Midway between Malibu and Santa Barbara, Ventura (pop. 100,916) is an offbeat little place, its three-block Main Street lined by enough thrift shops (seven at last count) to clothe a destitute retro-minded army. Apart from searching out vintage couture, the main reason to stop is the small and much-reconstructed Mission San Buenaventura (daily; donations), standing at the center of Ventura at 225 E. Main Street, just east of the US-101 freeway. This was the ninth in the California mission chain, and the last one founded by Father Serra, in 1782. A block from the mission at 113 E. Main Street, the Albinger Archaeological Museum (closed Mon.; free) collects a wide range of artifacts—the oldest from 1500 bc, the most recent from early American settlers—all excavated from a single city block–sized site alongside the mission.
Ventura doesn’t get anything like the tourist trade that Santa Barbara draws, but it does have the very pleasant Bella Magiore Inn ($90 and up; 805/652-0277 or 800/523-8479), offering good-value B&B rooms in a nicely restored 1920s courtyard house at 67 S. California Street, between downtown and US-101.
South of Ventura, US-101 heads inland through the San Fernando Valley to Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles, while Hwy-1 heads south through the 10 miles of stop-and-go sprawl that make up the rapidly suburbanizing farming community of Oxnard (pop. 170,358), then continues right along the coast through Malibu and West Los Angeles.
