Cheshire Cat Inn: Summer’s Over! Time For A Santa Barbara Weekend Getaway

“After a long and stressful summer with the kids, parents have earned a Santa Barbara weekend getaway…”

While it’s great taking part in family activities all summer, it’s time for a little adult rest and relaxation now that school is back in session. Cheshire Cat Inn knows that parents who have ridden kiddie rides at amusement parks, eaten hamburgers for dinner three nights a week, and gotten buried in sand up to their neck deserve to just sit back and enjoy being by themselves for a few days in a beautiful Santa Barbara garden hotel.

Now that the tourist season has wound down and the weather is still great, Santa Barbara transforms into a quiet, casual beachside paradise. Cheshire Cat offers visitors a quintessential Santa Barbara weekend getaway that's sure to replenish the senses. Hotel deals can be combined with a wide array of fall activities in Santa Barbara for the perfect getaway.   

There are many fun events coming up in Santa Barbara that you don't want to miss, such as Curated Cocktails, the Santa Barbara Beer & Wine Festival, and The Red Feather Ball.  If you’re thinking about getting away for a relaxing weekend, you may wish to mark your calendar for these upcoming events in Santa Barbara.

Curated Cocktails - Events for a Santa Barbara Weekend Getaway

The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara offers the perfect combination of inspiration and relaxation with its “Curated Cocktails” Thursday evenings in October. The Museum partnered with Epicure.sb to offer music, art, and cocktails. A rotating selection of local mixologists will offer unique $5 signature cocktails. Visitors can enjoy music from DJ Empty Priest and guided tours of the current exhibitions. Visit the website andFacebook page or call 805-966-5373 for more information.

Santa Barbara Beer & Wine Festival - Events for a Santa Barbara Weekend Getaway

The Santa Barbara Beer & Wine Festival will be a sunny day filled with craft beer, local wine, food, live art and DJ FAB! This festival benefits the Santa Barbara School of Squash, an enrichment program for low-income youth in Santa Barbara. It will be on Sunday, October 13th at the historic Casa de la Guerra Courtyard, a registered California historical landmark at 15 E. De La Guerra Street in Santa Barbara, from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Sponsors include Ventura’s Surf Brewery, Telegraph Brewing Co., Ninkasi Brewing Co.,and Santa Barbara Brewing Co.,with food provided by Hoffmann Brat Haus. Visit the website or call 805-453-6021 for more information.

United Way's 17th Annual Red Feather Ball- Events for a Santa Barbara Weekend Getaway

It’s time to get out of those shorts and dress to the nines for the United Way’s 17^th Annual Red Feather Ball, scheduled for Saturday, November 2 from 6:00 - 11:00 p.m. at The Fess Parker, 633 E Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara. This event benefits United for Literacy’s Reading Plus and Fun in the Sun Programs. Anne Smith Towbes and the Hutton Parker Foundation are being honored at the Ball for their continued philanthropic commitments to the community. Visit the website or call 805-965-8591for more information.

Make plans now for the perfect Santa Barbara getaway weekend.

Cheshire Cat Inn is often referred to as the best bed and breakfast in Santa Barbara because of its ongoing commitment to ensuring the perfect combination of fun and relaxation for guests. After taking part in these great Santa Barbara activities, guests truly enjoy returning to the Santa Barbara bed & breakfast’s comfortable surroundings and taking a relaxing dip in their Jacuzzi before drifting softly off to sleep. Make plans now for your perfect Santa Barbara getaway weekend before you get wrapped up in holiday activities!

About Cheshire Cat Inn - Cheshire Cat Inn offers the perfect combination of location, ambience and enjoyment for Santa Barbara inns. The Inn’s spa treatments, quaint Victorian charms, and special pricing make it perfect as Santa Barbara’s Great Escape.Visit the website and Facebook page or call 805- 569-1610 for more information.

The world's most spectacular train stations

(CNN) -- Whether they are designed by cutting-edge architects or decorated with priceless works of art, train and metro stations have become unlikely sites of some of the world's most exquisite architecture and design.

Take New York's Grand Central Terminal, illuminated by a collection of ostentatious chandeliers. Or Madrid's Atocha station, which plays host to a vast indoor garden. Just last week it was announced that London's St Pancras International train station would be installing the second work in its contemporary arts program in April next year.

Suspended high above the international terminus, a group of perspex shard sculptures by the artist David Batchelor will encourage the station's 48 million annual passengers to pause and consider the grandeur of their surroundings.

In a tribute to the world's most spectacular and culturally significant stations, we've compiled the gallery above to highlight some of the train terminals that offer more than just a functional mesh of tracks, carriages, signals and platforms.

1. London's St Pancras International last week announced the second installation to appear in its contemporary arts program. Chromolocomotion, by the artist David Batchelor, will see a group of perspex shard sculptures hang from the roof of the terminal building.

2. The stunning interior of Grand Central Terminal in New York. Built in 1913, the iconic station is decorated with winding marble staircases and gleaming chandeliers. Grand Central has also offered a picturesque backdrop to numerous Hollywood blockbusters over the years, including Carlito's Way and The Godfather.

3. Atocha is the largest railway station in the Spanish capital, Madrid. The vast terminal services high-speed (AVE) trains, local commuter lines and a phalanx of inter-city routes. It also plays host to a 4,000-square meter garden filled with tropical plants and flowers.

4. The interior of the Liège-Guillemin station in Liege, Belgium. The facility's ultra-modern glass and steel facade is featured in promotional posters for upcoming Wikileaks docu-drama, The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Although far from Belgium's biggest or busiest station, Liège-Guillemin is fully equipped for high speed arrivals and departures as well as commuter trains.

5. Not only is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai the busiest train station in India, it's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The immense facility -- featuring a mixture of gothic turrets, stone domes and pointed arches -- serves as a terminal for long distance trains and suburban railway services. It was also featured in the 2008 hit movie, Slumdog Millionaire.

6. The classy yellow facade and green copper dome of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia. The century-old structure is the busiest suburban railway station in the southern hemisphere with 110,000 commuters passing through each day, according to the City of Melbourne.

7. Union Station in Los Angeles may look like little more than a sleepy Spanish colonial church, but it's one of California's busiest transport hubs. More than 60,000 travelers pass through the station every day, taking in the station's ornate waiting rooms and manicured gardens along the way.

8. The spectacular Milano Centrale is the main railway station of Milan, Italy. Furnished with 11,000 cubic meters of marble flooring and home to an array of stone sculptures, the 82-year-old terminus is as much a cultural destination as it is a transit hub.

9. Passengers wait at the Dostoyevskaya metro station in Moscow. Much of the Russian capital's vast underground system is decorated with elaborate Soviet artwork. Here, a portrait of iconic author, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, looks down upon travelers.

10. The giant Gare du Nord in Paris is Europe's busiest railway station, offering a variety local and national services as well as international routes to the likes of Belgium, Holland, Germany and the UK. More than 190 million passengers pass through the station's famous brick facade entrance every year.

11. Constructed way back in 1910, Kuala Lumpur Railway Station stands out thanks to its spectacular architectural style, which fuses a combination of Indian, Arabic and Western techniques. Although no longer the Malaysian capital's primary rail hub (a role now performed by the more modern Kuala Lumpur Sentral), commuter trains still regularly pass through the century-old station.

12. OK, so it's not actually built yet, but Riyadh's new metro system is set to be pretty spectacular once it is. Construction will begin next year on the King Abdullah Financial District station designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/17/business/worlds-most-spectacular-train-station/index.html?hpt=travel_hp_blogroll

7 hotel restaurants you'll be talking about for years

Most hotel restaurants don’t inspire huge thrills.

We barely even take pictures of our hotel food.

Standard menus (burger or chicken fingers?) and pastel dining rooms are more likely to have you smacking your face than your lips.

Some hotel restaurants, however, offer unique experiences and are worth the trip alone.

Also on CNN: 15 unusual places to spend a night

Velassaru Resort (Maldives)

 Velassaru
"Waiter! There's sand in my ... oh never mind."

The luxury resort’s private dining options are all pretty great, but it’s the satay barbecue experience that stands out.

Sand-formed chairs on the beach might seem gimmicky, but they're actually fantastic.

A four-course Indonesian feast is served at sunset and comes with a dedicated chef and waiter.

Velassaru Resort, K. Velassaru, South Male Atoll, Maldives Islands, Maldives; rooms from $280; +960 665 6100

Longitude 131 (Australia)

 Longitude 131
Who knew red came in so many colors?

With eternal Ayers Rock in the background, guests at this high-end outback hotel get a candlelit dinner under the stars.

As diners try native bush dishes featuring crocodile, kangaroo and barramundi, a didgeridoo plays in the background and a traditional dance performance provides a look at local Aboriginal culture.

Longitude 131, 1 Yulara Dr., Yulara NT, Australia; rooms from $1,560; +61 8 8957 7131

Soneva Kiri Resort (Gulf of Thailand)

 Soneva Kiri
If Tarzan did fine dining.

Once seated within the cozy bamboo dining pod at this beautiful retreat, guests are hoisted six meters into the air through a pulley system so they can feast among the treetops of an ancient rainforest.

Waiters swing to and fro delivering baskets of wine and food via zip line.

Soneva Kiri Resort, 110 Moo 4, Koh Kood Sub-District, Koh Kood District, Trat, Thailand; rooms from $550; +66 (0)3961 9800

Also on CNN: World's 50 best restaurants for 2013

Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazesse (Italy)

 Grotta Palazzese
Food from the underground.



Located within a vaulted limestone cavern, this waterfront restaurant in Polignano a Mare on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy annually charms thousands of visitors between May and October.

Sitting 22 meters above the Adriatic Sea, diners get amazing views from this spacious cave.

Seafood and Mediterranean dishes are house standards, but few bother to notice the food.

Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazesse, Via Narciso, 59, Polignano a Mare (Bari), Puglia; rooms from $150; +39 (0)80 4240677

Conrad Maldives (Maldives)

 Conrad Maldives
"I'll have the fish, please."

Amazing ocean views have put Ithaa, the Conrad Maldives' famed underwater restaurant, on numerous travel "best of" lists.

Five meters below the water’s surface with 180-degree views of coral marine life, if this ultra-cool restaurant doesn't impress your date, get a new date.

Kids are welcome for lunch, but not dinner.

Conrad Maldives, Rangali Island, Maldives; rooms from $490; +960 668 0629

Treetops Lodge (Rotorua, New Zealand)

 Treetops
Herbs, waterfalls, pretty blondes ... is this a restaurant or a shampoo commercial?

The wild food packages at this serene New Zealand retreat offer guests the chance to partake in a 4WD safari to observe the estate’s varied wildlife before being led to forage in the bush for fresh herbs and spices.

Organic ingredients collected are used by the lodge’s acclaimed chefs to create the evening's dishes.

Dinner is served al fresco in front of a cascading waterfall.

Treetops Lodge, 351 Kearoa Road, RD1, Horohoro, Rotorua, New Zealand; rooms from $900; +64 7 333 2066

lebua at State Tower (Bangkok)

 Lebua at State Tower
Definitely not down to Earth.

On the 63rd floor of this soaring five-star hotel, Sirocco is the world’s highest al fresco restaurant. It offers gorgeous panoramas of Bangkok.

In addition to the acclaimed Mediterranean-inspired fare, live music helps create a dream-like atmosphere.

As you'd expect, dinner with a view as spectacular as this one is popular -- reservations are recommended at least a week in advance.

Lebua at State Tower, 1055 Silom Road, Bangrak, Bangkok; rooms from $135; +66 2624 9999

Source: http://travel.cnn.com/food-thought-worlds-coolest-hotel-dining-experiences-469041?hpt=travel_hp_blogroll

Summer’s Over! Time for a Santa Barbara Weekend Getaway

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- SANTA BARBARA, CA - October 10th, 2013:   Santa Barbara transforms into a quiet, casual beachside paradise after the summer tourist season and a weekend getaway is sure to replenish the senses. If you’re thinking about getting away for a relaxing weekend, you may wish to mark your calendar for upcoming events in Santa Barbara, highlighted by Cheshire Cat Inn.

 

While there are literally hundreds of fall events in Santa Barbara, Cheshire Cat Inn decided to highlight three events in particular this month on their blog: Curated Cocktails, the Santa Barbara Beer & Wine Festival, and The Red Feather Ball. 

 

While it’s great taking part in family activities all summer, it’s time for a little adult rest and relaxation now that school is back in session.  Cheshire Cat offers visitors a quintessential Santa Barbara weekend getaway that's sure to replenish the senses. Hotel deals can be combined with a wide array of fall activities in Santa Barbara for the perfect getaway.   The Santa Barbara garden hotel recommends making travel reservations early to obtain the best prices and rooms. 

 

Andrea Dunstan, Cheshire Cat Innkeeper commented, “Whether you live in the Santa Barbara, or are visiting for the first time, you'll enjoy the fall events in Santa Barbara. There's something for everyone in our beautiful beachside town during the fall season.”

About Cheshire Cat Inn - Cheshire Cat Inn offers the perfect combination of location, ambience and enjoyment for Santa Barbara inns. The Inn’s spa treatments, quaint Victorian charms, and special pricing make it perfect as Santa Barbara’s Great Escape.Visit the website and Facebook page or call 805- 569-1610 for more information.