Suggestions for a Visitor (Sacramento, Roseville: appointed, house, neighborhoods)

[Chimérique]

Try downtown Sacramento (without a car) - Sunset

Read this link from Sunset Magazine, print it out

All give you more tips when I get back from the gym.

[Chimérique]

Rafting on the American River | American River Raft Rentals

Raft the lower American River, the part in Rancho Cordova/Sacramento.

See the link read all about it.

You rent raft, raft down the river, a shuttle bus from the rafting rental place takes you back to the starting point where your car is located.

If you are serious about this, I'll give you more tips to make sure it is a safe and fun adventure.

Alternate ways to do this:

You could ride a bike on the American River Bike Trail - one way to the River Rafting starting point, leave bike at Rafting place, rent your raft, raft river, go back on shuttle bus. Instead of riding your bike all the way back into downtown Sacramento, you would ride your bike to the Sunrise Light Rail station, take the Light Rail train with your bike back to downtown Sacramento.

Or stay one night in a several hotels at Sunrise Blvd/Zinfandel Drive/Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova to do your rafting trip. There rest of your days/night I recommend staying in the downtown part of Sacramento.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by wburg

El Dorado Hills is a suburb quite a stretch east of Sacramento. You can rent a bike from Practical Cycle in Old Sacramento (it's generally not called Old Town.) There isn't much to see in the Railyards unless you're into construction sites--the streets are still being graded and the Shops buildings (the only buildings on the site) are inaccessible. Midtown is comfortable biking distance from downtown/Old Sacramento. It's mostly tree-lined Victorian and Craftsman buildings, the commercial streets are J, K and L Street, 16th and 21st.

Scattershot of excellent diners in the "greasy spoon" category: Bud's Buffet, Jim-Denny's (no relation to Denny's), Harry's Cafe, Cornerstone, Capitol Park Cafe, Lucky Cafe, Pancake Circus, Trails. Quite a bit of good Japanese and Chinese food to be had, and Sacramento's burger joints will totally take your lunch money.

Staying just across the river from Downtown? Which river? Across the Sacramento River in West Sacramento, or the American River near Arden Way? The latter is pretty far from downtown--any reason you decided to stay there vs. downtown proper?

Places to visit: Maybe let us know more what you're into. The standard places recommended to all the tourists are Old Sacramento including the Delta King and the Railroad Museum, and outside of Old Sacramento, Sutter's Fort and the Crocker Art Museum. Less often recommended are the Sacramento History Museum (also in Old Sacramento) and its underground sidewalks tour, the California Auto Museum, the California Museum at 10th & O, Capitol Park and the State Capitol museum (free but you have to pass through a metal detector), the Governor's Mansion and Stanford Mansion. Looking for architecture? Bookstores? Record stores? Nightclubs? Old cars? Art galleries? Japanese-style snow cones?

Thanks for the great information and restaurant suggestions. Just looked at the map and it looks my hotel is just north of Discovery Park, which doesn't look too far from the State Capitol. Definitely into checking out the commercial districts of different neighborhoods so the streets you mentioned above were a great help. Where else besides Midtown will I see people walking on the streets? I plan on taking the tour of Capitol building and seeing the museum. Lastly, where do I go for the best view of the city?

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Try downtown Sacramento (without a car) - Sunset

Read this link from Sunset Magazine, print it out

All give you more tips when I get back from the gym.

Thanks for the link

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Rafting on the American River | American River Raft Rentals

Raft the lower American River, the part in Rancho Cordova/Sacramento.

See the link read all about it.

You rent raft, raft down the river, a shuttle bus from the rafting rental place takes you back to the starting point where your car is located.

If you are serious about this, I'll give you more tips to make sure it is a safe and fun adventure.

Alternate ways to do this:

You could ride a bike on the American River Bike Trail - one way to the River Rafting starting point, leave bike at Rafting place, rent your raft, raft river, go back on shuttle bus. Instead of riding your bike all the way back into downtown Sacramento, you would ride your bike to the Sunrise Light Rail station, take the Light Rail train with your bike back to downtown Sacramento.

Or stay one night in a several hotels at Sunrise Blvd/Zinfandel Drive/Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova to do your rafting trip. There rest of your days/night I recommend staying in the downtown part of Sacramento.

Sounds great, but this might be too ambitious for me in the short amount of time that I will be there.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

Thanks for the great information and restaurant suggestions. Just looked at the map and it looks my hotel is just north of Discovery Park, which doesn't look too far from the State Capitol. Definitely into checking out the commercial districts of different neighborhoods so the streets you mentioned above were a great help. Where else besides Midtown will I see people walking on the streets? I plan on taking the tour of Capitol building and seeing the museum. Lastly, where do I go for the best view of the city?

Your best bet is probably to drive to downtown Sacramento and park in an Old Sacramento lot all day, which will cost $18 but a lot easier than repeatedly getting into and out of your car all day and re-paying to park at meters.

People walking on the streets: Downtown along K and L Street (alongside the Capitol) but only at lunchtime, around 11-2PM on weekdays. There are 75,000 or so people who work downtown, but they all leave at 5 PM, and only 15,000 people live in the "downtown" half of the central city--fewer than 2000 in the business district itself. On a weekend, Old Sacramento gets pretty crowded, especially on holidays. Midtown is pretty much the only place with any significant amount of pedestrian activity on weekday evenings, and it can still get pretty quiet during the work week (most of the employment and lunch places are downtown) or on Sundays (a lot of the local boutiques and restaurants are closed on Sunday.) Outside of those two neighborhoods, the only places with a lot of pedestrian activity are city parks, and then mostly on weekends.

Good view of the city is a tough order--we currently have no rooftop or upper-story cafes, which is a shame because once you get some altitude it becomes immediately apparent that (A) Sacramento is a big city and (B) the view from high altitude is pretty great, with the Coastal Range in the west and the Sierras in the east. About the only place currently operating is Railbridge Cellars' private tasting room on top of the Elks Building, and it is only open on Second Saturdays or for private group tastings of 10 people or more. I'm not sure why this is the case--we had them in the 1950s and 1960s (the Railbridge Cellars tasting room was a legendary jazz club called "Top of the Town" before it became the broadcast booth for a free-form rock station called KZAP in the 1960s.)

[tstieber]

As a Bay Arean who likes to visit Sacramento, I just love walking all day around the Capitol, midtown, and parts of downtown as well, stopping here and there to browse shops or grab some coffee or gelato. I also love Capitol Park right behind the Capitol. I think it's one of the best city parks I've seen anywhere, because it has the feel of an old, stately, Southern type garden (reminds me of Georgia or something), but with California plants (oranges, roses, palms, oaks, redwoods, etc).

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

I'm actually going to SAC to see some friends who live in El Dorado Hills.

Neighborhood joints, as well as greasy spoons are more to my liking.

I can't think of any greasy spoons in EDH, but Folsom has one that is highly rated. Sutter St Grill in the historic district. There's some of really good restaurant/bars there as well, such as Sam Hornes. They have awesome burgers.

Originally Posted by wburg

Good view of the city .....

You can see the entire skyline from Carpenter Hill in Folsom. It's the highest point in Sacramento County, and it's especially beautiful at night. Take 50 east, exit E Bidwell & turn right on Iron Point to the top of the hill.

[wburg]

It is strange and ironic that the only way to see Sacramento from above is to leave town...

[caligirlz]

It's still Sacramento County, and closed to EDH