Off the 101: a day trip from LA to Solvang

The day on a map

1. Bob's Well Bread · 10am · Bakery · Los Alamos
2. Bedford Winery · 11am · Tasting room · Los Alamos
3. Bell's · 12:15pm · Lunch, booked · Los Alamos
4. Industrial Eats · 12:15pm · Lunch, walk in · Buellton
5. Lucas & Lewellen · 1:45pm · Tasting room · Solvang
6. Mortensen's Danish Bakery · 3pm · Bakery · Solvang
7. Folded Hills Farmstead · 4:15pm · Farm stand · Gaviota
8. The Hitching Post 2 · Dinner option · Buellton

The drive up

Leave at 7am and let everyone else take the mountain. The usual route turns off at Santa Barbara and climbs San Marcos Pass. This one stays on the 101 to Bell Street in Los Alamos, and you're there before 10.

Los Alamos in the morning, Solvang after lunch, then a farm on the way home. Don't stop on the way up: the coffee is at Bob's, and the one stop worth making on the 101 comes on the way home.

Los Alamos by 10

Bread first, then the day's first pour, a short walk apart on Bell Street.

Left LA at 7? Bob's Well Bread opened its doors that same minute. Its loaves get a long fermentation and bake in a radiant stone hearth deck oven. Come on a weekend: the almond and pistachio croissants and the apple kouign-amann are weekend-only, and Saturday's loaves add the pain aux lardons, country bread made with rendered slab bacon. Eat the croissant in the car if you must; buy the loaf for tonight.

Pastry done, glass up. At 11, walk down to Bedford Winery. Stephan Bedford started making wine in 1977, spent 11 years as Rancho Sisquoc's winemaker and was named Winemaker of the Year by the Central Coast Winegrowers Association. His own winery puts his taste plainly: "forgotten varietals fuel his obsession." So ask what's open that you've never heard of. Bring a picnic for the garden. Rather sit under the oaks? Bodega Los Alamos is a wine garden down the street, Thursday to Sunday. Go Bedford for the winemaker, Bodega for the garden, and save room for lunch.

Connections Bedford's first wines came off the Thompson Vineyard, now Dovecote: he and David Thompson started Bedford Thompson on the ranch in the early 1990s, and the Syrah made both names.

Lunch in Los Alamos or Buellton

Booked Bell's? Stay on Bell Street. Didn't? Point the car at a warehouse.

Per Se alums Daisy and Greg Ryan run Bell's, a French-inspired bistro with a Michelin star. Tables release at 1pm on the 1st of the month, and some are held for walk-ins. Dinner is a $125 prix fixe, so lunch, Thursday to Monday, is how a day trip gets into the same room.

No booking? Industrial Eats, in a Buellton warehouse 20 minutes down the 101, is the opposite plan: grocery graffiti on the outside wall, two wood-fired ovens inside, a butcher shop, and shelves of books and knick-knacks from what it calls "years of odd hobbies and cultivated impulse buying." The tables are communal, so the next table's order is a second menu. Order a pizza, from rosemary and sea salt up to skirt steak with tomatillo, and a hot plate, and split both. Solvang is 9 minutes east; more in Buellton restaurants.

Connections Part of Companion Hospitality, Daisy and Greg Ryan's family-run group: Bell's, Bar Le Côte, Bodega and Priedite Barbecue, which started in 2020 as a pop-up in the lot behind Bell's before moving to Bodega.

Connections Jeff and Janet Olsson ran New West Catering for years before opening Industrial Eats in 2013. Jeff, who died in 2023, also opened Eye on I in Lompoc; Janet runs Industrial Eats today.

Solvang after lunch

Park once, free (Solvang parking), and walk.

By the winery's count, Lucas & Lewellen co-founder Louis Lucas planted the area's first commercial Pinot Noir vines in 1969, and you might find him or Mike Lewellen pouring. The sister room, Toccata, is across the street.

Is it a Solvang day if nothing Danish rides home with you? Mortensen's Danish Bakery sells a $19.95 Danish kringle for that job, or a $5.75 bag of butter cookies. The windmills and Old Mission Santa Inés are in things to do in Solvang. Be back at the car by 4: Folded Hills Farmstead closes at 5.

On the way home

Finish at a farm where the animals take produce from your hand: Kunekune pigs, goats, miniature donkeys, llamas, sheep and a rescue mini Jersey cow named Peaches. Folded Hills Farmstead is about 13 minutes down the 101 from Solvang and open weekends until 5. The farm shop sells the ranch's own organic vegetables and baked goods from owner Kim and Chef Mark's family recipes, so pick up dinner to go with the loaf from Bob's.

Not ready to head home? Swap the farm for an early dinner at The Hitching Post 2 in Buellton, 7 minutes from Solvang. Book ahead, and skip Tuesday, when it's closed. It grills over red oak, Santa Maria-style, and its bar is where scenes from the 2004 film Sideways were shot.

Good to know

Which day? Saturday, or Sunday with Mortensen's closing an hour earlier. The farm opens only on weekends, and Bob's and Bell's close Tuesday and Wednesday.

Who drives? Settle it before Bell Street. The driver's day is Bob's, lunch and the Farmstead; the taster's adds Bedford and Lucas & Lewellen, two flights with lunch between them and the last pour by 3pm. Two tasters? Make it a weekend from LA, or hire a driver from Santa Ynez Valley wine tours.

What does it cost? Per person before tip: about $10 at Bob's for a pastry and a coffee, $20 at Bedford, $20 to $25 for a flight at Lucas & Lewellen, half a pizza at $18 to $23, and whatever leaves the farm shop with you. Fuel for about 300 miles is on top.

Why not Highway 154? It's 15 minutes faster if Solvang is the whole point. This loop trades the pass for a second town, a bakery that opens at 7 and a farm on the way home. The three other LA day trip routes cover Los Olivos, Foxen Canyon and the Sta. Rita Hills.

The day at a glance

Leave

7am from downtown Los Angeles, on a Saturday (or Sunday). Times below are routed without traffic

Drive

140 miles, about 2 hours 55 minutes to Los Alamos on Highway 101; 133 miles, about 2 hours 37 minutes home from Gaviota. About 300 miles for the day

Route

Highway 101 north through Ventura and Santa Barbara, past the Highway 154 exit, to Los Alamos. Then back south: Buellton (Highway 246), Solvang, Gaviota, Los Angeles

10am · Bob's Well Bread

550 Bell Street, Los Alamos · Thu–Mon 7am–4pm, kitchen until 3pm · walk in · croissants $6, kouign-amann $6 (apple, weekends only, $6.50), coffee $3.50

11am · Bedford Winery

448 Bell Street, Los Alamos · daily from 11am, closing 5 to 6pm · walk-ins welcomed · $20 tasting fee, wine by the glass, picnics allowed in the garden

12:15pm · Lunch

Bell's, 406 Bell Street, Los Alamos: Thu–Mon 11am–3pm, mostly walk-in, first come, first served, with limited advance reservations. Or Industrial Eats, 181 Industrial Way, Buellton: daily 12–8pm, pizzas $18–23

1:45pm · Lucas & Lewellen

1645 Copenhagen Drive, Solvang · daily 10am–4:30pm · no reservation under 7 people (7+ pay $30 each) · flights $20–25, library flight $35 · half off at Toccata, 1650 Copenhagen Drive

3pm · Mortensen's Danish Bakery

1588 Mission Drive, Solvang · Fri and Sat 9am–6pm, Sun–Thu 9am–5pm · walk in

4:15pm · Folded Hills Farmstead

Across the street from the Homestead tasting room at 2323 Old Coast Highway, Gaviota · Sat and Sun 11am–5pm · walk in · Homestead tasting room daily 11am–4pm, walk-ins first come when tables are free, reservations encouraged

Dinner option

The Hitching Post 2, 406 E Highway 246, Buellton · dinner Wed–Mon 4:30–9pm, bar from 4pm, closed Tuesday · reservations strongly encouraged (OpenTable, or 805-688-0676 after 10am) · a 4:30 table has you home around 9:15pm

Parking

Free everywhere in Solvang; public lots at 1639 Copenhagen Drive, 464 Alisal Road and 1616 Oak Street

Closed days

Bob's and Bell's: Tuesday and Wednesday. Hitching Post 2: Tuesday. Folded Hills Farmstead: Monday to Friday. Bodega Los Alamos: Monday to Wednesday

Nearby: eat, taste, stay

• Three more LA day trip routes: Solvang and Los Olivos, Los Alamos and Foxen Canyon, or the Sta. Rita Hills, each timed from downtown LA
• Weekend from LA: Make it one night so both of you can taste and the drive home waits until Sunday
• Getting to Solvang: Highway 154 against Highway 101, Amtrak's train-plus-bus ticket and the LAX shuttle
• Los Alamos wine tasting: Every Bell Street room, who takes walk-ins, and Stephan Bedford's 40 years of winemaking
• Solvang parking: Three free public lots; the 1639 Copenhagen Drive lot is a few doors from Lucas & Lewellen

Quick answers

How long does it take to get to Solvang from LA?

About 2 hours 40 minutes without traffic from downtown Los Angeles: 128 miles up Highway 101 and over Highway 154. Staying on Highway 101 to Los Alamos, the route on this page, is 140 miles and about 2 hours 55 minutes. Weekend traffic adds to both, so leave by 7am.

Can you do Solvang in one day from LA?

Yes. Leave downtown LA at 7am, taste from 11am and you are back by about 8pm with roughly 6 hours 20 minutes of driving. Keep it to one tasting room per town and one sit-down meal. Bob's, Bedford, Lucas & Lewellen, Mortensen's and the Farmstead take walk-ins; book Bell's and the Hitching Post 2.

Is Los Alamos worth visiting?

Yes, for a morning. It is one street, Bell Street, with Bob's Well Bread from 7am Thursday to Monday, Bedford Winery pouring walk-in flights from 11am daily and Bell's serving lunch Thursday to Monday, 11am to 3pm. It is the northernmost Santa Ynez Valley town, the last valley exit heading north on Highway 101, and 20 minutes from Buellton.

Is Solvang worth the drive from LA?

For a day, yes, if you pair it with a second town. Solvang has free parking in three public lots, Lucas & Lewellen pours $20 to $25 flights at 1645 Copenhagen Drive, a few doors from the free 1639 Copenhagen Drive lot, and Mortensen's Danish Bakery, 1588 Mission Drive, is open until 6pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Add Los Alamos or Buellton and the 2 hours 40 each way earns its keep.

How far is Solvang from Buellton?

About 3.5 miles and 7 minutes on Highway 246, from Copenhagen Drive in Solvang to the Hitching Post 2 at the Buellton end. Industrial Eats, on Industrial Way in Buellton, is about 4 miles and 9 minutes from downtown Solvang.