5 Cute Wine Country Towns In Northern, CA (That Aren’t Napa)

3 min readApr 28, 2023

Everyone’s heard of Napa, but there are so many other great spots for wine + good food + beautiful scenery that should be on your list if you are heading up to wine country! We spent 3 days in Sonoma, + packed in as much life as possible.

Note: IMO you have to love (or really really like) wine to visit wine country. We realized this after the fact lol. Full disclosure… we don’t love wine. lol sorry! The rolling hills + vineyards are absolutely stunning, but if you are not THAT into wine— I wouldn’t recommend visiting. Sounds obvious but I feel like I had to mention that! We were very much wine-d out lol. Nevertheless, I still have recs for you, especially all you wine lovers! ☺️

Sonoma ✨

Go for a hike: We hiked up the Sonoma Overlook Trail, which was a fun intro to Sonoma. There’s also a 1.5 mile bike path in Sonoma that you can bike or run on!

Check out: 8 Hikes In Sonoma Country For The Adventurous

Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon + Rose 5K: This was happening while we visited! Register here + enjoy the post-race wine festival.
Valley: Super cute wine bar + restaurant. They also have coffee + pastries in the morning Thurs-Mon.
El Molino Central: Colorful + casual Mexican restaurant
Cielito Coffee + Ice Cream: Coffee, smoothies, churros, + ice cream!
Hanzell Vineyards
Scribe Winery
Bartholomew Estate Winery

Glen Ellen ✨

Les Pascals Patisserie et Boulangerie: Very charming French bakery with a cute story from the owners! Loved supporting this cafe.
Glen Ellen Star: Cozy restaurant with California comfort food

Healdsburg ✨

Walk around the square… super cute shopping + loved seeing so many people picnic in the park!
Black Oak Coffee Roasters: Great coffee
The Matheson: Fancy restaurant with a more casual rooftop cafe
Ridge Vineyards

Calistoga ✨

**Calistoga was my favorite of the 5 towns!**
Mud Baths at Indian Springs: Unique experience!
Solbar: Restaurant that’s a part Solage Hotel (beautiful hotel!)
Sam’s Social Club: Great for brunch… Sam’s General Store is also a good coffee spot stop!
Canard Vineyard
Venge Vineyards
LOLA Wines