HEALDSBURG
Dine: The Ravenous Caf? and LoungeContemporary Californian cuisine with an ever-changing seasonal menu. theravenous.com.
Dream: h2hotel
Ultra-modern eco-chic boutique hotel. h2hotel.com.
Unwind: Hotel Healdsburg Spa
Tranquil, resort-style setting with 100-percent natural products. hotelhealdsburg.com.
Healdsburg (pronounced heeldsburg) has a charming small-town feel, anchored by a central plaza. Known for its foodies, Healdsburg has a high concentration of upper-echelon dining, including the Michelin-two-star Cyrus Restaurant (cyrusrestaurant.com) and the one-star Madrona Manor (madronamanor.com).
Healdsburg also has the greatest density of in-town tasting rooms, which means you could sample nearly every wine Sonoma County has to offer with a casual stroll. The wineries themselves are spread out in the surrounding rural areas, which means lots of long country roads radiating out of town for you to run.
Both the Healdsburg Half Marathon (runhealdsburg.com), and the bike portion of the Vineman 70.3 Triathlon (vineman.com) are held on these idyllic paths.
A shining jewel in Healdsburg's crown is Michel-Schlumberger (michelschlumberger.com), a 100-acre, organically-certified, hillside vineyard and winery known for excellent Bordeaux varieties. Michel-Schlumberger also provides an almost perfect half-marathon-length route when done as an out-and-back from the town plaza. This is also one of the best tours you can take of gorgeous Dry Creek Valley. Bring your camera and be sure to leave in the morning before traffic increases.
From the plaza, head south to scenic Dry Creek Road and hang a left. Run three and a half eye-popping miles and turn left on Lambert Road. Go nearly a mile and turn right on West Dry Creek Road, then turn left on Wine Creek Road. When you get back to the town plaza, you'll be good and ready for the best blueberry scones on earth at the Downtown Bakery and Creamery (downtownbakery.net).