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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When the 101 swath was put in (currently being widened to three lanes
through the downtown corridor - what a mess that is - want to see some
accidents - visit College or Steele lane during the afternoon rush hour
around 4-5:30pm) - 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,
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 sprawl of urban congestion.
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. This is a beautiful area to walk.
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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, an office park
and lots of high end hillside residential housing.
Read on for more information in our Santa Rosa Travel Guide.
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