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It was like discovering that Paris Hilton bicycles through her neighbourhood every Sunday morning collecting bottles and cans for recycling.

I'd always thought of Santa Barbara as a high-gloss, devil-may-care kind of place. After all, this affluent city, just 150 kilometres north of Los Angeles, markets itself as the American Riviera and boasts enough celebrity sightings, multi-million-dollar homes and chi-chi shops to suggest its residents -- and those who come to play -- spend their days in self-centred indulgence.

But in a land of peroxide blondes, Santa Barbara has impressively green roots. The story goes that in 1969 a devastating oil spill occurred off the coast here. The late Senator Gaylord Nelson visited the area and, spurred on by what he saw, spearheaded legislation to declare April 22 as a national day to celebrate the planet. From Santa Barbara's oily beaches, Earth Day was born.

Sitting on West Beach today, shifting crystals of white sand through my fingers, it's hard to imagine the devastation. To my right, in Santa Barbara Harbor, locals buy spot prawns at the Saturday morning Fisherman's Market. To my left, visitors walk the wooden planks of Stearns Wharf, a 135-year-old pier that's home to touristy restaurants and the child-friendly Warner Sea Center (as in Ty Warner, of Beanie Babies fame). Behind me, cyclists, rollerbladers, runners and tourists in surrey-style peddle cars cruise the palm-studded promenade that parallels the seashore.

Across the street from the beach is my hotel, the Harbor View Inn. This low-slung, four-diamond property participates in Santa Barbara's Car Free Experience initiative (santabarbaracarfree.org), which offers discounts on lodgings, activities and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service to Los Angeles for travellers who arrive without a car or who park their wheels for the duration of their stay. The city has also recently launched a website -- http://www.greensantabarbara.com -- devoted to environmentally smart travel. Here you'll find tips on green lodgings, transportation and cuisine, as well as itineraries focused on food, eco-tourism, quintessential activities and art, architecture and design.

Although the Harbor View Inn offers recycling and the option of reusing towels and linens, what makes it a sound environmental choice is its location within walking distance of the beach, downtown core and downtown-waterfront shuttle, an electric shuttle bus that, for a 25-cent fare, takes visitors most places they want to go.

Top of my list is State Street, the downtown's main drag, lined with an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants and galleries. Armed with a free map from the visitors centre, I follow the Red Tile Tour, a 12-block, self-guided walking tour. Highlights include the chapel at El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historical Park, a former Spanish fort founded in 1782, and the County Courthouse, built in the Spanish-Moorish revival style and featuring a mural room and exceptional views from the clock tower.

Another must-do on my list is the Santa Barbara Zoo. While my inner child loves the lions and tigers, my green-traveller side is impressed with the zoo's environmental initiatives, including a solar-powered giraffe barn, a bioswail (a grassy trench) that naturally filters the zoo's runoff, reclaimed water used for irrigation and restaurant flatware that looks and feels like plastic but is made from potatoes, a renewable resource that can be composted.Watching the Humboldt penguins gobble sustainable seafood, I chat about the motivation behind environmental do-gooding with Chris Briggs, a member of the zoo's Green Team. "Part of our mission is to educate the public about preservation and conservation," says Briggs. "So we've got to walk the walk, talk the talk."

I decide to stop walking and try touring on an environmentally friendly Segway, a scooter on steroids that boasts zero emissions and zero need for gas. I spend the first 30 minutes of my city tour inside the Segway warehouse learning how to stop, start and balance my machine. One wall is marked with black skid lines. "We call that the wall of shame," co-owner Jerry Mahoney explains. "One woman was just not listening to me when I explained how to stop." I listen more carefully, then follow Mahoney on a tour through the city's passageways, streets and gardens.

Later, I hop on an electric bus (Santa Barbara is reported to have the largest fleet of electric vehicles in North America) for a 10-minute ride to Mission Santa Barbara. This vanilla-and-pink mission, established in 1786, still serves as a church and friary. That explains the Franciscan friar who bustles past in the mission garden, his brown robe with rope belt billowing behind.

Back on State Street, I opt for a dinner of blue crab cakes with mango pineapple relish and steamed mussels with saffron at Pierre Lafond Bistro. Chef Joshua Keating stops by my table and we chat about his weekly foraging at the local farmers' markets. "I build relationships with farmers and suppliers whose practices are sustainable," says Keating. "I figure it's our turn to be responsible."

It's a sentiment shared by many local chefs. The notes on the menu at the Blue Agave, a must-stop for lovers of great food and primo tequilas, are typical: "We use organically grown produce whenever possible, which is almost always. Eggs, poultry and meats are free-range and naturally fed, etc."

After three days in the city, I'm feeling well-fed and ready for some open range. I pick up a fuel-efficient rental car (no hybrids available) and head 32 kilometres up the coast to El Capitan Canyon for a one-night stay in a resort of the same name that coddles campers in cedar cabins and canvas safari tents outfitted with Persian rugs.

This luxe campground has many green attributes, including a voluntarily setback of buildings from the canyon stream, a reintroduction of native plants and a policy that keeps vehicles out of the canyon except to drop bags off. Some things, however, still need tweaking, such as paper towels in my cabin kitchenette and disposable plates in the deli. Still, I find the resort an eco-friendly base camp for hiking the canyon and exploring the surf beaches of El Capitan and Refugio.

The next morning, I follow Highway 101 into Santa Barbara's wine country and spend a day meandering down country roads fringed with ancient oaks, wildflowers and vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley. Along the way, I meet environmentally savvy wine producers Deborah Hall, who sells her high-end Gypsy Canyon wines in hand-blown bottles made from recycled glass, and Richard Sanford, a pioneer of sustainable and organic wine production in the Santa Rita Hills.

Over a glass of Chardonnay at his Alma Rosa Winery, Sanford shares his belief in honouring "the unmistakable relationship between the healthiness of the soil, the energy of the vines and ultimately the soul of wine." It's inspiring stuff, particularly while sipping the product of those beliefs.

Driving back to Santa Barbara through the dramatic San Marcos Pass, I pass a wine-tour van. At first, I assume the occupants look so happy because they've got a designated driver. But then I reconsider. Perhaps these tipplers are looking smug because they've reduced their greenhouse-gas emissions by sharing one vehicle. It's a reminder that looks can be deceiving.

Pack your bags

GETTING THERE

Santa Barbara, bisected by U.S. Route 101, is 150 kilometres north of Los Angeles. The Santa Barbara Airport offers commercial air service and Amtrak offers rail service through the Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner trains.A portion of the author's trip was sponsored by the Santa Barbara Conference and Visitors Bureau.

WHERE TO STAY

Harbor View Inn: 28 West Cabrillo Blvd.; 1-800-755-0222; http://www.harborviewinnsb.com. Rooms from $371.

El Capitan Canyon: 11560 Calle Real; 1-866-352-2729; http://www.elcapitancanyon.com. Tent and cabin rates from $165; check Web for packages.

WHERE TO EAT

Pierre LaFond Bistro: 516 State St., 805-962-1455; pierrelafond.com.

The Blue Agave: 20 East Cota St., 805-899-4694.

Farmers' Markets: For locations and times, 805-962-5354; sbfarmersmarket.org.

WHERE TO PLAY

Santa Barbara Zoo: 805-962-5339; http://www.sbzoo.org. Adults, $11; children (2-12), $9.

Segway of Santa Barbara: 805-963-7672; http://www.segwayofsb.com. Old Santa Barbara tour, $90.

Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association: 805-688-0881; http://www.sbcountywines.com. Request a copy of their free booklet and map, Wineries of Santa Barbara.

MORE INFORMATION

Santa Barbara Conference and Visitors Bureau: 805-966-9222; santabarbaraCA.com. Request their excellent free guides: for cuisine, Get Fresh on the American Riviera; for film, Santa Barbara County Film Tour; for a movie-inspired tour of wine country, Sideways: The Map.

Earth Day celebrations:The Community Environmental Council and the UCSB Donald Bren School for Environmental Science & Management are hosting the South Coast Earth Day Festival tomorrow. http://www.communityenvironmentalcouncil.org.