29 Best Hotels in Sacramento and the Gold Country, California

In business since 1859, the National—which has survived the gold rush, gambling, prostitution, at least two fires, a ghost named Flo, and Prohibition—stands today a well-maintained property with all the authentic character and charm its storied past implies. The furnishings (brass beds, regal comforters, and lace curtains) are authentic or period reproductions but not overly embellished. The saloon, which still has its original redwood bar, is a great place to linger. The popular restaurant serves special sandwiches (all on bread made on-site) and various salads and pasta dishes for lunch. Dinners feature more upscale Mediterranean cuisine.

A basic two-story motel with a touch of style, this Ascend Collection property less than a block from the UC Davis campus has nine spacious cottages (the best choice) that families often book. Guest rooms are done in muted tones, though candy-apple-red accents brighten things up. Each room has a flat-screen TV, microwave, refrigerator, and coffeemaker. A few suites have whirlpool tubs.

Rich accents of gold and cobalt blue add boutique flair to the spacious rooms of this dependable choice for business and leisure travelers. The congenial staff who aim to please and the convenient location near shops, restaurants, and UC Davis are the biggest pluses.

Far enough from downtown's bustle yet convenient to shops, restaurants, and performing-arts venues, this serene inn occupying a Victorian-era home is run by a couple whose sense of style informs everything from the spotless, individually decorated guest rooms to the landscaped outdoor spaces. The main house contains six rooms, all with TVs and tub showers, and all but one on the second floor. There's also a one-bedroom apartment in the carriage house behind the inn. All guests can access the Victorian's chipper communal sunroom, which has a toaster, a refrigerator, and a microwave. Brewed coffee is laid out here, as are teas.

Wake up to the sound of geese taking flight along the river when you book a stay in one of Sacramento's most unusual and historic relics, a restored riverboat hotel permanently moored on Old Sacramento's waterfront. These rooms are small even by cruise-ship standards: ceilings are low, floors uneven, and bathrooms are minuscule (as you'd expect from early-20th-century lodging). Although less charming than might be expected, the accommodations are cozy and furnished with antiques, and are often decent for the price. Two restaurants, live music on weekends, and a theater are all on board. The staff is helpful and friendly.

The oversize rooms in this elaborate Italianate-style home have brass beds, down comforters, gas-burning stoves, and claw-foot tubs. Broad wraparound verandas encourage lounging, as do the colorful gardens and large elm trees. A delectable breakfast is served each morning; fresh cookies are available all day.

This lavish but rustic B&B occupies a converted turn-of-the-20th-century hay barn, the centerpiece of which is a 27-foot slate fireplace that rises to a sloping ceiling of timber beams. Every room was designed with romance and pampering in mind, with meticulous bedding, gas fireplaces, and private entrances to sleek, deep outdoor tubs secluded by lattice sliding doors. Lush gardens and hammocks overlook a pond and wooded nooks. Guests enjoy breakfasts of homemade breads and dishes cooked with herbs and vegetables grown on-site or nearby.

The guest rooms in this six-story Hilton Tapestry Collection boutique property win points for their expansive windows, contemporary style, smartly designed bathrooms, and works by local artists. All rooms have built-in desks and 55-inch HDTVs with app-streaming capability, but they don't have microwaves (though some have small refrigerators). The on-site Cafe Bernardo serves above-average food (also available through room service), and the energetic bartenders at the Four Palms bar fashion delectable craft cocktails.

Just off Highway 49 and superbly run, this Ascend Collection property provides a comfortable experience, with art and artifacts reflecting the area's mining heritage gracing public areas and guest rooms. All the rooms are equipped with microwaves, refrigerators, Keurig coffeemakers, and flat-screen TVs. Accommodations in the Grass Valley Suites category, good for families or other small groups, contain these amenities plus sleeper sofas and wet bars. A generous full buffet breakfast is served in the lobby.

Guests typically leave this B&B gushing over just about everything—the Tuscan-villa atmosphere, the expansive vineyard vistas, the sublime hospitality, the elaborate breakfasts, the luxurious accommodations, the ultrasoft sheets. Each of the five spacious suites (500–700 square feet) is designed for comfort and relaxation, with plush furniture and bedding; fireplace sitting areas; private patios; and well-lit marble bathrooms with double vanities, rain showers, and deep soaking tubs. The women who own the inn also operate the adjacent Teneral Cellars winery (tastings daily), which donates 10% of sales profits "to organizations that empower women and fight for gender and racial justice." 

The updated country decor of this historic district inn suggests a boutique hotel, but touches like the warm scones delivered to guest rooms each morning recall a traditional bed-and-breakfast. The crisp white walls in the main redbrick lodge's lobby give way on the second floor to the softer olive greens and grays predominating in the accommodations. A few are furnished with queen beds, but most have kings. Some rooms have fireplaces, private balconies, small refrigerators, and heated bathroom floors—or, in the case of the penthouse, all of these plus a microwave. Four nearby spacious cottages, all decorated in a similar style and all with decks, seem built for romance.

A Main Street icon since the mid-1800s—when the A-list guest list included entertainer Lola Montez, writer Mark Twain, and Ulysses S. Grant—this two-story, historic-district hotel received a down-to-the-studs (in some cases bricks) makeover and reopened in 2020 as a boutique property. The 17 high-ceilinged guest rooms in the main hotel and 11 more across the back parking lot in the restored Purcell House contain a mix of antique, reproduction, and contemporary furnishings. Wide white subway-style tiles gleam in the bathrooms, whose 1-inch hex porcelain floor tiles and brass fixtures evoke days gone by. The ground-floor Golden Gate Saloon dates from 1852.

Above the freeway across from Old Town, this hotel has a welcoming lobby and chain-standard but well-organized rooms with refrigerators, microwaves, and work areas. The hotel's Max's Restaurant & Bar serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, has a full bar, and provides room service.

A rowdy gold-rush miners' haunt, this hotel anchoring Moke Hill's historic downtown contains rooms and suites decorated with a mishmash of Victorian antiques and utilitarian pieces. Ask about friendly ghosts and disreputable folks like Black Bart and Joaquin Murrieta who imbibed and played cards here. The courtyard opens to a garden with a pool and deck, and 150-year-old orange trees dot the grounds. The cozy restaurant, its original stone walls partially exposed, serves traditional American fare, from burgers and shrimp and grits to filet mignon. Dine on the patio when it's warm.

Works by regional artists adorn the hallways of this three-story, downtown historic district boutique property, where the first-floor public areas include a lobby that invites lingering; a spa; and Carboni's, an Italian restaurant, bar, and grab-and-go market. When it's open, the rooftop is a great place to enjoy town and mountain views while sipping a beverage. The spacious (320–750 square feet, 10-foot ceilings) accommodations are done in shades of gray and warm browns and furnished with deluxe beds, high-thread-count sheets, refrigerators, coffeemakers, and 4G HDTVs. All the well-lit bathrooms are equipped with rain-forest showers; a few also have claw-foot soaking tubs.

The architects of this courtly hotel, which opened with a splash in 2023, incorporated the redbrick Romanesque Revival–style facade of the 1928 structure that preceded it. Done in contemporary style with soft brown and powder blue accents that defer to exposed brick evoking the past, the guest rooms and suites have dedicated sitting areas and bathrooms with ultramodern fixtures. All the studio and one-bedroom suites have full kitchens and sofa beds, making them a viable option for larger groups. Standard rooms have microwaves and small refrigerators. The accommodations range in size from 306 to 607 square feet, but even the smaller ones make efficient use of their space. The room rate includes a well-stocked breakfast buffet, and the Historic Star Lounge serves lunch, dinner, and cocktails (happy hour 3–6).

A full-service hotel right on campus, the Hyatt distinguishes itself with an enthusiastic staff and well-designed rooms and suites furnished with mahogany desks, headboards, and built-in nightstands, as well as pullout sofas with beds already made up for extra guests. King rooms and suites have spacious showers; book a queen room for a bathtub (with shower). All rooms have small refrigerators; suites also have microwaves. Amenities like the pool, fitness room, café, and bar make the Hyatt more than just a place to hang your hat. The generous, crowd-pleasing breakfasts include eggs and other hot items.

A judicious 2023 makeover broadened the appeal of one-block Amador City's 1879 redbrick hotel without sacrificing the throwback feel of the guest rooms, two with balconies overlooking town. A wooden staircase leads directly from the lobby bar to three second-floor rooms with king beds, three with queens, and all with exposed brick walls and painstakingly sanded original floors. The bathrooms, equipped with period-sensitive fixtures, are stocked with high-quality products. As with the hotel, renovations to the restaurant preserved a sense of the past, with the updated farm-to-fork cuisine providing contemporary travelers additional incentive to book here. A nearby hilltop cottage contains three larger suites. Rates are higher for these, but good views and a quieter setting compensate.

For many years known as the Grey Gables Inn, this property at the northern end of Sutter Creek's historic downtown received a boutique-style makeover following a 2021 change of ownership. All rooms have gas-log fireplaces, Keurig coffeemakers, upscale bath products, and TVs; some accommodations have a soaking or Jacuzzi tub, and the suites have a private patio. Afternoon tea and evening refreshments are served in the parlor (or you can enjoy them in your room); birds flit about the wisteria in the terraced garden.

Soft shades of brown and gray and furniture milled from California oak lend this full-service hotel's spacious rooms and suites a haute-rustic feel. Convenient to the Downtown Commons (DOCO) shopping and entertainment complex, Golden 1 Center arena, the Capitol, and Old Sacramento attractions, the hotel pleases business and leisure travelers with up-to-date electronics, deluxe bath products, and in-room yoga mats and spa treatments. On-site facilities include the third-floor pool and Revival bar, a steak house, and the independently run 25,000-square-foot Punch Bowl Social, with a bar and restaurant, bowling, billiards, darts, and other diversions.

Effusive but not intrusive hospitality is the trademark of this contemporary inn between Placerville and Plymouth whose spacious light-filled suites and a cottage have views of the oaks, firs, and other trees surrounding the property. Furnished with king-size beds with pillow-top mattresses, all the accommodations have private decks and sitting areas with fireplaces. Microwaves, coffeemakers, flat-screen TVs with satellite connection, and refrigerators stocked with complimentary sodas and waters are among the other amenities.

The lobby's full-size, taxidermied bear poised to pounce and wolf on the prowl hint at a decorative sensibility that dissipates upon entering the boilerplate rooms at this motel-like property a few blocks southeast of downtown. The red-carpeted, 500-square-foot guest accommodations—all called suites but only some with two rooms—are furnished with microwaves, refrigerators, coffee pots, flat-screen TVs, and combination tubs and showers. Staff members deliver free mini-doughnuts each morning. A coin-operated washer-and-dryer stack occupies one corner of the fitness room, which also contains a sauna; the pool and hot tub are just outside.

It looks like a typical one-story motel, but the Outside Inn offers a variety of accommodations inspired by nature or activities in nature. Each room is unique; ask about kitchenettes, full kitchens, suites, patios, or the stand-alone cabin off-property. One room honors the town's Nevada Classic, the nation's second-oldest bike race, once won by Greg Lemond. Others pay tribute to wildflowers, river rafting, and fishing. There's a climbing wall in the rock-climbing suite. Enjoy homespun hospitality with plenty of inspiration to get you out of the room and into nature.

This boutique hotel within the historic 1926 Cal Western Life building is dapper and refined, with marble stairs, striped wallpaper, and plush velvet chairs, lending the place a Roaring '20s charm. It's a favorite overnight roost among visiting politicians, business leaders, and celebs. Request a room on a higher floor—the view of Downtown Sacramento is impressive. The upscale-contemporary Grange Restaurant & Bar draws plenty of locals in addition to hotel guests.

Snappy design, full kitchens, and proximity to downtown, wineries, and Apple Hill make this small early-1940s motel renovated in 2022 into vacation rentals a delight for its price point. The aesthetically pleasing suitelike accommodations have separate bedrooms (king or queen beds), walk-in rain showers, 60-inch smart TVs, and responsive Wi-Fi. The husband-and-wife hosts pride themselves on the TLC they've put into the house and the hospitality they show their guests. Some noise bleed-through between rooms and the less than scintillating location in a residential cul-de-sac between stand-alone commercial establishments and a strip mall count as drawbacks, but the pluses for the most part outweigh them in this Gold Country town with few worthy nonchain options.

Once more proudly anchoring the southern portion of Nevada City's historic district, this three-story boutique property, whose structure dates from 1856, underwent a multiyear makeover, and the attention to Victorian-era detail impresses throughout. It starts with the wrought-iron balconies out front and continues in the lobby with its dark trim, porcelain-hex-tile floor, and floral wallpaper. Accommodations—which range in size from smallish rooms with full or queen beds to suites and studios with kings—all have furniture, photographs and prints, and accents like ornate retro phones that recall the hotel's early decades, as does the decor of the restaurant, Lola, named for the 19th-century entertainer Lola Montez. As in the 1800s, the bar is a swank place for a drink.

Decorated with contemporary furnishings that have 19th-century accents, this inn, whose owners also manage several area vacation rentals, benefits from a prime Main Street location within walking distance of restaurants, shops, and wine-tasting rooms. The innkeepers aim to please, so much so that many guests return year after year. Many rooms have balconies, a bonus in good weather.

What began in the 1880s as a saloon and boardinghouse for miners and other long-term guests now contains four second-floor guest rooms done in pastels and furnished with high-quality linens, free Wi-Fi, and flat-screen TVs with cable. Two rooms have direct access to a balcony that overlooks Volcano's small business district. The breakfast here is substantial and well made.