11 Romantic Small Towns In Southern California For A 3-Day Weekend
Southern California does romance in more ways than one. Avalon pairs a crescent harbor with the landmark Catalina Casino, while Laguna Beach puts Pacific sunsets above dramatic coastal cliffs. Ojai glows during the Pink Moment over the Topatopa Mountains. Solvang adds Danish architecture and Santa Ynez Valley wine. In the mountains, Idyllwild offers pine-lined trails and fireside cabins. Borrego Springs ends the day with desert skies and the surreal sculptures of Galleta Meadows. Each town turns a three-day weekend into an escape worth remembering.
Ojai
The Chumash called this east-west valley Awhai, meaning "moon," and on a clear evening when the Pink Moment colors the Topatopa Mountains in rose and gold above the town, the name makes complete sense. Ojai has been a haven for artists, healers, and philosophers since the early 20th century, and that tradition of quiet contemplation has shaped a town of galleries, farm-to-table restaurants, and wellness retreats that is genuinely unlike anywhere else in Southern California. The Ojai Valley Trail, a paved path running through the valley floor, is the best way to experience the landscape at a slow pace, and the Meditation Mount above town offers one of the finest panoramic views in the region. The Ojai Certified Farmers Market on Sunday mornings draws the whole community together around local produce, honey, and flowers. The Ojai Valley Inn, a 220-acre resort with a spa, golf course, and mountain views, is the most celebrated place to stay in town and is worth every penny for a special occasion.
Solvang
Solvang was founded in 1911 by Danish-Americans who bought 9,000 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley to establish a folk school, and the half-timbered Nordic architecture that defines it today arrived in the 1940s when a magazine article triggered a tourism boom that the town leaned into with windmills and timber-framed storefronts. Walking the main street past bakeries serving fresh aebleskiver, wine tasting rooms pouring Santa Ynez Valley Pinot Noir, and shops selling Danish ceramics and candles is one of the more charming strolls in Southern California. The Elverhøj Museum of History and Art, housed in a 1950 Danish-style farmhouse, covers the town's founding and Danish-American heritage in impressive detail. The Hans Christian Andersen Museum above the Book Loft documents the life of Denmark's most beloved storyteller in a cozy second-floor space that feels exactly as it should. The surrounding Santa Ynez Valley wine country, with over 100 wineries within a short drive, provides the best reason to stay a full three days. The Hadsten Solvang, a Tapestry Collection by Hilton property on Mission Drive with an outdoor courtyard and the Boiler Room cocktail lounge, is a well-regarded romantic base.
Avalon
Avalon is the only incorporated city on Catalina Island, reached by ferry in about one hour from Long Beach, 75 minutes from San Pedro, or 90 minutes from Dana Point, and arriving by boat is itself part of the romance. The town's crescent harbor, curved promenade, and Mediterranean-style buildings have changed remarkably little since the island's golden era in the 1920s and 1930s, when it drew Hollywood stars and big band orchestras to the Casino Ballroom, a stunning 1929 circular building on the harbor's edge that still hosts events and offers guided tours. The Undersea Sub Expedition, a semi-submersible tour through the kelp forests and marine life of Lover's Cove Marine Preserve, is one of Avalon's most memorable marine experiences. Renting a golf cart, the preferred mode of transportation on the island, and exploring the upper roads above town delivers views of the Catalina Channel that are difficult to leave. The Aurora Hotel, a sleek mid-century-inspired boutique property on Marilla Avenue, a short walk from the harbor, is a well-regarded romantic base in Avalon.
Laguna Beach
Few towns in Southern California have built a more consistent identity around beauty than Laguna Beach, an art colony since the founding of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918 and a place where the meeting of ocean and cliff has inspired painters, photographers, and writers for over a century. The Heisler Park cliff walk above the tidepools offers the most dramatic coastal views in Orange County, with access to secluded coves below and a series of benches placed at the best vantage points. The Laguna Art Museum, situated at Cliff Drive and North Coast Highway overlooking Heisler Park, holds the finest collection of California art in the region and rotates exhibitions that make repeat visits worthwhile. The famous Pageant of the Masters every summer, where volunteers recreate famous works of art as living tableaux in an outdoor amphitheater, is one of the most genuinely spectacular community events in the state. Casa Loma Beach Hotel, formerly the Inn at Laguna Beach, is a renovated cliffside boutique hotel with Pacific-facing rooms and a rooftop bar.
Idyllwild
Idyllwild sits at 5,500 feet in the San Jacinto Mountains, surrounded by towering ponderosa pines and granite peaks, and it has the unhurried quality of a mountain town that has never been discovered by the kind of development that changes a place forever. The Idyllwild Arts Foundation gives the town a cultural life unusual for its size, with concerts, performances, and galleries that draw visitors from the Los Angeles basin throughout the year. The Ernie Maxwell Scenic Trail runs about 2.6 miles each way, or 5.2 miles out and back, through pine, cedar, and oak woodland with views of Tahquitz Rock and Strawberry Valley. The Tahquitz Rock and Suicide Rock, two granite formations rising above the pines, offer serious climbing routes and spectacular views for those willing to put in the effort. The Idyllwild Inn, a historic boutique hotel in the center of town, offers cabins, suites, theme rooms, and vacation homes, with fireplaces and Jacuzzi tubs available in select accommodations.
Julian
Julian sits at 4,200 feet in the mountains east of San Diego, and it became famous for its apple orchards after a Gold Rush played out in the 1870s, leaving the miners looking for something else to grow. The Julian Apple Pie is the town's most famous export, and the bakeries on Main Street that produce them every morning from locally grown fruit are reason enough to make the drive in the fall, when the trees are turning and the air smells of cinnamon. The Eagle and High Peak Mine, one of the original Julian Gold Rush mines, offers underground tours that trace the history of the strike that briefly put this mountain town on the California map. The William Heise County Park, just outside town, has hiking trails through oak and pine forests with wildflowers in spring. The Julian Gold Rush Hotel, built in 1897 and one of the oldest continuously operating hotels in Southern California, has 18 rooms furnished with antiques and a front porch overlooking the main street, making sitting down with a cup of coffee feel like the right decision.
San Juan Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano is home to the Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776 and home to Father Serra's Chapel, completed in 1782 and recognized as the oldest surviving functioning chapel in California. The mission's ruined Great Stone Church, which collapsed in the 1812 earthquake and has never been rebuilt, and its rose-filled gardens are among the most atmospheric historic sites in Southern California. The Los Rios Historic District, just behind the mission, is the oldest neighborhood in California still inhabited by descendants of its original residents, a quiet street of adobe homes, cottages, and gardens that has barely changed in 200 years. Every March, the town celebrates the Fiesta de las Golondrinas, honoring the legendary return of the cliff swallows to the mission with a parade, a mercado, and community festivities centered around St. Joseph's Day on the 19th. The River Street Ranch, an outdoor petting farm on the creek just south of the mission, makes for a charming and unhurried afternoon stop. The Inn at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, Autograph Collection, a new-build luxury resort opened in 2020 with Spanish Revival architecture designed to complement the surrounding historic district, is the most atmospheric place to stay in town.
Santa Ynez
Santa Ynez is a small ranching town in the valley of the same name, quieter and less visited than its neighbors Solvang and Los Olivos, but surrounded by the same extraordinary wine country that has made this corner of Santa Barbara County famous. The Gainey Vineyard, one of the valley's most consistently praised estates, offers tastings in a Spanish Colonial setting with mountain views from the terrace. The Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum, founded in 1961 on Sagunto Street, interprets the valley's history and houses the Parks-Janeway Carriage House collection of historic horse-drawn vehicles. The Cachuma Lake Recreation Area a few miles east offers boating, kayaking, and birdwatching in a mountain lake setting, with direct water contact prohibited as the lake serves as a critical drinking water reservoir. The Genevieve, a Victorian-style boutique hotel on the main street with 20 rooms and gas fireplaces, is one of the most genuinely romantic accommodations in the Santa Ynez Valley.
Los Olivos
Los Olivos has exactly one main intersection, a flagpole in the center, and more wine tasting rooms per block than almost anywhere in California outside of Napa, and somehow it works. The village, made briefly famous when it appeared in the film Sideways as a wine country ideal, has leaned into that identity without losing its small-town character. Grand Avenue, the one real street, is lined with galleries, antique shops, and tasting rooms pouring some of the finest Rhone and Burgundian varietals in the state. The Carhartt Family Wines tasting room and the Beckmen Vineyards nearby are two of the most intimate and warmly run operations in the valley. The Inn at Mattei's Tavern, an Auberge Resorts Collection property restored from a historic stagecoach inn dating to 1886, is the most atmospheric place to eat and sleep in Los Olivos and one of the finest dining experiences in Santa Barbara County.
Lake Arrowhead
Lake Arrowhead is a private mountain lake in the San Bernardino Mountains at 5,100 feet, and the Lake Arrowhead Village, a small collection of shops, restaurants, and a waterfront boardwalk, gives the community its social center. The Arrowhead Queen, a paddlewheel boat that circles the lake on narrated tours, is the most direct way to experience the water from the surface, and the surrounding forest of pine and cedar makes the views from the deck genuinely restorative. SkyPark at Santa's Village, a mountain adventure park in nearby Skyforest, offers zip lines, bike trails, hiking trails, archery, and other outdoor activities. The Heaps Peak Arboretum, a short walk from the highway, has an easy half-mile trail through a mature forest of incense cedar, white fir, and black oak that is especially beautiful in fall. The Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa, a four-star lakeside property with a private beach, dock access, and a full-service spa, is the most celebrated place to stay in the mountains east of Los Angeles.
Borrego Springs
Borrego Springs is the only town in California completely surrounded by a state park, sitting at the center of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, around 650,000 acres of desert landscape, and the largest state park in the contiguous United States. The town has been called what Palm Springs was decades ago, small, open, and embraced by the quiet of pristine desert and some of the darkest night skies in Southern California. The Galleta Meadows sculptures, over 130 large metal figures of prehistoric animals including mammoths, saber-tooth cats, and a towering serpent, are scattered across several public desert parcels along Borrego Springs Road, Country Club Road, and DiGiorgio Road, and make for one of the most surreal and memorable drives in the state. In spring, the desert floor erupts in a wildflower bloom that ranks among the most spectacular natural events in California, drawing visitors from across the state to see carpets of desert sunflowers, sand verbena, and ocotillo in color. The La Casa del Zorro Desert Resort and Spa, a historic resort dating to 1937 with casitas, multiple pools, tennis courts, and a full spa, is the most romantic place to stay in the desert and one of the finest small resorts in Southern California.
Romance In California
Southern California's most romantic towns share a quality that the bigger cities have traded away. Whether it is a candlelit casita in the Borrego desert, a fireside cabin in the Idyllwild pines, or a harbor-view room in Avalon, these towns each offer something that no itinerary can quite prepare you for.
