One of the beauties of living in Southern California is that there are so many unique places within driving distance that are perfect for day trips or weekend getaways. After realizing we both had the next day off, my best friend and I thought it would be the perfect time for a quick day trip to Solvang. We had always wanted to go visit the adorable Danish town after seeing pictures of its fun European architecture and iconic windmill, and since it was only a three hour drive north, it was decided: road trip to Solvang!
Solvang is every bit as cute as its photos and filled with fun restaurants, shops, and wineries within walking distance. We were lucky to drive up on a sunny weekday, so the drive & weather was beautiful and we didn't run into any traffic (Side note: many reviews we read about Solvang mentioned that it can get really crowded on the weekends). We didn't have any itinerary or specific destination in mind; we just plugged "Solvang" into Apple Maps (our phone's GPS) and parked once we saw the Danish architecture and windmill.
We decided to head to the windmill first for a little wine tasting upstairs at the CrossHatch Winery. We tasted three of their rosé wines, then each got a glass of our favorite.
Service from the gal there was wonderful, and she let us out onto the deck to enjoy our glasses with some sunshine! We had the best view from up there of the town!
It was definitely our favorite stop on this trip, so I'm sad to discover that they have since moved to another location. The iconic windmill is still there, but I haven't been able to find anything that says another business has taken its place.
So happy we got to enjoy it before they relocated!
Afterwards, we figured it was a good idea to look around and grab some lunch. The majority of the restaurants in Solvang expectedly served Danish food, so it was just a matter of proximity and price for us. We settled on The Viking Garden Restaurant; it had decent prices, big plates of food and a nice outdoor area for seating.
If you're into Danish food, it did not disappoint! If bratwurst and sauerkraut aren't your thing, you may have a hard time finding something to eat that you'll enjoy. Several restaurants offered burgers, meat & cheese plates, and vegan options, and there were a bunch of pastry shops around, but otherwise, the majority of food we found was sausage-related.
I chose the "Brat & Knock," which came as a combo plate with two bratwursts (one Swiss & one German) and sauerkraut, sour cream, applesauce, and a homemade potato pancake on the side. It was the perfect
amount of food for me, everything tasted delicious and came out to just $14.99!
For more info or to check out their menu, click here.
Next, we decided to walk off lunch and explore the shops nearby. We went into several different souvenir and pastry shops. Luckily we were full from lunch, because all of those pastries were incredibly tempting!
After about 3-4 hours, we had seen pretty much the whole town. We walked all the way to the town's edge, realized there was no more to see, and turned around to try and find some thing else to check out - we weren't wanting to head home quite yet.
We walked by a winery's patio that had a few adorable dogs lounging out by their owners, and decided a dog-friendly bar was a great option for another wine tasting! The place was called Wandering Dog Wine Bar, and what was unique about this place was that on top of wine tasting, they offered shrub tasting!
A shrub is a non-alcoholic, concentrated drinking vinegar that you add to any liquid to enjoy (either alcoholic or non-alcoholic). They had delicious flavors like Blueberry & Vanilla, Margarita, and Raspberry & Mint. My girl friend decided on a champagne flight, and I tried out a few shrub flavors.
I would love to go back and try out more flavors, but according to Yelp, this location is now closed. I was, however, redirected to another winery's site when searching for the Wandering Dog called Arrowsmith's Wine Bar, and they happen to be dog-friendly as well, so I'm curious if they're now at this spot.
Once we finished up there, we figured it was probably best to start heading back home and try to beat traffic. However, we couldn't leave until we tried the staple "aebleskiver," a light & fluffy, jam-filled Danish donut we had read so much about. We headed over to Solvang Restaurant to order a few of these, and we are so happy we made the stop!
We shared an order with a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream, and it was the perfect, sweet ending to a great day trip.
Thinking about Visiting?
Solvang was a great place to visit for the day, but if you're planning on visiting for longer than a day, I would be sure to come with an itinerary. If you're planning on spending a lot of time wine tasting, it would be a safer option to stay the night, but otherwise, we had pretty much seen the town after a few hours. There are a few options nearby to drive to (Hans Christian Andersen Park, Nojoqui Falls, etc), but if you plan on doing what we did, which was park and explore, you won't need longer than a day. If you're spending several days in Santa Barbara, it'd be a great day activity to drive the hour over to Solvang and check it out! I've also heard and seen so many great things about the town's Christmas festivities, so if you have family or friends in town and want to treat them to something unique, Solvang is the perfect getaway for a day trip!
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