out. A name with no link had none to hand.