Town with local flair, walkable, near outdoor recreation 40 min from Travis (Sacramento: best city, crime rate)

[eagle06]

Hello,

I may be moving for a job at Travis AFB. A big consideration will be if we can find a town where we'd really like to live since we love where we live currently. I'm willing to commute up to 40 minutes and there's only 2 of us so a 2 bedroom, 2 bath place is fine. We can afford around $1800/mo.

What we'd like:

Outdoor and healthy oriented with many local options for food, coffee, breweries, etc. A little walkable downtown would be great.

Close to trails for mountain biking and trail running. We live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains now just west of Denver so are incredibly spoiled with great trails only minutes away.

Really don't need to be closer to the ocean vs inland. Our recreation focuses more around mountain sports than water.

Prefer more urban to suburban living. Being able to walk to coffee or drinks from the house would be great. Suburban neighborhood would be find though as long as it's close to the walkable areas.

I've been looking at Davis, Napa, Fairfield, and over the bridge in Pleasant Hill. It's so tough to tell online though.

Look forward to the advice.

Take care.

[chessgeek]

Davis will be the best city based on your criteria. Pleasant Hill also has a clean walkable central area, but the eateries are more of the chain/franchise variety than Davis. Plus, you have to give $5 at the toll bridge crossing on your daily commute from Pleasant Hill. That can add up.

[eagle06]

I have a coworker who lives in Walnut Creek and he thinks we'd really like it there. To avoid the toll though he suggested Benicia. It looks pretty nice from what I've seen so far.

[wburg]

All of these places are pretty suburban/small-town in character, if you want more hilly country go west towards the coastal range. Davis is a college town, with more walkable/downtown amenities (it's a legendary cycling city) but it is more expensive and the terrain is utterly flat, located near the middle of a big valley. It's also not cheap. But you would be 15 minutes from downtown Sacramento (and the American river bike trail) if you wanted proximity to a bigger downtown, via Amtrak or car.

[eagle06]

Can you give me an example of cities in the coastal range? You mean by napa?

[wburg]

Fairfield, Vallejo, Napa, Vacaville, Benicia. All are small cities (between about 50,000-100,000) nestled into valleys around the Coastal Range. Benicia is even smaller, around 30,000 I think. Napa is probably the most expensive (all the fancy wine-country stuff) and Vacaville probably the cheapest and very close to Travis. The closest cities comparable in size to Denver are Sacramento and Oakland. Travis AFB is located in the valley close to the Delta, since Air Force bases generally prefer flat terrain and we have a bunch of it (we had a lot more bases out here during the Cold War!)

[lrmsd]

Check out Auburn, too, in the foothills. Biking and hiking, walkable downtown. But it's further than 40 min. to the base. Local flair and outdoor rec, though.
I lived in CO for a few years, and know the Golden area a little. [I know the lifestyle you are talking about, though.] It's a bit tough w/in your commute range, to find that in the SAC area. I agree that Davis is probably the closest match. Novato in Marin [part of the commute would be a drag, and there is a toll bridge, too] if you want to look a little bit further than Napa. At the very least, these suggestions might give you a broader idea of the region as a whole (what you'd have to look forward to(: ), even if not living in these towns specifically.

[Zelva]

Dixon or Winters, if commute traffic is a concern - there wouldn't be much. But they are smaller towns. Winters is near Lake Berryessa.

Maybe check the traffic map at your commute times: (Google - fairfield traffic map)

https://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-...ed=0CC4Q8gEwAA

Maybe use Zillow to get some main street views.

[eagle06]

Winters is close. Will look at that. Auburn would be a pretty long commute.

Is there an annual or monthly toll rate for the bridge or is it just a $5 per day per vehicle no matter what? Looks like some of the stuff we'd like to do (great climbing gym) is across the bridge. Going there. A few times a week would add up.

[2sleepy]

The only town that I think would meet your requirements would be Davis. It has a lovely downtown, friendly people a good part of the population consists of UC Davis students and professors which bring a certain quirkiness and diversity to the town. There is nothing very nice about Fairfield or Vallejo. Vallejo has a very high crime rate and Fairfield isn't much better. Dixon and Vacaville are very 'suburban', I guess they are ok if you are raising a family and spend your time in the backyard grilling burgers but I can't see either one as a place you would enjoy. As far as going to Pleasant Hill or Walnut Creek, or Napa, they are stupid expensive and it would be quite a drive to TAFB.