City of Healdsburg

Healdsburg is a charming town on the Northern Russian River. One can reach it by 101, taking Old Redwood Highway from Santa Rosa, or the more scenic Alexander Valley by 128. A forested extinct cinder cone looms over the east side of town, towering over the bucolic vistas. Like Sonoma, it has a charming little plaza, as well as the local historical society.
Healdsburg is a very pricey place. It’s got Mustache, a fancy cupcakery featured on
and it looks worth the ride. There used to be a
but sadly, the space is still vacant. SHED is a mini-​Portlandia with California sun. It’s home to California’s largest single floor gallery (Paul Mahder), so no need to fight LA or SF traffic. There’s a cute little imports store, two engrossing bookstores, and galleries. Parking is a challenge on weekends; things tend to be pricey. Still, a fun, charming town on the Russian River!

Love everything about this charming town of Healdsburg. So much to like about their downtown, from boutiques/​antiques to upscale eateries if you choose fine dining and such. Nice distance away from the city vibe, yet country enough for us city folks. It’s not as far as Ukiah or Willits lol. Scenic drive with family and friends to wine country. Lots to do, friendly atmosphere — everyone seems extremely happy here :-)

Wonderful little town!
Plenty to see and do, you could easily spend and entire day here. We wished we’d have given ourselves more time to enjoy the quaintness, but the time we did spend (4hrs) was wonderful!
We went on a Friday and it wasn’t crowded. Each person treated us as though we were a local — so friendly and hospitable.
We would recommend the downtown portion of Healdsburg to everyone looking to start, or end, their NorCal winery experience!

Ok, only a jerk puts down a whole city. Obviously, there are some freakin’ awesome people in Healdsburg — we even met a few — and if you like the whole Sonoma wine ‘n’ food thing, yeah… ya know… We found some killer fries on the plaza too — always a plus, uh-​huh, and, uh. yeah

I love Healdsburg. It’s busy, but not crowded. The area is beautiful, and it’s nice to walk around the square on a nice day and taste instead of driving around. There are a few nice little restaurants and shops to keep you paced and the park is the center of the square usually has live music of some sort in the evening on the weekends.

My Healdsburg Travelogue:
Last weekend some friends threw a party in Healdsburg so we decided to head up there with our bikes on Thursday and make a long weekend of it. Love this part of the State, with its small town feel, but hints of big city. Fortunately, it doesn’t feel like Disneyland here, yet. But watch out, cause I smell greed among the locals. Pretty soon this is gonna be Napa! This area specializes in Zinfandal and Pinot Noir. A Russian River Zin or Pinot is something spectacular and I definitely recommend trying them out even if you aren’t a wine drinker or if you normally stick to whites.
We stayed at the Healdsburg Inn on the Square, which was supposed to be on the cheaper side of things, but frankly I thought it was overpriced for what we got. Our first room was small and, except for an oddly located skylight, windowless. The goth girl who showed us to it announced on the way in, «This is my favorite room in the whole place!» I couldn’t resist replying, «hmm, do you save this one for all of your vampire guests?» Although Mrs. Z shot me a dirty look for being rude, goth girl laughed uproariously, so I was vindicated as usual cause I am such a charming and funny muthafucka.
They moved us to a much nicer room the next two nights, and I can’t complain too much, but for these prices, I expected to not be able to hear the goings on in the next room. Happily the guy next door wasn’t a big fan of foreplay. Wham bam, thank you maam. And thank YOU sir. Now good night.
Next time, I think we’ll check out the Healdsburg Hotel, which seems a lot nicer and is not supposed to be much pricier.
The cycling up here is really great, especially if you’re just looking for something fun and easy. If you head north out of Healdsburg on West Dry Creek Road and then come back down on Dry Creek Road, you’ve done a spectacularly beautiful relatively flat loop of 25 miles or so. The biggest challenge is to keep from hitting up some of the great vineyards on the ride cause, before you know it, a few tastes becomes a few glasses and the next thing you know you’re roadkill.
Definitely don’t miss Dry Creek Vineyards for some amazing Cab and Zin. Ridge Vineyards has some of the best Zinfandel you will ever taste, but they are assholes — don’t say I didn’t warn you. Bella Vineyards at the very top of Dry Creek Road has some just OK wines, but the setting is spectacular and the winery and tasting room is in a huge very cool cave. Finally, if you like awesome Zin, DO NOT miss Nalle Vineyards. Very small production Zinfandel, and infinitesimally small production Pinot Noir (which you can pretty much only get at the winery). Both great wines, but the real draw here is that it’s just so folksy and friendly. Doug and Lee Nalle own the place and they are usually around to chat with. Andrew Nalle, their 20-​something son, is now the head winemaker and also did the pouring. They aren’t always open, so call ahead.
The party was at Bistro Ralph. It’s a beautiful, small restaurant, and our two tables of 10 or so each pretty much dominated the place. I felt bad for the other tables, but what are you gonna do? I don’t recall a lot about the food, although I am sure it was delightful. A couple of the guests supplied pretty much all the wine for the two tables, and after my 3^rd glass of 1987 Caymus Private Reserve Cab (that much I remember), I was in such a state of wine euphoria that all else faded in to the background. I can’t remember all the other awesome wines I had that evening, nor can I remember anything else until the throbbing pain Sunday morning.