Like many great movie characters, Santa Barbara's film history has a humble beginning.  As the home to California’s first major movie studio, the legendary Flying A Studio (1910), Santa Barbara was a modest hub to film's early pioneers during the silent era. But it wasn't until Cecil B. DeMille shot the sand-scapes of Guadalupe (still accessible today) in The Ten Commandments (1923) that Santa Barbara gained a reputation for locations worthy of stardom. Since then, the region has been cast in classics such as The Graduate, Seabiscuit and the wine-infused comedy, Sideways. You may've even seen our backdrops used in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse (2006) — or our dunes in Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World's End (2007).

Design a trip to see your favorite film settings firsthand by requesting a FREE Lonely Planet Santa Barbara County Film Tour Guide. Then, sleep where stars such as Clark Gable and Carole Lombard slept; or plan a trip around the Santa Barbara International Film Festival to indulge your inner voyeur. The American Riviera's vast red carpet awaits you!