Sonoma County is on a roll as a journey vacation spot and its reputation will solely proceed to develop subsequent 12 months, in response to a honored New York-based journey journal.
Journey + Leisure journal has included Sonoma County on its coveted worldwide checklist of “The 50 Greatest Locations to Journey in 2024.” The publication’s enthusiastic journey suggestion is the most recent in what has been a string of reward for the world from a wide range of sources this 12 months. In 2023, Sonoma County performed host to a reside episode of the Right now Present, the area was featured in a New York Occasions wine column and separate journey story on Geyserville, and “Sonoma” was even unveiled because the title of Apple’s new desktop working system.
Journey + Leisure simply revealed a narrative on Guerneville’s Daybreak Ranch in August and referred to as Healdsburg “the jewel of California Wine Nation” in September, so it maybe comes as no shock that the journal has now included Sonoma County in what the publication describes as its hand-picked checklist of “locations which have captured our imaginations.”
Not solely is Sonoma County included on the Journey + Leisure checklist, the area is also one in all simply over a handful of places that the journal highlights within the checklist’s transient introduction. (Paris—host of subsequent 12 months’s Olympics, Istanbul, Canada’s Métis Crossing, a “distant nook” of Australia and a “Himalayan Hideaway” are the opposite noteworthy 2024 journey locations additionally talked about within the checklist’s introduction).
The Journey + Leisure prime 50 checklist is split into seven classes. Sonoma County is featured within the “For Meals and Drinks” part alongside two different 2024 epicurean journey locations: The Austrian countryside and Merida, Mexico. (The checklist’s six different journey classes are: For Cultural Immersion, For Massive-Metropolis Thrills, For Moments on the Water, For Nature Lovers, For Seashore Vibes, and For Adventurous Vacationers).
Journey + Leisure’s glowing evaluation of Sonoma County begins: “Greater than double the scale of Napa, Sonoma would possibly supply twice as a lot to do.”
Describing small cities in Sonoma County as locations the place “new companies are doing massive issues,” the journal says this Northern Californian space is among the many world’s journey locations which can be “on the rise.”
Following final 12 months’s addition of the brand new West Sonoma Coast American Viticultural Space (AVA), Sonoma County now has 19 AVAs producing vintages that embody chardonnay, pinot noir and zinfandel by vintners akin to Flowers, Scribe and Vérité Wines, writes Journey + Leisure journal.
However Sonoma County’s attract is “not simply concerning the wine,” in response to the journal, which additionally spotlights the lengthy, attractive shoreline from Bodega Bay to Sea Ranch, the various diversions of the Russian River city of Guerneville, in addition to the burgeoning culinary repute of Healdsburg.
Amongst its really helpful locations to remain, the journal highlights the “dreamy” newly renovated cliff-top Sea Ranch Lodge in addition to the not too long ago reopened Daybreak Ranch in Guerneville with what Journey + Leisure describes as a 22-acre haven of “tree house-like cabins, creekside glamping tents, and alfresco redwood tubs on the idyllic spa.” In describing Guerneville, the journal additionally mentions the city’s thriving LGBTQ+ scene, proximity to the Armstrong Redwoods State Pure Reserve, and Piknik Market (previously Massive Backside Market), which continues to serve Oprah’s favourite biscuits below its new possession.
In Healdsburg, Journey + Leisure particulars the debut of chef Stu Stalker’s plant-based restaurant Second Story (above Little Saint), Michelin three-starred SingleThread, chef Dustin Valette’s The Matheson, and Charlie Palmer’s forthcoming lodge property, Appellation.
Past Sonoma County, different worldwide places on Journey + Leisure’s checklist of “locations that considerate, curious vacationers ought to contemplate in 2024″ embody Cartagena, Colombia; Ålborg, Denmark; Rajasthan, India; Douro River, Portugal; Amboseli Nationwide Park, Kenya; Hokkaido, Japan; Coastal Campania, Italy; AlUla, Saudi Arabia; Bahia, Brazil; and Sri Lanka.
Click on by way of the above gallery for a peek on the Sonoma County companies highlighted within the Journey + Leisure piece.