2 Best Hotels in Sonoma, Napa and Sonoma

Guest rooms in this remodeled 1843 building skew contemporary with their furnishings, but the expressive wallpaper hints at days past. Each room has a small balcony or patio either street-side or facing a courtyard where guests lounge around the pool or sip cocktails. All rooms are equipped with refrigerators, safes, 42-inch flat-screen TVs, espresso makers, electric kettles, and handheld clothes steamers. Although many patrons consider the Sonoma Plaza location above a bustling restaurant and bar a boon, earplugs are advised for all but the heaviest sleepers—or book one of the four ground-floor patio rooms in back.

Little luxuries delight at this well-run inn ¼ mile south of Sonoma Plaza whose guest rooms, softly lit and done in pastels, have comfortable beds topped with feather comforters and plenty of pillows. The rooms aren’t huge, but you'd be hard-pressed to find this much charm for the price elsewhere in town. Part of the Four Sisters Inns chain of small hotels in popular vacation destinations, this property has an exceptionally gracious staff. The inn isn’t the Sonoma Plaza area’s most intimate lodging, but it feels cozy, and a full breakfast is laid out every morning.