The Best Small Towns in California, From the Gold Country to the Desert

Why Bother With the Small Towns

California's small towns are where the state slows down. They trade headline sights for character: a walkable main street, a couple of good restaurants, an inn instead of a chain hotel, and a reason to linger. Most sit an easy detour off a route you are probably already driving, which makes them the best way to break up a long California road trip.

The list below spreads across the wine country, the Sierra foothills, the deserts, and the north. Pick by where your trip already puts you rather than driving the state for a single town. Our California Travel Guide maps the regions, and the hotels and resorts directory lists real inns and lodges in many of these places. Several pair naturally with a stop on the best wineries route.

Wine Country and the Coast Hills

**Town: Solvang · Best for: Danish kitsch and Santa Ynez wine · Drive from LA: 2.5 hrs**. Solvang was founded by Danish settlers in 1911 and leans all the way into it, with half-timbered buildings, windmills, and bakeries selling aebleskiver. It sits in the middle of the Santa Ynez Valley wine country, so it doubles as a tasting base an hour past Santa Barbara.

**Town: Calistoga · Best for: hot springs and low-key Napa · Drive from SF: 1.5 hrs**. Calistoga sits at the quiet north end of Napa Valley, known for mud baths, mineral hot springs, and the Old Faithful geyser. It is the unpretentious side of wine country, walkable and low-rise, and a good base for tasting without Napa's downvalley prices.

**Town: Ojai · Best for: a spa-and-arts valley near the coast · Drive from LA: 1.5 hrs**. Ojai is a small valley town northeast of Ventura known for the pink alpenglow locals call the Pink Moment, independent bookshops and galleries, boutique spas, and the Ojai pixie tangerines grown in the surrounding groves. A local ordinance keeps chain stores off the main street, so it stays an easy, low-key inland escape from the coast.

**Town: Los Alamos · Best for: a tiny wine-and-food town · Drive from LA: 2.5 hrs**. Los Alamos is a single main street in the Santa Barbara wine country that has quietly become one of the best food-and-wine stops on the Central Coast. It is small enough to see in an afternoon and good enough to plan a night around.

The Gold Country and Sierra Foothills

**Town: Nevada City · Best for: a preserved Gold Rush main street · Drive from Sacramento: 1 hr**. Nevada City is the best-preserved of the Gold Rush towns, a compact grid of Victorian storefronts, saloons, and a historic theater in the Sierra foothills. It is walkable, lively on weekends, and close to the South Yuba River for summer swimming holes.

**Town: Murphys · Best for: Gold Country wine tasting · Drive from Sacramento: 2 hrs**. Murphys is a foothill town in Calaveras County with a main street lined with tasting rooms, so you can walk between a dozen wineries on foot. It pairs well with a visit to the giant sequoias at nearby Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

**Town: Truckee · Best for: a mountain base near Tahoe · Drive from Sacramento: 1.5 hrs**. Truckee is the historic railroad-and-lumber town just north of Lake Tahoe, with a walkable old downtown, good restaurants, and easy access to skiing in winter and the lake in summer. It is the most characterful base in the High Sierra around Tahoe.

The Mountains and Deserts

**Town: Julian · Best for: apple pie and mountain air · Drive from San Diego: 1 hr**. Julian is a former gold-mining town in the mountains east of San Diego, famous for apple orchards and the pie shops that come with them. It is a cool-weather escape above the desert and an easy day trip from the coast, best in fall harvest season.

**Town: Idyllwild · Best for: pines and rock climbing · Drive from Palm Springs: 1 hr**. Idyllwild sits in the pines high on the San Jacinto Mountains, a cool retreat straight above the desert heat of Palm Springs. It draws hikers and rock climbers and makes a good base for tackling the peaks in the desert region's high country.

**Town: Bishop · Best for: Eastern Sierra basecamp · Drive from LA: 4.5 hrs**. Bishop is the main town on Highway 395 in the Eastern Sierra, the supply stop and basecamp for the Owens Valley, the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, and the trailheads up into the highest Sierra peaks. Stop for the bakery at Erick Schat's and the fishing and hiking all around.

**Town: Mount Shasta City · Best for: a peak-town base in the far north · Drive from Sacramento: 3.5 hrs**. Mount Shasta City sits at the foot of the 14,179-foot volcano, a small mountain town of outfitters, cafes, and trailheads where the headwaters of the Sacramento River bubble up in a city park. It is the base for climbing or circling the peak and a natural stop on the Interstate 5 run north toward Oregon.

**Town: Ferndale · Best for: Victorian architecture on the North Coast · Drive from SF: 4.5 hrs**. Ferndale is a dairy-country town near the redwoods with a main street of ornate painted Victorian buildings, the best-preserved in the state. It is a quiet, uncrowded stop deep in the North Coast near Redwood National and State Parks.

Working These Into a Trip

None of these towns needs more than a day or two, which is what makes them useful. Drop Solvang or Los Alamos into a Central Coast drive, Calistoga or Murphys into a wine trip, Nevada City or Truckee into a Tahoe run, and Julian or Idyllwild into a Southern California desert loop. Each one turns a long driving day into a better night.

Book the small-town inns early since most have few rooms, using the hotels directory to find real properties. If you want to string several together into a driving route, our best road trips guide lays out the itineraries that connect them. Several of these towns also make easy escapes from the cities, so if you are basing in the San Francisco Bay Area or another hub, pick the ones within a couple hours and build a day around them.