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Flying Flags RV Resort is one of the Highway West resorts, and its location in Santa Barbara wine country in Southern California put it in the ideal place for us to spend a week checking out the local cycling routes.  All in all, we enjoyed our time here.

The main entrance is well-maintained, and that’s pretty typical at Flying Flags.

There’s a lot to say about Flying Flags, so let’s start with the actual RV accommodations themselves.  The sites were level, and everything worked and was reasonably clean, but make no mistake about it, this is not camping… it’s an RV park.  As the weekend approached, the place started to fill up with big rigs, and we started to feel a little “dwarfed” in our Class B rig.  Everyone was very polite and all, but it’s just a weird feeling.

Thank goodness Lance is bright yellow or we might have lost him!

Our assigned space was definitely in the “cheap seats”, because there were some rigs that seemed like they were there permanently, like this one out our front window that I finally gave a proper name:

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the HMS “Garbage Scow”

I found the Garbage Scow puzzling when you consider the price.  This place was EXPENSIVE.  We were in the absolute cheapest accommodations they had.  And we paid over $400.00 for six nights.  I think there were different rates for weekday vs. weekend, but on average, that’s over $67 per night!  And that’s the cheapest they offer.  I couldn’t quite understand how someone who collects aluminum cans for a living could afford to stay there.

So yes, it was expensive, but you do get quite a bit for that rate.  The facilities are numerous and immaculately maintained.  For example, this is the laundry.

Every washer and dryer in this facility worked. Every. Single. One.

We had no problems keeping our cycling kits clean here, and even through the front desk warned us that the credit card readers on the machines could be finicky, I had no problems at all using them.  The restroom and shower facilities were equally nice.

We mainly used the showers in a newer shower house that was just being finished.

But while laundry and showers are things you can find at pretty much any RV park, Flying Flags offered a number of amenities that went above and beyond.  For example, there was this exercise room:

I had to wonder about the cardio machines… why not just jog outside?  It’s Southern California!

It’s great to see more and more RV parks offering exercise facilities.  We hope the trend continues.  Besides the exercise room, there were plenty of other facilities available at Flying Flags.  There was this really nice pool with super-swanky cabanas that we didn’t use because we hadn’t brought any swimwear:

There was also a really cool playground that Stef said I wasn’t allowed to play in because we hadn’t brought any children:

Apparently, I no longer pass for 12.

And a pretty nice off-leash dog park that we couldn’t use because we hadn’t brought any dogs:

I thought about bringing our cat, Mel, here, but I decided I liked my face in one piece.

There was also an on-site restaurant with outdoor seating.  It looked really nice, but we didn’t try it because there were so many other restaurants within walking distance to try!

Normally, we’d be all over an amenity like this, but there were just too many other options.

And now would be a good time to talk about the location and fitness opportunities.  This is probably the biggest single thing that Flying Flags has going for it.  It sits just a hundred yards from the main intersection in Buellton, CA, with a plethora of restaurants within walking distance, as well as a couple markets.  That’s pretty fantastic – we don’t have a tow vehicle and we never once wished for one.

But the other thing the location has going for it is the proximity to a lot of fantastic cycling.  Stef and I rode pretty much every day and we didn’t repeat the same route once while we were there.  Since the area is so popular with cyclists, the route descriptions are easy to find, which is a big deal if you’re coming in from out of town.  You don’t need to be a local to find the good riding.  Just google up “Amgen Tour of California Solvang Time Trial”, for example, and BAM… there’s a map of your route.  Since this was so easy to navigate, I’m giving this place perfect marks for fitness opportunities.

This looks like a painting to me.

So all in all, yes, Flying Flags RV Resort in Buellton is expensive.  But also yes, we would stay there again.  It really did make a solid base camp for the week of So Cal riding and the whole trip went off well.  If you’re looking to get away for a week of riding, you might want to point your RV to Buellton.