A Weekend Guide to Sacramento: Walkable Neighborhoods, Gold Rush History and Farm-to-Fork Dining

It’s always a pleasant surprise to discover that a city you might have written off as sleepy has merely been playing possum.

Such is the case when we roll into Sacramento, California’s capital. Far from being just a government town or a mere pit-stop between San Francisco and Tahoe, Sacramento is a cool, casual urban environment that ticks all the boxes on your weekend getaway list.

For one, it’s super-walkable and two, loaded with cultural surprises everywhere, thanks to a solid creative undercurrent.

Three: this is a city that is not in a rush, its chill vibe permeating every Thursday night patio or Sunday afternoon market. And four, the food is incredible, with variety clearly maintaining the spice of life here.

Gold Rush Roots, Modern Vibes

For history buffs, your Sacramento checklist gets even longer. If you dig a little deeper — pardon the pun — you find out that the city quickly grew from a small settlement to a town to be reckoned with the 1848 discovery of gold in nearby Coloma.

Sacramento made an excellent port thanks to the confluence of two rivers and the gold-seekers poured in.

While built on Gold Rush bones, a foundation that paved the way for California becoming a state in 1850, Sacramento is bustling with new energy, calmly going about its business and charming the pants off you in the process.

Find a Strong Sense of Community

Sacramento’s series of walkable neighborhoods flows from one into the next. The city easily pairs its immersive history with buzzy creative corridors lined with hip boutiques, indie shops, art walks, and soulful eateries.

Downtown and Midtown provide the city with its cultural hub, an easy mix of architectural styles, plus a bonanza of eats and drinks centred on J and K streets. Yes, the streets are lettered, which makes it next to impossible to get lost.

The mini-neighborhood of Lavender Heights within Midtown sports Sacramento’s LGBTQ+-owned clubs, restaurants, salons, galleries and shops.

DOCO is short for Downtown Commons, a rather new retail complex, anchored by the Golden 1 Center, a conference focal point.

The brick warehouses of the R Street Corridor are now arts and design headquarters, peppered with cool restaurants and shopping developments like WAL Public Market.

East Sacramento is where you’ll find what’s called the Fab 40s (the streets are numbered over here). This is a potpourri of elegant homes built in varying architectural styles.

And Oak Park, once labeled the city’s first suburb, is diverse and fun, filled with coffee bars, beer gardens, comfort-food restaurants, and small businesses.

Make Time for Landmark Attractions

You will kick yourself for not scoping out Sacramento’s touristy things.

For example, a rail museum might sound a bit ho-hum, but the California State Railroad Museum is an icon, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate that is genuinely extraordinary.

We thought we were going to breeze through it, that it was something mostly for kids, but how wrong!

Set aside a few hours to tour more than 20 full-size historic trains and poke through elaborately preserved car interiors, such as a mind-blowing dining car and a fascinating postal car.

Even the model train section is a dizzying visual engagement.

The Railroad Museum is adjacent to the Old Sacramento State Historic Park, which is located on the Riverfront District. This is a Gold Rush–era preserved 19th-century neighborhood, done up just like the movies, with wooden verandas along the storefronts.

This is where you can also hop on a cruise tour to enjoy the riverways.

Crocker Art Museum is a gem, with an enormous collection, old and new, including, unsurprisingly, the biggest collection of Californian art in the world.

A touring show of Einar and Jamex de la Torre was mesmerizing the day we popped in, and an engaging docent was more than hospitable, seeking us out to offer suggestions for things we shouldn’t miss seeing.

Highlights include the many European masterworks and a wing of international ceramics.

Dig Into a Deep-Rooted Food Culture

Sacramento’s proximity to farmland has created a farm-to-fork food scene, one that feels more local and soulful than showy.

We found exciting Japanese and Mexican fusion at seafood-forward Omakase Por Favor, which translates to “trust the chef, please.” Though considered fine dining, the restaurant features do-it-yourself S’Mores on its dessert menu.

Around the corner, Mother Restaurant churns out vegetarian comfort food, including a dark-chocolate S’Mores pie.

Fried chicken is the order of the day at Fixins Soul Kitchen in Oak Park, after the deep-fried deviled eggs, of course. The fixin’s themselves are full-on proper: peas, beans, okra, greens, the works.

Hidden Dumpling House has a few locations in town, none of them much of a secret. In addition to handmade dumplings, you can enjoy vegetarian and gluten-free items you wouldn’t normally find at a Chinese spot.

The woody wonderland that is Canon is actually hidden, tucked away in a quiet corner of East Sacramento, serving playful small plates and excellent cocktails.

If you have a sweet tooth, satisfy the craving with artisanal chocolate and ice cream at Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates or with a slice of world-famous cake at the 1950s-themed Rick’s Dessert Diner.

And for quaffing, more than 80 breweries and 200 wineries are within easy reach. The mind boggles.

If you’re in town on a Sunday, a large Farmers’ Market is held in a parking lot under Highway 50 at 8th and W Streets — a real hangout. Try the food trucks for tacos or burgers, or simply wander the kiosks with a cinnamon bun and a coffee, wishing you had three hands.

Choose Your Ideal Home Base

For hotel anchors, we spent quality time at the Fort Sutter Hotel on the edge of Midtown, part of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection. It was like a little private retreat, conveniently close to the action and nicely designed, complete with its own branch of Café Bernardo. The hotel is across the street from Fort Sutter itself, hence the name.

Downtown, the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel is part of the DOCO development (mentioned above): modern and stylish, with a touch of California Arts & Crafts.

And The Citizen Hotel has a 19th-century feel, contemporary but classic, filled with Gold Rush historical references and leather-clad trad luxury.

Sacramento’s Effortless Brand of Cool

When all is said and done — and the supper dishes are washed and put away — Sacramento manages to have the perfect pitch of glam, with just enough grit to make things interesting.

It’s the kind of place that doesn’t make a big fuss for attention — yet absolutely, positively deserves it.

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Author Bio: Doug Wallace is a travel journalist, author, photographer and copywriter, principal of Wallace Media and editor-publisher of TravelRight.Today. A member of the Society of American Travel Writers, he can be found beside buffet tables, on massage tables and table-hopping around the world.

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