Sonoma Plaza and Mission

The Sonoma Plaza is the heart of Sonoma Valley and one of the most charming places in Northern California to spend an unhurried day. Laid out by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo in the 1830s, the eight-acre square is the largest town plaza in California: a park of lawns, old trees, a duck pond, a playground and rose gardens with the stone Sonoma City Hall at its center, surrounded on all four sides by historic adobes and false-front buildings now filled with tasting rooms, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, bookstores and boutiques. History is everywhere. In 1846 American settlers raised a homemade flag with a grizzly bear here and declared the short-lived California Republic, an episode marked by the Bear Flag Monument on the plaza, and the state flag still carries that bear. On the northeast corner stands Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in 1823 as the last and northernmost of California's twenty-one missions, with its simple adobe chapel and museum. The mission is part of Sonoma State Historic Park, and one inexpensive ticket — just a few dollars for adults — covers it along with the Sonoma Barracks, the Toscano Hotel, General Vallejo's home Lachryma Montis a short walk away, and the Petaluma Adobe for the day of purchase; all are open daily from 10am to 5pm except a few major holidays. Add a dozen-plus tasting rooms within a few minutes' walk, and the plaza is wine country at its most relaxed and walkable. It is busy on summer weekends, and parking near the square can be tight, but compared with Napa's highway it feels like a small town.

Reading the plaza. Start at the mission, then walk west along Spain Street past the two-story Sonoma Barracks, built to house Vallejo's Mexican soldiers, and the Toscano Hotel, whose rooms are furnished as they were in the late nineteenth century. The Bear Flag Monument stands in the plaza itself. A short walk or bike ride west along a path brings you to Lachryma Montis, the Gothic-style home Vallejo built in the 1850s, set in gardens; the name means Tear of the Mountain, after the spring on the property. Volunteer docents offer tours on some days, and the park's association runs events throughout the year.

Tasting on foot. The plaza is the easiest place in wine country to taste without driving, if you are staying in town. Wineries from across Sonoma County keep tasting rooms around the square, ranging from casual bars to more polished salons, and many accept walk-ins on quieter days, though reservations are increasingly the norm on weekends. Between tastings, grab picnic supplies from the cheese and bread shops on the square and eat on the lawn, where families spread out and children feed the ducks.

Beyond the square. Sonoma is the gateway to the Valley of the Moon, which runs north through Glen Ellen and Kenwood toward Santa Rosa. Jack London State Historic Park is about fifteen minutes away, Domaine Carneros about twenty minutes east toward Napa, and the valley's wineries line Highway 12. Evenings on the plaza are lovely in summer, when restaurants spill onto the sidewalks, and the square hosts festivals and a seasonal farmers market. Plan a designated driver if you head out to the wineries beyond town.