Living in Los Angeles, I usually visit Solvang for a day trip. Solvang is pretty close to Santa Barbara, so it only takes about 2 hours from Los Angeles to get there. The last time I went for a day trip, it was some sort of Danish festival or something – there were plays, pop ups, shows, shops, and a lot more. I decided, why not spend a couple of days in Solvang!
Breakfast Spot
One of my favorite places to eat is Paula’s Pancake House. They have Danish pancakes and boy are they GOOD! I usually get that with the veggie omelette, and I have been to other breakfast spots there and I gotta say, Paula’s veggie omelette has so much flavor! It’s seriously delicious! && their potatoes are just as wonderful! If you go to Solvang, you should definitely go to Paula’s!
In addition to Paula’s, there are so many bakery’s! You have to go to one and just relax, have coffee, and a Danish! They are so wonderful there.
Lunch/Dinner Spot(s)
Since this was my first time spending days in Solvang, I decided to actually Yelp some places. One place that stood out a lot was a place called Industrial Eats – not only is it a cute little restaurant, but it’s a butcher shop too! I went here for dinner on my first night in Solvang. I got the Japanese Fried Chicken, while my partner got the FEED ME. If you like to eat everything and anything – you should get the Feed Me. It’s a 5-course meal (2 people can totally share), of anything that the chef wants to bring out to you. We got this and the food was DELICIOUS! It is one of my top places to eat when visiting Solvang now. It’s a great vibe. Sorry about the photos – I couldn’t wait to try them. – if you have questions about what any of these are, do not hesitate to ask in the comments!
It was my boyfriends birthday as well, so for our second night in Solvang, we went to a cute restaurant called Mad & Vin – Located in the Landsby Hotel. Because Solvang is basically a wine country – you can basically take your own wine anywhere if you don’t want to purchase it there (but there is probably a corkage fee). We brought our own wine to dinner, and I got the short-rib and BOYYY OH BOY was is something. The sauce itself was just so delicious. There is only one piece, so of course I was still hungry lol. But the meat fell right off the bone. It was so good. If you want a cute lil somewhat fancy dinner, this is the place to go!
Things To Do
It’s Solvang, there isn’t a lot to do. So of course, we explored. We did an escape room, it was both of our first times doing it but it was so much fun! Especially having some wine in you haha. Most fun things do involve drinking – the best are wine tastings, although we didn’t do any this time so I can’t help you with the best spots to try. BUUUUT – there is a cute brewery that our hotel person told us about. It’s called The Backroom. Why is it called The Backroom you may ask — it’s because you go to a regular shop, and there is a hidden door that takes you to A BACKROOM! Where it’s a bar, and a cute hangout spot! I am not a beer drinker but I got this nectarine beer and I actually finished it. It was so good! The vibe of this place and the people that worked here were all just so wonderful. It’s a nice place to just go and have a beer and hangout, watch TV, chill.
Another thing we did was go to the Ostrich farm! It’s really cheap, like 5 bucks a person, then you can pay 1 dollar to FEED THEM! WARNING: One thing I learned is that Ostriches are SO aggressive, whereas Emu’s are nicer and calmer. I literally only fed the Emu’s because I was scared of the Ostriches lol. But it was fun. A cute place to take photos, learned about the animals, and enjoy spending time having fun. It does smell, but you get over it after awhile. If you have kids, it’s such a fun place to take them and have them feed the animals, I saw so many children having a blast and just being funny with them. Even the adults have fun – It was a super fun experience for me!
We spent a day just walking around and exploring the shops, and we wanted ice cream. I found this cute little hole in the corner (pretty hard to find), but I guess I got lucky. It was called Solvang Trolly Ice Cream Parlor. The lady that worked there was SUCH a sweetheart. She was so kind, gave the best recommendations, and allowed us to sampled more than 2 :). They had an amazingly coffee flavor, as well as a super sweet churro flavor. The churro was way to sweet for me, so of course, I got the coffee. It has crushed coffee in it, so of course I got the energy from it. So, we walked around more and found so many other cute little shops!
Have you ever been to Solvang?
Where are your cute little weekend getaways to? – Write your answer in the comments!
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I have always wanted to go. Now, after reading your blog post I have to go.
Awesome! Let me know how it is and if my post helped in any way 🙂