Typical California guide books have approximately one page about
Santa Rosa. We offer much more than that! Read on...
Santa Rosa,
California is a
city of about 157,000 (and growing fast) located about 50 miles north of
San Francisco in Sonoma County, just off of the 101 freeway. Santa Rosa
has seen tremendous population growth in the last few years.
Santa Rosa California is the hub of the Sonoma County wine county
and is centrally located for visiting the Valley of the Moon, Dry
Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, or the world famous
Napa Valley Wine Country.
All of these wine producing areas are located within 30 to 40
minutes of Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa is located about 50 minutes away
from from the Pacific Ocean via Highway 12 through Sebastopol.
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Commercial Flights from Sonoma
County Airport
Santa Rosa's Airport is named Charles M. Schulz Airport (in memory
of the creator of the Peanuts Internationally syndicated cartoon strip). This
airport is located just north of town and Horizon Air offers direct flights to Los
Angeles and
Seattle 2x/day and to Portland &
Las Vegas 1x/day. For more information & flight schedules
Click here. Visit:
www.sonomacountyairport.org
Our team made the trek up to the airport for the Horizon Air Open to the Public Day.
Click here for Photos & Flight schedules |
When the 101 swath was built in the 50's it
removed much of the traffic off of Santa Rosa Avenue but most of the
hotels remained in business until recently. Now with 6 lanes running
through downtown Santa Rosa traffic that for many years would slow to a
crawl now moves along fairly well throughout most of the day. Unfortunately most of
the hotels, bars, industrial complexes and used car lots are gone. The
El Rancho Tropicana, one of Santa Rosa's largest hotels was torn down in
the mid 90's, and is now the home to a huge urban crowded sprawling
shopping complex. The Oakland Raiders used to practice on the football
fields behind the El Rancho. So did the Cal Bears until the hotel was
torn down. Sadly, with these changes much of Santa Rosa's "south side
character" has been lost forever - replaced by the boring homogenous
sprawl of urban congestion that *should not* define a city.
If you are observant you can still see some of the
old hotels surrounded by old palm trees. There were many good times on this
Ave, when the Raiders used to practice at the El
Rancho.
Photos of Santa Rosa's downtown 4th Street
MacDonald Ave located mostly north of the downtown is a neighborhood from an era long ago.
There are many stately mansions all quite unique in appearance. The MacDonald mansion is
huge and is the most impressive of the homes in this area. It is currently
being restored by private owners. The MacDonald Ave is a beautiful area to walk
with wide streets, old trees and charming homes.
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The Roseland district is the closest thing to a suburb of Santa Rosa.
This is a predominately Hispanic community and you can enjoy good
Mexican food from some of the vendors that setup shop along this area.
The Fountain Grove district is a prestigious community of fancy
homes built in the hills above northern Santa Rosa. The entrance to
Fountain Grove is at |
Fountain
Grove Parkway and contains several fancy hotels, a golf course, a
winery, a retirement community, an office park
and lots of high end hillside residential housing.
An annual event that is held in Sonoma County each year is a gathering
for about 3 weeks by the male only Bohemian Club - a private club based
in San Francisco. This event is held north west of Santa Rosa in July
and attracts former US Presidents, well-known politicians, Presidents of
other countries and a plethora of distinguished men in their respective
fields. During this time the skies are always a buzz of activity with
private jets and helicopters bringing in the elite folks to and from the
Charles Schulz airport. These few weeks are almost reminiscent of the
skies over Sao Paulo in Brazil!
Read on for more information in our Santa Rosa Travel Guide.
Bougainvillea next to
Mediterranean landscaping. Spanish style building |
Photos in Santa Barbara?
No Way! In Santa Rosa! |
Snow photos in SR
Fountain Grove.
January 27, 2002.
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Panoramic of Fountain Grove Parkway. Ample snow on the
ground to cross country ski on! |
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