Sacramento Travel Guide
For details of what to do and see in Sacramento check out our Sacramento guide to car hire in Sacramento.
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It takes around 2 hours to drive to by car from central San Francisco to Sacramento, but the only way that you can tell when you've left one set of city limits and entered the other is when the shops in the sprawling strip malls begin to repeat themselves. As time goes by, the two cities are blending into one another, and although neither will ever entirely lose its character, they are increasingly seen as being one in the same.
The growth of Sacramento is caused by the number of residents of the Bay City moving inland to escape the cold weather and high prices of San Francisco in order to enjoy the higher standard of living available in the Californian state capital.
Another reason for this growth is Sacramento's importance as a part of the Silicon Valley high technology area of the USA and behind the smoked glass windows on the industrial estates of Sacramento the latest technologies are developed and tested by the vast population of geeks who call Sacramento home.
Although Sacramento is certainly not the most instantly recognisable tourist destination in the state, and offers less to see than its neighbour, or indeed Los Angeles, what Sacramento does offer is of a high standard: Several excellent museums and exhibitions about the history of the state and the gold rushes that created the booming economy. The nightlife in Sacramento is characterised by relatively high prices for alcohol, and the number of Silicon Valley nerds who sit uneasily around tables communicating in binary.
The capital of California has many attractions on offer and enough to see and do to keep you occupied on a short day. Highlights that you can see in the city include the Governors Mansion - where Arnold Schwarzenegger could live if he wanted to, and the impressive state Capitol building. There are also a number of excellent art galleries including the Crocker Art Museum - oldest gallery in the west; the Sacramento Zoo, where you can see literally several animals; and the historic district of Old Sacramento, where among the older buildings you can visit Sutter's Fort, and watch amazed as costumed guides act out the day to day life of pioneers.
CAL EXPO in the downtown area is the home of the California Exposition, and houses many attractions including the city's main water park - Waterworld with a variety of slides and pools to splash around in. Thankfully, because most of the inhabitants of the city don't like to go out in the sun, the attractions are usually quite quiet.
