Santa Barbara, in Fine Style

It’s possible to spend a weekend here on a budget, but if you’re willing to drop some cash--and Santa Barbara makes you want to--a great place to do it is the Simpson House Inn, the only bed-and-breakfast in North Amer-ica to receive a five-diamond rating from AAA.

Bed-and-breakfasts aren’t for everyone--the overdecorating, the forced conviviality with other guests, the potential for an overload of cute. But the Simpson House pulls it off with elan. You get the professional service and elegant touches of an expensive hotel in a setting that allows you the illusion of weekending at a friend’s posh country home--if that friend is a character in a Merchant-Ivory movie.

The Simpson House is pricey. Rooms in the main house run from $215 to $435 per night, and the separate barn and cottages are $500 to $550. The room my husband, Sean, and I booked (the Margaret Simpson, named after the original owners’ daughter) was $340 per night plus taxes.

Our goals for the mid-April weekend were modest compared with the room rate: a belated anniversary observance, a break from parental duties, a chance to indulge enthusiasms our normal schedules don’t allow us, plus reading and sleeping. The Simpson House, a lavishly restored 1874 Victorian house set on a beautiful acre of land, was ideal.

After a long Friday afternoon drive in the rain, we pulled up the driveway and found a Simpson House staff member waiting with an umbrella to help us unpack the car and register.

Our second-floor room was a riot of Victoriana. (Sean’s description of Victorian interior decorating is “There’s no room for ‘too’ in the phrase ‘too much.”’) A high carved wood bed with more than enough pillows and a crocheted spread covering a light down comforter dominated the room. There were Persian-style rugs over wood floors, two damask-upholstered armchairs around a small table and a crocheted cloth under a standing lamp with a fringed shade. The ceiling had an elaborate wallpaper border in a gold-accented, vaguely Asian print.

Two bottles of water were on the dresser, bathrobes waited in the closet and a simple built-in white cabinet concealed a TV and VCR. (The inn keeps a video library in the downstairs parlor, disguised as leather-bound books.) Our bathroom had a pedestal sink, claw-foot tub and three windows.

We had told the reservations person that this was an anniversary trip, and we found a small cake on the table with a card that read, “Ms. Scott and Mr. Mitchell, Happy 8th Anniversary! Celestial rum cake baked especially for you. With warm wishes from the Davies Family and the Simpson House Inn Staff.”

We arrived just in time for the “Mediterranean hors d’oeuvres buffet,” served from 5:30 to 7 at the inn. The dining table was spread with cheeses, breads, grilled vegetables and warm finger foods. Three wines--a Santa Barbara Winery Beaujour and Sauvignon Blanc and a Bogle Chardonnay--were set out alongside iced teas and lemonades. Perched on a settee, we wolfed down the food with about 10 other guests.

We didn’t really need dinner after that, and given the choice between nestling into our surroundings and heading out into the cool, wet night, we stayed in, finishing our wine, reading and listening to the rain outside.

The night’s storm gave way to a crisp, clear Saturday. Breakfast at the Simpson House is served in your room or in several spots downstairs: the dining room, the parlor or, in warmer weather, tables in the garden and on a lovely wraparound porch. We dined downstairs on grilled grapefruit, muffins and Eggs Ranchero--poached eggs around potatoes with salsa and an avocado.

Sean became interested in Spanish architecture when we bought a 1931 Spanish Revival house last fall, so we joined a group taking the Santa Barbara Architectural Foundation’s walking tour, which meets Saturdays at 10 at the Plaza de la Guerra just north of State Street downtown.

Harry Schiffke was our entertaining, digressive volunteer tour guide, and we spent the next two hours following him through a four-block square, beginning with the Jose de la Guerra house, the first structure in Santa Barbara, built from 1818 to 1828.

Other stops along the way were the still-operating Lobero Theatre, designed by George Washington Smith and built in 1973; the Flying A silent movie studios; and the post office, a building by Reginald Johnson, who also designed the landmark Santa Barbara Biltmore.

After the educational morning we yielded to our consumer instincts. A must stop in Santa Barbara for the inveterate catalog reader is the Territory Ahead outlet. Sean found a sports jacket and I picked up a suede coat at seriously reduced prices.

Because we’d had a big breakfast and were planning an early dinner, we had smoothies for lunch from Blender in the Grass on State Street. On our walk back to the inn, we continued our architectural exploration at the historic Santa Barbara County Courthouse, whose tower is open to the public and gives a 360-degree view of the city.

Back at the inn, we dressed for our Saturday night on the town, then walked the five blocks to dinner at Olio e Limone before a concert of the Santa Barbara Symphony at the historic Arlington Theatre. We were seated by Olio e Limone co-owner Elaine Morello in a nearly empty restaurant that filled within minutes. Sean and I both had salads (grilled eggplant and goat cheese for him; pear, Gorgonzola and walnut for me). Sean’s entree was the pasta bottarga with tuna roe. I ordered the black risotto of shrimp and scallops, colored with squid ink. We shared three glasses of wine between us, had espresso and then walked to the Arlington.

The hall, designed as a Spanish revival movie palace in 1931 by James Plunkett, is notable for its elaborate mock hacienda facades along the walls overlooking the audience. The concert was a combination of the old (Mendelssohn’s violin concerto) and the more recent (works by Shostakovich and Tilson-Thomas).

Back at the inn, we found chocolate-covered strawberries on our turned-down bed.

The next morning we had our breakfast brought to the room. Don’t think the Simpson House’s idea of room service is plunking a tray down on the bed. Two waiters cleared and set our incidentals table, rearranged the chairs and served us. The dish was a little heavier than you might like first thing in the morning--biscuits with a porcini mushroom sauce--but it was delicious, and we lounged comfortably in our room tucked under the trees.

Checkout time is 11, but we hit the road earlier to get to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden by 9 for a tour. The garden contains only plants native to California, from succulents to a mini redwood forest, and our 90-minute tour was led by local landscaper Norman Burr, who was full of stories during a leisurely hike with six other inquisitive souls. Norman talked about the origins of the coastal live oaks, woolly mammoths on the Channel Islands and the “volunteer” Chumash labor that built the 1807 dam--still standing--that feeds the Mission Santa Barbara aqueduct.

An architectural tour, a violin concerto and a short course in the natural history of Southern California? They’re not our usual weekend pursuits. But there’s something about the Simpson House Inn that brought out the Victorian dowager in both of us.

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Budget for Two Simpson House Inn,two nights: $704.00

Architectural tour: 10.00

Smoothies, Blender in the Grass: 7.50

Dinner, Olio e Limone: 104.00

Tickets, symphony: 80.00

Admission,botanic garden: 10.00

Gas: 15.00

FINAL TAB: $930.50

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* Simpson House Inn, 121 E. Arrellaga St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101; telephone (800) 676-1280 or (805) 963-7067, fax (805) 564-4811, Internet https://www.simpsonhouseinn.com.

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Kelly Scott is editor of The Times’ Sunday Calendar section.