Smack-dab between San Francisco and Tahoe, and cut through by two big rivers, California's capital and oldest incorporated city embraces its rural past while rushing headlong into the future. Fortune-seeking Gold Rushers have been replaced by suit-wearing political strivers, but somehow this town has maintained an affable, unpretentious vibe. Upscale boutiques and farm-to-table restaurants dot the Grid — a network of numbered and lettered streets in the city center — while wooden sidewalks and historic buildings define Old Sacramento, where nostalgic kitsch rules the day. The capitol building’s distinct copper dome dominates the Sacramento skyline, but its interior may be even more impressive, especially the 128-foot-tall ornate rotunda decorated with cast-iron grizzly bears. After touring the building, visitors pour forth into a forty-acre Victorian garden. In recent years, the dome has gotten some competition as visual mascot for the city, as Sacramento has gained recognition as a public arts hub with more than 700 murals. All of this is served among a booming craft beer and restaurant scene, concentrated in Midtown, making Sacramento an under-the-radar gem nestled in the sun-dappled environs of central California.

Thanks to its central inland location, Sacramento enjoys hot, dry summers — perfect for tubing on the American River or gawking at the scores of migratory bats that cluster under the nearby Blecher-Freeman Memorial Causeway. Fall and winter are cooler, with winter being the wettest season, which also ushers in bouts of notoriously dense fog. Spring is mild, and a perfect time for staying in one of the city’s vacation rentals and strolling the streets lined with budding trees.

Railroad Museum

Visitors are invited into a different era at this museum that is home to 19 carefully restored steam locomotives and other grand vessels that once navigated the state’s vast rail network. You can also explore a 3,300-square-foot display of 1,000 vintage toy trains zipping past doll-sized mountains and towns. Complete your experience by hopping aboard a gondola pulled by a vintage diesel engine for a round-trip excursion along the Sacramento River.

Crocker Art Gallery

Like Sacramento, this art museum is a marriage of the past and the future. Installed inside a historic circa-1872 Italianate mansion, a bold modern addition was opened in 2010. The Teel Family Pavilion — a modernist expanse of clean lines and glass — tripled the size of the museum. Inside you’ll find a vast collection of Californian art, European paintings, and one of the largest international ceramics collections in the nation. Swing by the store to shop wares made by local artists.

Sacramento History Museum Underground Tour

Back in the mid-19th century, the youthful settlement of Sacramento was frequently flooded by the nearby river. The solution? Abandon the original city, and build on top of it. Later, excavations unearthed the subterranean city, and now you can descend below the Sacramento History Museum with tour guides dressed in period garb to explore an underground ghost town.