Small-town charm, California sunsets, and dreams. If you follow the fragrance of pleasant wine and fresh home-grown apples, you will reach no further than the magic town of Sebastopol, located near the Pacific Ocean and the Russian River.
Let me guide you through the marvelous culture of this town. I guarantee you won’t miss any part of it, not even the pubs, nature, art galleries, shops, boutiques, restaurants, and street art. You will embrace every significant fragment.
Not in the mood to go out to eat tonight? Click here to have Grubhub deliver directly from the best restaurants in town to your doorstep.
Speaking of restaurants, be sure to check the 11 best restaurants in Sebastopol.
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5 Amazing Things To Do In Sebastopol
Sebastopol Center For The Arts, SebArts
282 S. High Street // (707) 829-4797
I don’t want you to forget to spend time in SebArts, because art is too important not to share. Art connects us, moves us a bit away from our monotonous and realistic lives, and translates experiences through the journey in time and space.
This center is the largest one in California, north of San Francisco. It is a nonprofitable organization founded in 1988 that presents exhibits, classes, events, and performances.
Committed to providing quality, award-winning arts that express creativity and human emotion, the Sebastopol Center for Arts attracts more than 50,000 visitors a year. In addition, they provide a platform for various types of events for local, national, and international artists, involving musicians, filmmakers, and writers.
Here is a list of the things they provide:
- A variety of classes, different for children, teens, and adults
- Summer camps for children and summer programs for teens
- Lectures led by noted experts
- Annual Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival
- Online marketplace
- Free admission to all SebArts Gallery exhibitions. Open gallery hours are Thursday-Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm.
- Open call for artists from all over the world
This center’s team consists of a committed group that includes volunteers, employees, donors, and regular visitors, which helps them to become more and more known and successful.
The Barlow
6770 McKinley St // (707) 824 5600
Maybe you are looking for an excellent spot to grab some food and do some shopping? A place to enjoy a sunny day and many pleasant smells around every corner.
The Barlow is a 12-acre outdoor market including local and traditional food, beer, wine, and crafts. This market started as a project in the fall of 2012, and it succeeded as a place that brought together Sonoma County’s best restaurants, wineries, distilleries, shops, and galleries.
Make sure not to miss these Barlow stores:
- Acre Pizza: They make delicious pizza using different baking techniques and use fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. I bet you can’t resist.
- Lori Austin Gallery: Lori founded her gallery with her husband in 2018, but that is not the whole story. She has almost 30 years of experience operating retail galleries.
- Barge North Company: Slow-fashioned, high-quality and eco-friendly clothes for women and men. Check it out if you have a thing for unique styling.
- Crooked Goat Brewing: This is a low-budget, hometown brewery that offers more than 350 different types of beer. Save water, drink beer.
- Spirit Works Distillery: A microdistillery that produces premium vodka, gin, and whiskey. They were awarded Distillery of the Year in July 2020.
- Taylor Lane: The best organic coffees and teas.
- Wm. Cofield Cheesemakers: Offers three tasty kinds of cheese made of organic milk from grass-fed cows. Don’t miss their cheddar because that is their specialty.
- Patisserie Angelica: This bakery makes delightful pastries; cakes, macarons, scones, tea, croissants. Indeed, a lovely place if a delicate pastry is your thing.
- Tibetan Gallery: In the Center of the Barlow lies a place where you can find out so much about the Tibetan culture through fantastic and authentic works of art. They are all made by Tashi Dargyal, who is passionate about classical Tibetan painting.
Ragle Ranch Regional Park
500 Ragle Rd // (707) 823 7262
Ragle Ranch Regional Park contains 3.56 miles of trails, features soccer fields, volleyball and tennis courts, dog parks, picnic sites, and it is also known as a popular bird-watching spot.
Its entrance is at 500 Ragle Road, and it covers 157 acres on the west side of town. The park has paved, wheelchair-accessible trails and accessible playgrounds and areas. The unpaved trails are suitable for hiking, cycling, and horseback riding.
I would agree that a day spent in this park would suit everyone. That could be you with your family, with your dog, or just by yourself. Every one of you has a choice of fun activities to do.
Research says that spending one day a week in nature helps our mental health. It reduces anxiety, relieves stress, increases attention capacity, creativity, and allows us to connect with people. We easily forget that in our modern lives; we are stuck in routines.
Patrick Amiot Junk Art Museum
Florence Ave // (707) 824 9388
We are coming back to art, and your next spot is the Patrick Amiot Junk Art Museum.
Patrick Amiot is a sculptor who comes from Canada. He lives in Sebastopol, California, with his wife, Brigitte Laurent. They use old and recycled materials to create their own world filled with creativity and abstract.
Patrick says, “The whole purpose of my work is to glorify these objects because they have their own spirit. When a hubcap has traveled on a truck for millions of miles and has seen the prairies in the winter and the hot summer asphalt, when it’s done traveling with that truck and finds itself in the scrapyard, and I find that, I kind of like to use that. This hubcap, or whatever piece of metal, from the day it was manufactured until now, has an important history. And I like to think the spirit of all these things lived incredible lives. If they could talk to you, they could tell amazing stories.”
Those words mean something. Patrick is an artist with a vision, apparently non-materialistic and very imaginative.
Iron Horse Vineyards
9786 Ross Station Rd // (707) 887 1507
Life is too short to drink bad wine. So, I will introduce to you one of Sebastopol’s finest vineyards. Quiet, peaceful, and charming. The views from Iron Horse Vineyards are unbelievably beautiful. The whole place will remind you of a fairytale.
Iron Horse Vineyards was established in 1976 by Audrey and Barry Sterling, and it still continues as a small, family business, which doesn’t mean they are not globally successful. They even partner with National Geographic, making a limited-edition of Blanc de Blancs, named Ocean Reserve. One bottle of Ocean Reserve donates $4 to protect sea life.
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This vineyard offers wine tasting in their elegant garden and a wine shop. Only from their estate-grown grapes, they make three types of wine, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and sparkling wines.
Among the 25 types of wines they offer, they are primarily known for their sparkling wines, and they have nine types of them. You can check it out on their web page, which we linked above, and you can even order it from their webshop.
This place is an utter gem. It doesn’t only offer wine; it provides an experience. You should keep in mind not to forget to make a reservation because they work only with reservations.
Wonder where else to visit when in California? Check out our other California guides:
6 Best Things To Do In Del Mar CA
How To Spend a Weekend in San Francisco, California
11 Awesome Things To Do In Livermore California
5 Fun Things To Do In Dunsmuir CA
Last words
If you are adventurous, curious about cultures, and interested in food, wine, art, and nature, Sebastopol is a must. It is the ultimate holiday you get when you are bored and tired of everyday life. It will enchant with its simplicity and with its liveliness.
I am sure there are many more places for you to visit in this beautiful town, but I tried my best to do a shortlist of the highest-reviewed and most popular spots. Or maybe you could tell me if I was right when you visit Sebastopol. Could you do that for me?
Travel writer and owner of the blog. My work has been featured on Fodors, Eater.com, International Living, and Great Escape Publishing, among many others. My story? Nearly six years ago, I left my job at an Oklahoma City law firm and embarked on a journey around the world. At the time, I thought I would only be gone for 6 months, but the more I traveled, the longer my bucket list became. Flashpacker describes how I travel. Rather than traveling as the normal world wise backpacker and staying in hostel dorms, I prefer a more comfortable experience, and typically stay in private rooms, take Ubers instead of taxis, and now use a suitcase instead of a backpack. Foodie, on the other hand, describes one of the key reasons why I travel. I love to pick a central “base camp” and then explore the surrounding area, really immersing myself in the culture and interacting with the people, and enjoying and exploring the food of an area is an essential part of this experience.