Sonoma County Help

[tlegray]

I'll be in San Francisco at the end of the month and have decided to take a day trip to Healdsburg area and possibly the Sonoma Valley. I'm most interested in the northern valleys...Alexander and Dry Creek. I'm looking for Winery, Restaurant, and Gourmet Shop rec's. Scenic drives and hidden parks are a plus too. Especially parks on the Russian River. I will have a car and I love getting off the main road.

It's been years since I've been to Healdsburg. Is there still the town square with shops and restaurants? How big is Geyserville these days?

Any other rec's are appreciated.

[cpfstich]

Originally Posted by tlegray

I'll be in San Francisco at the end of the month and have decided to take a day trip to Healdsburg area and possibly the Sonoma Valley. I'm most interested in the northern valleys...Alexander and Dry Creek. I'm looking for Winery, Restaurant, and Gourmet Shop rec's. Scenic drives and hidden parks are a plus too. Especially parks on the Russian River. I will have a car and I love getting off the main road.

It's been years since I've been to Healdsburg. Is there still the town square with shops and restaurants? How big is Geyserville these days?

Any other rec's are appreciated.

We stayed in Petaluma a few years ago and had a great time. We toured several winieries, but Ravenswood was my favorite.

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by tlegray

I'll be in San Francisco at the end of the month and have decided to take a day trip to Healdsburg area and possibly the Sonoma Valley. I'm most interested in the northern valleys...Alexander and Dry Creek. I'm looking for Winery, Restaurant, and Gourmet Shop rec's. Scenic drives and hidden parks are a plus too. Especially parks on the Russian River. I will have a car and I love getting off the main road.

It's been years since I've been to Healdsburg. Is there still the town square with shops and restaurants? How big is Geyserville these days?

Any other rec's are appreciated.

I used to live there in Santa Rosa...I love Armstrong Woods Redwood forest, the town of Sonoma , Occidental for great family Italian dining in a great setting (check out the drive from Occidental through Coleman Valley Road to the ocean...very, very cool "secret scenic drive"...., and of course all the wineries.....you are going to have a great time!

[ami]

Originally Posted by tlegray

I'll be in San Francisco at the end of the month and have decided to take a day trip to Healdsburg area and possibly the Sonoma Valley. I'm most interested in the northern valleys...Alexander and Dry Creek. I'm looking for Winery, Restaurant, and Gourmet Shop rec's. Scenic drives and hidden parks are a plus too. Especially parks on the Russian River. I will have a car and I love getting off the main road.

It's been years since I've been to Healdsburg. Is there still the town square with shops and restaurants? How big is Geyserville these days?

Any other rec's are appreciated.

Here is a link that might be helpful...I'm going to be in Sonoma Country this weekend and ran across this while looking for a limo service...think it might help! I'll be on the other side of the 101 though, in the Guerneville area, closer to the Pacific Ocean.

Sonoma Wine Regions

I drive through the area about twice a year and Healdsburg has gotten a little bigger, though the town square is still there with shops & restuarants. Geyserville is still very small, and the Alexander Valley is still one of the most scenic drives around. Accomodations do not abound in that area though. Restuarants don't either, you'd have to drive either into Geyserville or Healdsburg for options. Have you ever been to Calistoga?

Have fun!

[tlegray]

Wow! Thanks all for your quick responses. I'll check out all the links and winery recs.

Right now I have the following wineries on my to see list: Murphy-Goode & Dry Creek but nothing is written in stone.

http://www.sonoma.com/visitorsinfo/S...Winery_Map.pdf

Ami...I have been to Calistoga and the Napa Valley before. I'm concentrating this trip on the Sonoma County area particularly the area between Windsor and Geyserville. It's a memory lane trip. I spent allot of summers and Thanksgivings in the area and since I'll be in San Francisco thought I'd take a day or two to revisit.

[david479]

If you have time go up 101 -128 towards Mendocino..some wine tasting along the way..great views..http://http://www.mendocino.com/mendocino-motels.htmlAlso if you can Californias Old Faithful is Fun and a quick stop.

[MMandm]

Originally Posted by tlegray

I'll be in San Francisco at the end of the month and have decided to take a day trip to Healdsburg area and possibly the Sonoma Valley. I'm most interested in the northern valleys...Alexander and Dry Creek. I'm looking for Winery, Restaurant, and Gourmet Shop rec's. Scenic drives and hidden parks are a plus too. Especially parks on the Russian River. I will have a car and I love getting off the main road.

It's been years since I've been to Healdsburg. Is there still the town square with shops and restaurants? How big is Geyserville these days?

Any other rec's are appreciated.

My wife and I get out there at least once a year. It's absolutely beautiful country out there.

My recommendations:

Eat in Healdsburg...there are lots of good restaurants. Wine Spectator did a cover story on Healdsburg back in May...maybe look around the web site. I like the brew pub there (Bear Republic) but there are some more upscale-type places, too.

For wineries, Sonoma County is HUGE. There are some very distinct regions which produce different types of wines. The Russian River valley along River Road has Pinot, Chardonnays, and the Korbel Champagne Cellars. The Alexander Valley has Clos du Bois and lots of great reads. One of my favorite areas is along West Dry Creek Road in the Dry Creek Valley. There are some really cute wineries that produce great Zin. Finally, the Sonoma Valley itself along rt. 12 has Chateau St. Jean and St. Francis, which are well worth the trip. Benziger is a great winery to visit; they have interesting history and a commitment to biodynamic farming (kinda like super-duper organic). Sebastiani in downtown Sonoma's cool, too. They've been there for like a century or so.

We always stay in Santa Rosa in the Railroad District. There's a couple of chain hotels (a Courtyard and a Hyatt spa place, I think) and you can walk to about a half dozen restaurants as well as a couple of good local, non-chain coffee shops for your morning fix. Hopefully they still have all the Snoopy statues around in Santa Rosa, and you can always visit the Charles Schultz museum.

You could easily spend a week there...have fun!!!

[tlegray]

Thank you jmp. I'm partial to dryer red wines so any wineries you or anyone would like to recommend would be appreciated. Right now I'm doing research on 5 wineries that my wine guy recommended:

murphy goode
alexander
dry creek
geyzer peak
silver oak

If you or anyone is familiar with any of them, comments would be appreciated.