After spending two evenings in Pismo Beach on our epic Pacific Coast Highway road trip, we traveled inland a bit to visit the town of Solvang, California. Solvang is known as “Little Denmark” and honestly once we got into the city, it was easy to pretend you were back in Europe.
All of the buildings in the town look like a small European village, and there are Danish flags everywhere you look. We spent the first 45 minutes or so just walking up and down the streets, checking out all of the different restaurants and enjoying the scenery.
Our first stop was the Book Loft, which is also attached to the Hans Christian Andersen museum. The museum was closed because of COVID, but the bookstore was open and had a great selection of Danish themed books, along with a wonderful regular selection and lots of great staff recommendations.
After buying a bunch of books (typical me), we started searching for a good spot to eat. We happened to visit on a Sunday afternoon, and the whole city was PACKED. A lot of restaurants had hour plus long waits, so make sure to plan ahead if you’re going on a weekend, especially if the weather is nice.
We ended up stopping at the Copenhagen Sausage Garden, which was entirely outdoors, and had a ton of TVs set up for football. We ordered at the counter, and had an amazing meal of sausages and beer.
On our walk back to the car, we spotted the Family Coat of Arms shop, where you can find your last name, and get a framed coat of arms along with a description of the history of your name. You can also contact them via phone/email to order your last name if you aren’t in the area. I’m definitely saving this one in the list of gift ideas!
After walking off our sausages, we jumped back in the car to head to our final destination for the evening, Santa Barbara. Be sure to check out our full Pacific Coast Highway itinerary here!
