Santa Barbara car rental comparison

Car Rental in Santa Barbara

Sandwiched between glorious mountains and sea, Santa Barbara offers fantastic natural excursions and homegrown attractions. With whitewashed stucco buildings and tremendous seafood restaurants, the city is picturesque. The real star, however, is the greater country area. You can explore a wealth of sumptuous wineries, with rental cars from Santa Barbara, or hug the coastal roads for striking seaside views. Find out what to explore with a rental car in Santa Barbara.

How do you book the best car rental in Santa Barbara?

HAPPYCAR makes booking easy by comparing all available rental companies and rates to help find you the best car hire in Santa Barbara. Just type in your travel dates for a full breakdown of available rental deals, including the cheapest car hire in Santa Barbara. You can find rentals in all major airport pick-up points, including cheap rental cars from San Jose Airport SJC and cheap rental cars from San Jose Airport SJO. Wherever you are traveling in the United States, HAPPYCAR has you covered, offering cheap rental cars in Albuquerque, New York City, and beyond.

1. What kind of vehicle should I rent in Santa Barbara?
Santa Barbara is an eco-conscious city with a range of hybrid cars available. A convertible car hire in Santa Barbara is also ideal, especially when exploring the wine country. 

2. What is the cancellation policy?
You can cancel your low-cost car hire in Santa Barbara up to 48 hours before pick-up, free of charge. 

3. What is the speed limit in Santa Barbara?
As with other Californian cities, the speed limit here is 25 mph. This increases to 55 mph and 65 mph on highways. These speeds increase to 70 mph on some signposted highways.

4. If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ-section.

Santa Barbara’s top attractions

Easily accessible with car rental, Santa Barbara hosts several extremely pretty museums and galleries in and around State Street. Santa Barbara Museum of Art is a tidy gallery housing fine European and American paintings and Asian artifacts. The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is a beautiful colonial revival building with lovely gardens and several murals inside. Then there's Santa Barbara Historical Museum. Set in a charming adobe courtyard, the museum details the city's history through some 80,000 objects. At the end of the street toward the coast, you'll find MOXI, a first-rate science museum with three floors of tech.

Santa Barbara has a delightful shorefront, which houses the nineteenth-century Stearns Wharf, a pier lined with shops and snacks. You'll find the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum there on the harbor front, which offers a treasure-trove of maritime artifacts and displays. Two of the city’s greatest attractions are best approached with a Santa Barbara car hire. The Old Mission Santa Barbara is the city's iconic stone church, perched upon a hilltop with great views of the city. Further north is the contemplative Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, a truly beautiful trail of native Californian flora, spread across forty acres. 

Tip: You can’t visit Santa Barbara without a trip to the Galapagos of California, the Channel Islands National Park. With abundant flora and fauna unique only to the islands, this chain of eight truly captivating islands offers a glimpse into California’s past. Drive your car hire from Santa Barbara to Oxnard or Ventura for sailing departures.

Kids activities in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is a charming coastal town with plenty of fun activities and excursions for little ones. The most popular is sure to be the Santa Barbara Zoo, which is renowned for its highly entertaining Humboldt penguins. It is also home to the once-extinct California condor. Owing to its top-rate interactive exhibits and light and color shows, the MOXI science museum is also a big hit with children. Lastly, the Santa Barbara Channel is home to breathtaking whale and dolphin migrations. Whale watching trips depart from Santa Barbara harbor with family-friendly guides. 

Day trips in Santa Barbara County

With a Santa Barbara car rental, Santa Barbara County offers untold adventures. For one, the area is renowned for its wine. Rancho Sisquoc, Foxen, Presqu'ile, Babcock, and Sanford Winery, among a hundred others, are dotted through the gorgeous Foxen Canyon and Santa Rita Hills areas. It would be remiss not to take a winemaking tour, which is easily reachable with car rentals from Santa Barbara. Active excursions like hiking, mountain biking, and, of course, kayaking and surfing, are a must. You can reach trails in the impressive wilderness areas of San Rafael, Wind Wolves, Sespe, and Dick Smith in the Los Padres National Forest with a rental car from Santa Barbara.

Book your cheap car rental in Santa Barbara today with HAPPYCAR. HAPPYCAR is a convenient all-in-one car rental service, which operates around the world, offering the very best deals both at home and abroad.