Explore Our Four Guided Tours Experiences
Step beyond the tasting rooms and discover Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley through the people who cultivate its land. These small-group farm and food experiences offer a rare opportunity to connect directly with local ranchers, farmers, and growers through behind-the-scenes tour visits.
Enjoy seasonal tastings, and hands-on encounters with friendly rare-breed animals and u-pick harvests. Along the way, guests enjoy relaxed transportation and beautiful on-farm picnics that celebrate the region’s bounty.
Farmland & Flavors of Santa Ynez Valley Tour: Cattle-to-Picnic
Experience Central Coast’s Western Lifestyle and Taste the Region
Meet the Rancher, Tasting & Picnic Guided Tour Experience
Enjoy a guided experience - an immersive journey into the region’s agriculture, an outdoor family tour, a morning farm experience on a working ranch with sweeping views, a walnut grove and olive orchard. Meet the rancher on this eco-friendly ranch and learn how they build the soil and bio-dynamic landscape to feed the animals. Stroll the property, interact with friendly goats & donkeys, savor a taste of honey made from the bees and native flora. Experience cracking and eating fresh walnuts, tasting olive oil and enjoying an on farm artisanal guided cheese tasting charcuterie picnic lunch.
AVAILABLE: Thursday - Monday from 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM; PICKUP: Mission Santa Ynez (transportation included)
STOP 1: Cattle Ranch - Meet rancher and cattle, feed friendly farm animals, learn about the holistic land management operation
STOP 2: Seasonal Farm Visit - Explore rotating farms featuring orchards, berries, walnuts, or flowers
STOP 3: Olive Grove Picnic - Olive grove tour and farm picnic with local cheeses and seasonal fare
Stop 4 (Optional Add-On): Wine service.
Historic Farmstead: Farm Animal Encounter-to-Picnic
Connect with Farm Animals and U-Pick Seasonal Produce
Meet Farm Animals, U-Pick Fruit Picnic Guided Tour Experience
Enjoy an outdoor family-friendly relaxed morning farm experience at a historic farmstead with sheep, pigs, goats, alpaca, Scotland Highland Cattle, a walnut grove and olive orchard for a tour and tasting. Stroll through an organic farm to find seasonal fruit you can pick and take home. The experience concludes enjoying an on farm artisanal guided cheese tasting charcuterie picnic lunch. This guided experience offers an immersive journey into the region’s agriculture.
AVAILABLE: Thursday - Monday from 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM; PICKUP: Mission Santa Ynez (transportation included)
STOP 1: Seasonal Farm Visit - Explore rotating farms featuring orchards, berries, walnuts, or flowers
STOP 2: Historic Farmstead and U-pick - Interact with animals, go home with seasonal fruit
STOP 3: Olive Grove Picnic - Olive and lavender farm tour and picnic with local cheeses, smoked meats and seasonal fare.
Meet the Vintner on the Terroir Experiences
Sunset Eco-Sheep Farm Wine Experience
Explore a sheep, olive, wine ranch
Meet the Farmer Vintner Wine Tasting Experience
Enjoy a relaxed two-hour sunset farm experience. Meet the farmers on this eco-friendly sheep farm and learn about the land. Stroll the property, interact with friendly sheep, and savor a guided tasting of five wines alongside freshly pressed olive oil. The experience concludes with artisanal charcuterie and sweeping hill top views of the sunset - an authentic, intimate taste of sustainable farming, food, and wine.
AVAILABLE: Thursday and Friday - 5:00 PM - 7 PM
PICKUP - Mission Santa Ynez
STOP 1: Bucolic hilltop farm setting with views of Santa Ynez Valley, taste 5 wines, olive oil and cheese at sunset, enjoy a refined wine experience for adults, alongside a family-friendly farm visit
Sky Ranch Sunset Wine Terroir Experience
Discover the Santa Rita Hills AVA
Meet the Farmer Vintner Wine Tasting Experience
Enjoy a relaxed two-hour sunset farm experience on the tippy hilltop ranch. Meet the farmers on this eco-friendly farm and learn about the land. Stroll the property, interact with friendly farm animals, and savor a guided tasting of five wines alongside freshly pressed olive oil. The experience concludes with artisanal charcuterie and sweeping mountain views of the sunset - an authentic, intimate taste of sustainable farming, food, and wine.
AVAILABLE: Thursday and Sunday - Time is flexible. Please enquire.
PICKUP: Mission Santa Ynez
STOP 1: Mountain top ranch with 360 mountain top views of Santa Rita Hills AVA, taste 5 wines, olive oil and cheese at sunset, enjoy a refined wine experience for adults, alongside a family-friendly farm visit where kids can feed goats
Santa Ynez Valley History
Santa Ynez Valley features five towns established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Ballard (1881), Santa Ynez (1882), Los Olivos (1887), Solvang (1911), and Buellton (1920).
The valley has always enjoyed a strong agricultural base. In the late 1800s, cattle and sheep reigned, followed by crops such as olives, peaches, walnuts, prunes, apples, cherries, and quinces. The dairy industry rose and fell in the mid-1900s. Today, the countryside is dominated by wineries (more than 50), cattle ranches, and horse ranches that specialize in thoroughbreds.
The stagecoach played an important role in settling the Santa Ynez Valley. From 1858 to 1889, it ran from San Francisco to Yuma, Arizona, stopping near Ballard.
The Pacific Coast narrow-gauge railroad came to Los Olivos in 1887. In addition to transporting people up and down California, it made the shipment of farm products cheaper and more convenient.
Olive oil tasting with a loaf of sliced bread with olive oil being drizzled onto it, beside a glass bowl of olive oil and some black olives on a rustic wooden table.
Santa Ynez Valley Landscape and Vineyard with a large tree in the center, rows of grapevines with golden leaves, mountains in the background, and clear sky.
Historic Black and white photo of multiple cows feeding from a trough on a farm, enclosed by wooden fencing.
A white chicken walking on straw-covered ground in an outdoor farm setting.
A group of goats grazing on a grassy field under a blue sky with scattered clouds, with trees in the background.
Close-up of a cow's face with two different-colored eyes, black and white fur.
Vineyard with rows of grapevines in a hilly landscape under a clear blue sky.
Group of people walking through an olive grove orchard with rows of green-leafed olive trees, green grassy path, fencing, rolling hills, trees, and mountains in the background.