Sonoma, California

One of the ironies of the Great Migration when many people fled big cities is that ultimately they craved smaller cities and towns with characteristics of the places they left - like city centers with lots to do. Sonoma’s 8-acre plaza, the largest in all of California, at the center of town is a gravitational core of the entire Sonoma Valley. `It is surrounded by amazing restaurants, cafes and bakeries, art galleries (including the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art), bars/wine bars, pizza places, boutique shopping and more. The Plaza hosts Tuesday night farmers’ markets in the summer, live music other community events, and more. Ultimately if you want to live in a town in Sonoma that has a true commercial center then this is the spot.

It’s a cliche to complain about tourist season if you live in a city that is at the center of a tourist economy. The city of Sonoma pulls in a great majority of the wine tourists, and fall is the height of the wine tasting/festival season. If you live in Sonoma then everything gets harder during this timeframe. Locals tend to avoid the Plaza during these months and once you hit November all returns to the chill bliss that makes this one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Sonoma lifestyle, as with many wine-centric towns, feels split between two different ways of life. You have “locals” who live here year-round, work in the area in the wine or agricultural industries (or are retired), raise their children in largely suburban/rural neighborhoods, and love the land from which they make their living. The other way of life is comprised of wealthy owners of 2nd homes, or empty nesters who appreciate the warm climate and healthy, fun lifestyle of the valley, and who probably made their wealth in the Bay Area.

Regardless of which group you fall into expect to enjoy some universal truths about living here. The ocean is nearby so taking the short drive to the Pacific is common, daily hiking/biking on the nearby trails and nightly walks among the beautiful blocks are universal. It’s important to remember though that this is a working family town also. So little league games, playing at all the beautiful local parks, biking around town, and just enjoying the intimacy of a small town still overrides all the tourist mishegoss for those who choose to live here.

Check out the Sonoma calendar of events to see what's going on throughout the year.

We highly recommend visiting Sonoma and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for living among the locals. You can receive discounted fares on travel via our partnership with Expedia as well.

Plenty of locals work in the wine industry and enjoy short-ish commutes to work. Many newcomers work from home and so face no commute. If however, you are going to live here and try to commute to one of the tech hubs you will be unhappy. Sonoma is a beautiful town that is built for people who work in the agricultural/wine/hospitality industries or the newly crowned, untethered class of those who don’t need to commute anywhere. That is the work-life culture of Sonoma and much of these bucolic wine country towns.