Windsor, California

Windsor offers the stunning beauty of the wine country but with fewer tourists and a more relaxed vibe than the wine country cities of Napa or Sonoma. The town is most notable for its utterly charming Old Downtown which is filled with excellent restaurants, cafes, and local boutiques that surround the Windsor Town Green public park - where year-round music, farmers’ markets, and festivals are held. It also has plenty of local breweries and vineyards where locals and visitors hang together. You also get a wonderful farm-to-table foodie scene owing to the region’s rich agricultural output.

Costs for homes in Windsor are an issue since you’re getting pretty far north of the tech scene for the prices for homes to be ~$850k. Windsor is less of a second home city for the wealthy, like Healdsburg or Guerneville, so the locals tend to be genuine, and that housing price can be a tough pill to swallow. The cost of living in general is also pricey in the area but given you’re likely considering different Marin or Sonoma county cities this will likely be no shock.

The Town Green, in the center of Old Downtown, is a big driver of the community lifestyle in Windsor. It serves as the year-round center of city activities with farmers’ markets, festivals, and city celebrations, and most notably, plays host to the Annual Summer Night on the Green Concerts. There are also plenty of parks, great schools, and the amazing Sonoma County outdoors to keep the most active families busy.

To see what locals get up to for fun in Windsor check out the calendar of events.

We highly recommend visiting Windsor 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 people live in Windsor and commute to Santa Rosa or other Sonoma County jobs but if you want to live and work here then you’ll probably work in the wine production or general agricultural/farming industries. You could also find a gig in the growing hospitality and tourism industry. Much to the chagrin of some locals Windsor has been growing its tourism biz and so job opportunities in service are on the rise.