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Eurostudents in Santa Rosa

(Petra Reisacher, Germany, 1997)

 

The first question, you may ask be: " Where's Santa Rosa?" Well, it is still in California and you can believe it or not, it is a really nice part of California.

Most of the tourists come to see Los Angeles, The Bay Area, San Francisco, sometimes The Muir Woods but nearly nobody comes to see the beautiful two Valleys Napa and Sonoma up north of The City (San Francisco). These Valleys are most famous for their excellent wine. So read the chapter about Wine-Tasting carefully. It's a lot of fun...

 

 

  1. Housing

    2. See Chapter Housing-Family or Apartment

     

  2. Renting a car

    3. All the information you can see at the Chapter Renting a car are also valid for Santa Rosa.

    I tried to get a good Rental-deal at the local Car-Rentals, but in the end I had to admit that the deal with National is definitely the best.

    The only problem is that you have to pick up the car at San Francisco-Airport, because National has no Agency at Santa Rosa.

    Here are all the things you have to do, if you rent a car with National:

    1. Make your reservation at the HP-Travel-Agency. The AMEX-Counter is at Building 1.
    2. Take the Santa Rosa Airporter to San Francisco. There is a bus leaving every hour (4, 5,..) from the Days Inn- Hotel in Downtown. (phone-number: 707-545-8015) Ask the bus-driver for the Shuttle-bus to National. They will bring you to the office of National, where you can pick up your car.
      The Airporter is about 12 bucks. If you show your HP-ID you also can get a discount.
    3. Return the car at the S.F.-Airport

     

    That's it!!

     

  3. Public Transportation

    4. In Santa Rosa

    If you don't rent a car you are in a really bad situation in Santa Rosa. During my first week I didn't have a car and the result was that I had to use the public transportation.

    If you just want to go around Santa Rosa you can use the 'Santa Rosa Bus Line'. All the buses are leaving from Down Town (on 3rd Street / corner C-Street). But don't expect too much!

    To San Francisco

    If you want to ride to The City you should take the "Golden Gate Transit" (phone-number: 707-541-2000). During the day they have a shuttle every 30 Minutes (that’s pretty good for Santa Rosa!!!)

    I think it's about 3 or 4 bucks.

    To somewhere else

    You want to do a great trip to somewhere out of the Sonoma County? Take the Greyhound-bus! You will probably never forget this ride. I took this bus once to Sacramento. I took me about 2 ½ hours and I was more than happy to leave the bus again.

    But anyway it's a great experience. For the connections you should have a look on the Greyhound-Webpage: http://www.greyhound.com/

    The Greyhound Bus-Station is on Santa Rosa Avenue (right after the Luther Burbank Center)

     

  4. Shopping

    5.  

    Department Stores

    Montecito Shopping Center

    Montecito Bl., Santa Rosa Tel: 707-577-8248

     

    Santa Rosa Plaza

    800 Santa Rosa Pl., Santa Rosa Tel: 707-523-333

    This is a really nice Shopping-Mall in Down-Town of Santa Rosa. Even if you don't want to buy something it's a good place just to hang out, drink some coffee or look at all the people walking around...

     

    Coddingtown Shopping Center

    Steel Lane Ave.

    They have similar stores to the Santa Rosa Plaza but I guess it's a little bit cheaper there. I highly would recommend the Big 5 Sports Goods Store. It's quite big and you can get whatever you need for any Sport.

     

    For more Shopping Center and Department Stores, have a look at the Santa Rosa Yellow-Pages (online: Yahoo)

     

    Outlet Stores

    If you want to see a really big Outlet Store you should go to Gilroy in the South Bay. But if you don't want to do this long drive you can go to Petaluma.

    Petaluma is a small town 17 Miles south of Santa Rosa. Take 101 south and get off at the first Petaluma-Exit. Then you can just follow the big signs: "Factory-Outlet stores".

    Another Outlet is in Vacaville. (for all Germans: Kuhdorf) It's about 1 ½ hour north-east from Santa Rosa. If you go there during the day you can stop a few times on the way and go wine-tasting, because you have to go through the most famous wine-tasting area: Sonoma!

     

    Book Stores

    Even if the Americans don't read a lot (I know, that's stereo-type) you can find a lot of nice Book Stores in every City.

    In Down-town Santa Rosa they have this huge Book Store "Barnes&Noble ". Actually it is on 700 4th Street. I liked this Store a lot. It's also a good place to stay there for a while, drink coffee and talk to the people.

    Another recommendation is "Waldenbooks". You can find it in the Santa Rosa Plaza Shopping Mall.

     

    For all the other stores you can either have a look at the yellow pages or just ask your co-worker, friends, people on the street. I guess that's even more fun.

     

  5. Going out in Santa Rosa

    6.  

    Going out for Dinner

    There are a lot of restaurants in Santa Rosa. Most of them you can find in Downtown. The best Web-page with a really good guide for dinning in Sonoma County you can find here: http://www.sterba.com. So, I just want to recommend one Restaurant, which was my favorite.

    It is called "MIXX Restaurant". You can find it at 135 4th Street. It is a very nice Restaurant with delicious Californian Cuisine. (phone: 707-573-1344)

     

    Movie-time

    The best day to see a movie is Tuesday. You can get Tuesday-Tickets for $2.50 at the Airport-Cinema (101 north, Exit Airport Blvd, on the right side). To check the time-schedule of the movies see http://www.pressdemo.com/movies.

    Tip: Don't start with a Comedy. That's actually pretty hard to understand. I did this and was so disappointed, because all the others were laughing in the movie-center and the only thing I was laughing about were my Popcorn. (Yes, you are right, Popcorn is not really funny)

     

    Bars, Clubs

    I haven't been out a lot of time in Santa Rosa. Most of the time we were in The City or in the South Bay.

    But I can give you at least a few tips:

    A nice place to hang out is "The Cantina". It's on 500 4th Street. On the first floor you can have Mexican food and Margaritas and on the second you’ll find a small dance floor. I guess the best day to go there is Thursday, especially in summer if there is the Thursday-Market on 4th Street.

     

    If you like Budweiser (what I can't understand) you should go to "Quincy's" in Rohnert Park (Exit Rohnert Park Expressway, turn right and you see it on your left) on Wednesday. They offer the beer for $1 and the best thing is, that they play really good music. A good place to dance and meet people.

     

    The last recommendation is the "Max's Bar" in the Double Tree Hotel in Rohnert Park. A lot of funny people are there and on Friday they even have live music.

    And don't forget, it's just a one hour drive to the most interesting City in the World: San Francisco!!

     

  6. Wine-Tasting

    7. In nearly every Store in Santa Rosa you can buy a Wine-Tasting Map. If you want to plan and organize your tour I would suggest to buy this map.

    We just took a Mini-Van (for 9 people and one poor driver) and drove towards Sonoma. Hardly started you already can find the first Winery. Just stop, go inside and start drinking, uppss I wanted to say start tasting.

    If you do this for a few hours...

    A really nice Winery , with a beautiful garden is the "Benzinger-Winery" in Glen Ellen (Londo Ranch Road). If you have the time you should take part at one of their Tractor-Tours. It's a lot of fun.

     

     

    This is now just a short overview of Santa Rosa. Hopefully the next generation of Euro-Students can continue and improve it.

    If you are the lucky one, who is going to stay in Santa Rosa, just give me a call. I would be glad to introduce you to some people (it's always good to know people, at least to hang out with)
 

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