Local Favorites on List of America's Best Towns for the Holidays

By Bea Karnes (Patch Staff)

Travel and Leisure magazine has compiled its annual list of America’s Best Towns for the Holidays. Topping the list were Colorado’s mountain enclaves-- Vail and Aspen.

But northern and central California were well-represented with four charming communities. Need a dose of Christmas?

The rankings and descriptions from Travel and Leisure:

9. Carmel

This California town with a rocky coastline doesn’t experience much in the way of winter, but the chilly air makes the crashing waves and neighboring wine country seem all the more enticing. Carmel has its own tree lighting—a huge resident tree at the corner of Junipero and Ocean avenues—and the quiet days of early December also make it a little easier to get a table at nearby restaurants like La Bicyclette and Flying Fish Grill. December also brings the Inns of Distinction Tour, which includes the Cypress Inn(dating back to 1929) and the cottage-style Wayside Inn, as well as wineries such asHeller Estateand Cima Collina. Carmel also ranked well for its distinctive shopping; pick up French linens and antiques at Jan de Luz.

16. Paso Robles

Forget green: the prime holiday color in this Central Coast town is red, as in Pinot Noirs, Cabernets, and Syrahs. During the holidays, wineries offer low-key tastings, music performances, and great gift opportunities; check out Parrish Family Vineyard, whose tasting room is a short walk from downtown’s City Park. Mid-December also brings the many-blocks-long Vine Street Victorian Showcase, with open houses, floats, and carolers amid the decorated historic homes. For some seasonal house envy, go to Hearst Castle, about an hour away, which will be adorned much as it might have been for former resident William Randolph Hearst.

17. Healdsburg

Locals in this quaint Sonoma County town struck readers as brainy, literary types—and one of their biggest holiday traditions is the beloved Dickens Dinners at the Madrona Manor, featuring lobster shepherd’s pie and Christmas puddings that would make even Scrooge smile. Continue feasting during the Wine Country Walking Tours’ four-hour Holidays in Healdsburg tour, where you explore downtown shops and wineries, nibbling on freshly baked artisan breads, juniper honey, and handmade chocolates. For gourmet gifts, pick up kitchen gadgets and locally sourced foodstuffs at Healdsburg Shed.

24. Sonoma

If holiday stress takes much of the joy out of your world, this quaint wine-country town offers the ultimate antidote: it ranked near the top for spa vacations. Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, for instance, does seasonal treatments like the balancing Harvest Kur mud wrap and body treatment, with grapeseed oil, as well as a beta-carotene-rich Pumpkin Enzyme Facial, which promises to minimize lines. While you’re shopping around the town’s plaza for relatives back home, you can vote in the Annual Holiday Window Display contest (arts boutique Eminent Designhas won two years in a row), then check out the civilized bottles of olive oil and rare artisanal cheeses at gourmet food market Epicurean Connection.

--See the complete list from Travel and Leisure here--

(Image via Shutterstock)