Santa Rosa

The county seat is the center every wine town radiates from — a real city of Railroad Square brick and Schulz-museum charm, with the Russian River Valley on its western edge and Healdsburg fifteen minutes north. Santa Rosa is the practical heart: stay where the choice is widest, dine across a city's worth of tables, and reach all of Sonoma from a single base. It's the common ground where the whole county meets — and the easiest place to begin.