🌅 Riviera

The Riviera is Santa Barbara's premier hillside neighborhood — the steep south-facing slope rising above downtown, named in the 1880s for its resemblance to the French and Italian Rivieras. The neighborhood's defining feature is the view: nearly every home faces south or southwest and looks out over the city grid, the harbor, and the Channel Islands.

The Riviera is divided informally into the Lower Riviera (the more accessible blocks closer to downtown and the Mission) and the Upper Riviera (the steeper, higher blocks reaching toward APS Ridge). Alameda Padre Serra — universally known as "APS" — is the curving road that runs along the ridge and provides some of the most dramatic driving views in Santa Barbara.

Architecturally, the Riviera is a museum of Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial Revival design — terraced villas, red-tiled rooflines, garden walls dripping with bougainvillea, and hidden courtyards. The hillside lots are often unconventional shapes, which has encouraged creative architecture for over a century. The Belmond El Encanto, a historic hotel on the upper slope, has been a Santa Barbara icon since 1918.

Living on the Riviera means accepting winding roads, sometimes tight street parking, and a car-dependent lifestyle — but for the view, the architecture, and the sunset rituals from Riviera Park or Franceschi Park, residents say there's no comparison.