We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meredith Brace. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meredith below.

Alright, Meredith thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Our flexibility and knowledge of the area sets us apart. We want our customers to feel that they have choices, even after they have booked a specific tour, depending on their passions and interests. If they go on a wine country tour with us, we are happy to include sights that aren’t necessarily on the itinerary, such as visiting small villages in the area or adding an extra stop at a unique venue.

Meredith, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My life’s goal at sixth grade graduation was “To know everyone in Santa Barbara”. At Santa Barbara High School I was allowed to study Santa Barbara History for my US History requirement. My mother took me to Europe three times for the sole purpose of studying the architecture. I led the Social Studies units for the third (they study their city) and fourth (they study their state) grades as the Library Media Teacher at a local private school for 25 years. Roll those aspects into one, and I consider myself an expert on Santa Barbara both historically and architecturally. My guests are filled with entertaining facts throughout the tour, and can tell that providing this information is my favorite thing to do. This happens not only on our city tour but on our kayak tour, our hiking tour, and our wine tours.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

My husband, sister-in-law (silent partners) and I decided to offer to purchase Captain Jack’s Santa Barbara Tours. The previous owner had owned it for 15 years and offered to train me in the office for three weeks. He gave me about three minutes of his time, so needless to say it was a sink or swim type situation as I knew nothing about business after having been an elementary school teacher for 25 years. It was an awful three months, but with some help from a couple of people we figured everything out and got things back on truck. Then COVID hit eight months later…..

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met one of my partners, my husband, at the Ice Patch, an ice skating rink here in Santa Barbara in eighth grade. I’ve always liked him.

Contact Info:

• Website: captainjackstours.com
• Instagram: captainjackssantabarbaratours
• Facebook: captain jacks santa barbara tours