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Originally posted by Jhai:

San Francisco is a good 2-3 hours away (depending on traffic), so that might not be the best trip out of town. If you are willing (and have the time) to drive out of town, you might try visiting a winery in Napa Valley, which should only be an hours drive. There's also some vineyards in the area closer Sacramento. Alternatively, you might consider going east to Lake Tahoe. Even if there's not enough snow on the ground yet for skiing, the lake is very beautiful year round.

If you haven't already been warned, Sacramento can get pretty cold in the winter, at least by California standards. Bring a warm coat, and don't be surprised if the temperatures drop below freezing during the night.

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As a Davicite (I go to UC Davis) I feel I should chime in on a few things here. SF is at most 2 hours away and at best less than 90 minutes. Don't travel in Sactown at rush hour though. Napa is more like 2 hours drive because you can't drive as the crow flies in Norcal. It typically will not drop below freezing, but it is the coldest of California cities in the winter due to fog especially. Expect anywhere from high 50s to low 40s. It doesn't get in the 30s until January.

Frankly Davis people refer to the city as Suck-ramento, because in recent history it has been a cultural black hole. It is not a very nice city and there is not a lot to do.

You might spend a nice afternoon in Davis, which is a small town to the south of the city about 10 minute's drive. It has a nice downtown, farmer's market on Saturday and a number of very good restaurants. Daviswiki.org will give you an idea of the options there.

My favorite restaurant there is probably Fuji, which is a very good sushi lunch buffet in downtown that costs 12 dollars (it's a college crowd). If you want to go there, expect a line around the block, but if you go at 11 when they open or at 2 when they are closing, you will be able to get a seat at the bar.

My favorite proper restaurant and bar is a place called Little Prague, where you can get really good Czech foods and beers and the (slightly) older grad student crowd, as the place is pricier than most, but still reasonable.

In general Davis is just a dream of a small town where independent book and cloth shops continue to do business at local prices, and there is no room for the big box crap of Sacramento. It's kind of a picture of how small town America is supposed to be. This is achieved mainly by the presence of the University as the town's central feature. The campus is huge (biggest in California and one of the biggest worldwide) and it is home to the most bikes per capita in the world. You can walk or ride a bike through the arboretum or out to the farmland surrounding the town, and the city is totally bike oriented (with bike paths equaling streets, and bike lights in intersections).

There is also the Mondavi center, which is one of the most well known and best concert halls on the west coast, where many major international groups and symphony orchestras play every year. Mondavicenter.org will have a schedule of events. People drive up from SF or down from Sac to go there, so if you are in the area seeing Mondavi is something you really should try to do.
 

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
I'm from South Bay, and have family in both Sacramento and Napa. From SF proper to Sac, it's never taken less than 2 hours to travel the distance, and if I can't avoid rush hour, 3 hours is good timing. There are decent alternate routes from Sac to Napa - take 128 during rush hours, and the main route otherwise. It's never taken more than an hour and change. No way it takes longer than to get to Napa than SF from Sac - just look at the routes on a map.

Sac is also typically colder than Davis in the winter for whatever reason. There's already been freezing issues on my aunt's farm on the east side of Sac (Roseville area).

Davis is a beautiful little town, and certainly worth a visit, but there are gems in Sac if you're willing to look around. Don't buy into the Sac-hating that the (university) people of Davis love to indulge in, Orincoro.
 

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Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
 
I love to indulge in it because every time I go to Sacramento it's the most miserable experience of my week.

Honestly, it's a terrible city. Especially for being so close to a nice one.

You're just wrong about the travel time though. You can make it from Sac (assuming you start your watch on business 80 leaving the city), in under 90 minutes. The distance is something like 80-90 miles. Traffic is almost certain, but I do travel late at night to avoid it. If you drive from Sac to SF at say, 10 pm or 6 am, you can make the journey in as little as 90 minutes, and if you speed like most of us do in this area, that's a real possibility.

Not saying you should count on tht time (it once took me 6 hours to get from SF to Davis) but you can do it.

BTW, coming up from SF is sometimes worse because you catch the traffic moving into the city up from the peninsula. Getting to the bay bridge can take forever.
 

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
I've spent a summer in Sac. I enjoyed it - like I said in my original post - there are nice neighborhoods. You're right that there are awful ones too, though, and overall the city is not the highlight of California. (And, hrmphf, Davis is no city. )

I agree that it's possible to make it from Sac to SF in under 90 minutes if you speed and see no traffic. I once made it out of LA and up to South Bay in under 4 hours, too. It was Christmas Eve, everyone wanted to get home, and average speeds on Highway 5 in the left lane were nearing 95 mph (no lie). Still, I'll tell most tourists that they should expect it to take at least 5 1/2 hours, and to budget for more in case of traffic. Same thing with Sac - most people aren't used to avoiding rush hours like California residents are, so they'll typically hit it going one way or the other. Also, most citizens of this fine country don't speed like Californians.

I'll counter your traffic story with an 8 hour trip from South Bay to Napa on Thanksgiving day. There weren't even any accidents! We eventually took out the maps around Vallejo and found the little 2-lane backroad highways to get us the rest of the way.

I haven't made the drive to Sac in a couple of years, but 880 can be miserable from San Jose to Oakland during the entire day It's fine past 10 pm, but before that I'd rather take 280 (not 101!) than 880.
 

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Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
 
If you are just rubbernecking, the AmTrac from Sacramento to SF is fun(and clean). The train no longer crosses the bay bridge. They deboard you in Emeryville and bus you the rest of the way. The Amtrack station is in the same building that the old train station used to use. If your timetable fits you might even be on the California Zepher. It's a shadow of its former glory but still fun. Oh, and the train station at Davis is right out of Disneyland.
 

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Posted by esl (Member # 3143) on :
 
I didn't know there were so many NorCal Jatraqueros. I'm in Davis too, Orincoro.

I mostly stay in though, so I don't have suggestions for you, dem. There is a website yelp.com that rates and reviews local establishments all over the country.
 

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Posted by dem (Member # 2512) on :
 
Thanks for the additional suggestions. If I decide to drive to San Fran...I will budget 30 minutes to 4 hrs, depending on conditions and my driving ability.

I won't have anyone with me to go to NAPA with...I don't mind traveling by myself, but is this a definite couples thing?
 

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
Naw, visiting wineries are fun for everybody (of legal drinking age, of course). I've never gone by myself, but I've also never gone as part of lovey-dovey couple, either. Given the time you'll avoid all the tourists and honeymooners, too. If you're interested in wine, you'll be able to learn quite a bit (and get some decently-priced bottles).

Sadly, the valley kinda sucks for tourists. If you were interested in irrigation, dams, and other water system things, Sacramento would probably be your mecca. Otherwise, it's more of a central location to get to a lot of other NorCal places. If you feel like the drive, you could travel east to Reno to get into some good poker games. It's 2 hours and change, and you could check out Lake Tahoe as well.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
Actually, visiting some wineries is fun for people not of legal drinking age. I remember watching the trucks dump the grapes and loving it as about an 8-year-old...
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
Oh, and our absolute favorite stuff in Sacramento (and near it) was historical. We went to the spot where gold was discovered, panned gold in the (freezing even in summer-- don't recommend this in winter) American River, saw the Chinese Camp, did the whatever-it's-called fort thing that's like a historical re-enactment touristy site and museum...
 

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Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
 
Dem, if you go to Napa, the best thing is to go with someone so you can let loose with the boozing. The way the wineries work it, you pay a flat fee to drink 10-12 half-glasses of wine from their lists. It's rather cheap- some places give you three nice glasses for 5 dollars, and the bottles are very reasonably priced. You can also buy select vintages that are not exported even to other parts of California- there are wineries that exclusively sell at the vineyard in Napa and that's it.
 

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Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
 
Despite all the naysayers, there are some things to see in Sacramento.

There is Old Sacramento which, while being a bit tourist-trappy in some aspects, does contain some historic buildings and the California State Railroad Museum. Also in Sacramento there is the state capitol (worth it just to see the rather odd official portrait of former governor...and current attorney general...Jerry Brown), as well as the Crocker Art Museum, which is the oldest continually operating art museum west of the Mississippi and holds collections of early California art as well as a collection of old-master drawings that include pieces by Rembrandt and Durer.

And if you want to venture out a bit, you might want to visit Locke , a small town in the Delta, south of the city. Locke was founded by Chinese immigrants and stands essentially as it was in 1920. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a National Historic Landmark.
 

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