20 Fun Ways to Be a Tourist In Your Own Town

Courtesy of City Cruises

Tuk-Tuk Tours

On these tuk-tuks—three-wheeled, electric versions of a traditional rickshaw—the act of zipping through the streets of Sacramento with the summer breeze in your hair is worth the ride alone. But why not see the sights and learn something new along the way? Capital Tuk-Tuk founder Manushi Weerasinghe—who grew up around the open-air vehicles (including her father’s) in her native Sri Lanka—has been leading a variety of local tours for groups of up to six people since 2022. Just a few of your options: Two different hour-long mural tours (one through downtown and western midtown, and the second through eastern midtown and East Sacramento, each delivering you to several dozen murals); a pub crawl tour; and perhaps the pièce de résistance—a 90-minute Lady Bird  tour hitting spots from and inspired by Greta Gerwig’s 2017 semiautobiographical film like the McKinley Park rose garden, the blue house in the Fab Forties and the mural-covered American Market & Deli in midtown where the title character celebrated her 18th birthday by buying cigarettes, a copy of Playgirl  and a lottery ticket. Throughout the outing, Weerasinghe regales you with fun facts—did you know that the American Market clerk in the movie was not an actor, but rather one of the store owners?—and is more than happy to snap photos as you recreate your favorite scenes. In other words, you can be Lady Bird for a day—just don’t jump out of the moving vehicle like she did. $159 per group for the Lady Bird tour. 916-400-1525. capitaltuktuk.com/lady-bird-tour

Photo by Andri Tambunan

Midtown Walking Food Tour

When it comes to adventurous culinary exploits, there’s nothing “mid” about Sacramento’s quintessential urban enclave, and the Midtown Walking Food Tour from SacTown Bites—which also offers other themed outings like a farmers’ market visit and a gastronomic stroll through Old Sacramento—is a perfect food-forward introduction to its superlative soul. The three-hour adventure lets you sample signature dishes at up to five popular eateries—the lineup varies, but our tour favorites included the crispy, golden-fried potato tacos and margaritas at Cantina Alley, the succulent, spiced citrus shrimp skewers at Kupros, and the swoon-worthy salted caramel ice cream macaron sandwiches at Ginger Elizabeth. Between each stop, you’ll cleanse your palate by feasting your eyes on midtown’s vibrant murals, learning the hidden lore and meanings behind dozens of pieces—like why a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. peeks out from a corner of the Johnny Cash mural near 16th and L streets—and giving you lots to chew on (literally and figuratively) from beginning to end. $125. 916-905-0031. sactownbites.com

Literary Secrets of Sacramento

As far as tours go, this one is a real page-turner. The two-hour Journey Through Sacramento’s Literary Secrets driving tour (offered through June and then again starting in August, via Airbnb Experiences) begins at the Old City Cemetery but then twists and turns through the city’s bookish backroads, from Joan Didion’s childhood home near midtown to the Fulton Avenue apartment complex that short story master Raymond Carver managed out of college and the McDonald’s down the street from McClatchy High where Cornel West flipped burgers as a teenager. Created by New York Times  best-selling writer Jennifer Basye Sander—who serves as both guide and driver for you and up to three other guests in her orange Ford Bronco—what started as a Didion-focused exploration in 2018 quickly grew to encompass the wider breadth of the capital’s literary history—and a book’s worth of juicy details that may never make it to the written page. $50. bit.ly/916literarytour

Leland Stanford Mansion

When it’s not hosting VIPs as California’s official meet-and-greet locale for foreign dignitaries (like the Dalai Lama, whom Gov. Jerry Brown hosted at the Leland Stanford Mansion for lunch in 2016)—the meticulously restored 1856 mansion, at just under an acre with its surrounding gardens, is one of our tiniest state parks. And even those of us without diplomatic credentials can nab an invite via free tours that run seven days a week. The guided walks wind through the house’s history—and a majority of its 19,000 square feet—over the course of an hour, each part of the house spotlighting certain time periods, from the 1860s when railroad mogul Leland Stanford lived in the residence while serving as the Golden State’s eighth governor (his inauguration took place during the Great Flood of 1862, forcing him to return home via a small rowboat after getting sworn in and enter the house through a second-story window) to the bulk of the 20th century when the mansion served as a sanctuary for homeless children until the Stanford Home for Children relocated in 1987. Don’t miss two special tours this summer—a Butler’s Tour (focused on the “downstairs” to Stanford’s “upstairs”) on June 13 and a garden tour on June 14. Free. 916-324-9266. parks.ca.gov

Crocker Architecture Tour

Part ornate 1872 Victorian family mansion and part sleek, bright, curving edifice, the Crocker Art Museum might just be the most interesting building mash-up in all of Sacramento. And within its docent-led tour series—which also includes deep dives into single artworks with its Look & Learn Tours and guided journeys through new exhibits—the museum offers 90-minute architecture tours three times a month. Explore both its original structure as well as the modern 125,000-square-foot addition designed by Charles Gwathmey—the renowned architect behind the storied addition to New York’s Guggenheim. You’ll learn about the intentional “divine flaws” in the mansion’s tilework, the role the courtyard fountain plays in dampening nearby freeway noise, how the expansion’s sawtooth roof design helps with lighting the interior, the fine line Gwathmey walked when adding to a historical landmark, and more. Free with $15 admission. 916-808-7000. crockerart.org

Photo by Bruce Damonte, courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum

Consumnes River Preserve

Before the advent of commercial agriculture, the fertile, low-lying farmlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta looked nothing like the tidy orchards and row crops they resemble now. Back then, this land was a teeming chaos of tidal wetlands navigable only by wing, fin and claw. Humans? Other than the Indigenous hunter-gatherers fishing the banks of the Cosumnes River, this landscape remained largely impenetrable. Today, the 54,000-acre Cosumnes River Preserve in Galt is one of the only places where you can bear witness to our region’s original state of nature. It’s a slice of rare, verdant wetlands with over 250 species of birds, nearly as many species of plants, as well as beavers, otters and reptiles galore, with boardwalks and levee trails granting you access, and free tours to guide your early explorations. First-timers should start with the Natural and Cultural History Walk—a 2.5-hour guided hike that’s offered monthly, in which the practices of the Plains Miwok tribe come alive. Those heeding the call of the wild can also take kayak excursions along the river or join specialty tours like the one celebrating the Annual Butterfly Count on June 20, which will see us all aflutter on the preserve’s stunning observation deck (pictured below). Free. 916-684-2816. cosumnes.org

Photo by Justine Payuran

Old Town Auburn

This free walking tour, led by docents of the Placer County Museum, sets out at 10 a.m. every Saturday, starting at the museum—located inside the historic hilltop Placer County Courthouse (built in 1898)—and continuing down into Old Town Auburn. Running an hour, the half-mile-or-so loop through the town’s historical landmarks—most dating from the Gold Rush era—includes stops like the old Placer County Bank (site of an infamous 1904 bank robbery where a masked man stole $5,000—nearly $200,000 in today’s dollars) and the Old Town Auburn Post Office (once the oldest operating post office west of the Mississippi). And if strolling through history builds up an appetite, head to Auburn’s weekly farmers’ market (open from 8 a.m. to noon) across the street once your tour’s over. Free. 530-889-6500. placer.ca.gov

Courtesy of Placer County Museums

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

The layering of history, art, religious icons and architecture that make up this towering downtown structure—the second tallest in Sacramento (only slightly shorter than the Capitol) when it was completed in 1889—creates what lead docent Oscar Ramirez affectionately calls a “forest of symbols.” And this particular artistic woodland—which features an awe-inspiring 160-foot dome ceiling over the nave and 56 stained glass masterworks, a dozen of which are 16th-century Italian pieces originally donated by local art matriarch Margaret Crocker—is best experienced with a guided tour, which the diocese began holding following the cathedral’s massive, $34 million renovation in 2005. Roughly 50 minutes long, each free walk touches on everything from the post-Gold Rush politics that made the Cathedral possible, to the spiritual meaning behind the colors of tilework. In short, you’ll be seeing the forest and the trees. Free. 916-444-3071. cathedralsacramento.org

Roseville History Tour

Scheduled upon request (reach out at least a week in advance), the Roseville Historical Society hosts an hour-long Walking Roseville Tour, a leisurely half-mile out-and-back that meets up at the Carnegie Museum and moves on to the heart of Old Roseville before finishing with a guided look around the museum, which also serves as the historical society’s HQ. Each stop is a trip down civic memory lane—or in this case, Lincoln Street—like the Bank of Italy insignias still visible on a 1927 building and learning about the smuggling tunnels that once ran from the train depot to the basements of local businesses. Back at the museum, don’t miss the massive, meticulous model train replica of Old Roseville—topped with a helpful “You are here” sign so you’ll never be lost to history. $15. 916-773-3003. rosevillehistorical.org

California State Railroad Museum

Few stories are as epic and sprawling as the history of rail travel in the Golden State, and Old Sacramento’s railroad museum is on track to tell it—but with over two dozen historical locomotives and train cars in the collection, where to jump on board? Thankfully, there’s the museum’s half-hour orientation tour. Multiple times each day and hourly on Saturdays, docents lead groups back in time to the mid-19th century and provide valuable context like California’s initial isolation from the rest of the country due to the Sierra Nevada mountains; the extraordinary contributions of Chinese immigrants who dug tunnels and laid most of the earliest tracks; the 1863 groundbreaking of the transcontinental railroad near Sacramento’s K Street; and onward. The short-and-sweet introduction ends in the museum’s main hall, with an invitation to keep exploring full-steam ahead. Free with $12 admission. 916-323-9280. californiarailroad.museum

Photo by Kelly B. Huston, courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum

Maidu Museum & Historic Site

When you hike through the lovely, pastoral grounds of this Roseville museum, you’ll spy elegantly weathered stone formations—that’s not a sculpture garden, but an ancient kitchen, where Indigenous cooks diligently shaped more than 150 bedrock mortars, or grinding bowls, by turning acorns into flour over thousands of years. This 26-acre historic site, where the Nisenan Maidu people lived, was officially added to the national register in 1973 and began offering tours to the community over four decades ago. The hour-long guided walk starts at the museum every Saturday morning and continues for a half-mile loop around the site—in addition to the world’s coolest kitchen implements, the museum grounds harbor more than a dozen identified sets of carved petroglyphs, some believed to be as much as 5,000 years old. This is one museum where history is very much set in stone. Free with $7 admission. 916-774-5934 roseville.ca.us

Sacramento Zoo Behind the Scenes

Ever wanted to scratch behind the ear of a rhino? Feed grapes to a kangaroo? Tuesday through Saturday, the Sacramento Zoo hosts a range of behind-the-scenes tours, giving budding zoologists a chance to get up close and personal with Land Park’s most exotic denizens. Each tour takes small groups into non-public portions of the zoo to see where different animals sleep, play and eat, followed by activities—we loved hand-feeding Glory and her five fellow giraffes acacia leaves during the “Giraffe and Zebra Journey.” Among the other offerings is an intimate meet-and-greet with J Gregory, a new tour that lets visitors spend up to half an hour with the park’s first rhino (he’s a big fan of being brushed). Or you can take a walk on the really wild side and go on a private Cheetah Feeding Tour, helping feed brothers Zig Zag and Rowdy a purr-fect afternoon snack. $61-$321. 916-808-8441. saczoo.org

Courtesy of the Sacramento Zoo

Sacramento River Cruise

The heart of River City lies right at the confluence of our two waterways, where the dark, clear waters of the wild and scenic American River meet the silty chocolate currents of the Sacramento River. That striking convergence is just one of Sacramento’s beautiful mysteries, and City Cruises hosts an hour-long Historic Sacramento River Cruise that uncovers many more. Starting June 2, the tours depart Old Sacramento, heading upstream as the captain narrates your voyage, detailing the history of the Sacramento River as a shipping corridor with some spicy, colorful tale-telling along the way. You’ll visit the watery grave of the Black Magic, a sunken 16th-century pirate ship—well, a recreation of one from the 1970s, the liveaboard vessel of a chap named Jim Clove who fancied himself a reincarnated swashbuckler. Rest assured, this cruise will also take you right over the spot where our two rivers meet and where the scientific and historic reasons for the confluence’s striking appearance will be revealed. And this summer, you’ll be cruising along in a brand-new ship. With almost 70% more capacity (200 people versus 120), the incoming ride will feature a larger galley with two bars and a full kitchen serving made-to-order burgers and sandwiches so that you can fill your belly as well as your brain. We needed a bigger boat, Sacramento, and we got one. $33. 916-446-1185. cityexperiences.com

Courtesy of City Cruises

Bat Talk & Tour

When the sun starts setting over the Yolo Causeway, that’s the Bat-Signal for an estimated quarter-million bug-eating superheroes that take flight nightly in dramatic fashion. The roadway is home to California’s largest urban colony of Mexican free-tailed bats—each roughly the length of your thumb and among the fastest mammals on Earth—and every summer, the Yolo Basin Foundation leads three-hour tours where you can see them in action. (This year, the excursions will run three or four times a week from late June through September.) First, you’ll learn about the animals and meet several species of “bat ambassadors” (including the Mexican free-tailed bat) up close during a 50-minute indoor talk. Then you’ll jump in your car (Batmobile?) for a short drive out to the causeway for the main event, where you’ll witness ribbons of the winged creatures rising up to the night sky and spreading out to feast on mosquitoes, moths, beetles and more, saving local farmers loads of money on insecticide and all of us from some very unwanted bug bites. $17. 530-757-3780. yolobasin.org

Photo by Dave Feliz, courtesy of the Yolo Basin Foundation

Old City Cemetery

What Père Lachaise is to Paris, the Old City Cemetery is to Sacramento. Among more than 25,000 Sacramentans from all walks of life, here lie a few notable characters: the city’s founding father, John Sutter Jr.; Philippine Keseberg, widow of the Donner Party’s most notorious “man eater” (should the rumors be true); and saintly patroness of Sacramento, Margaret Crocker, a woman so beloved the whole city shut down for a party in her honor in 1885. To reanimate their residents, the Old City Cemetery Committee hosts themed, 90-minute walking tours all year long, including the uber-popular “Lantern Tours” during Halloween season. This summer, look for events like “Workin’ on the Railroad” ( June 6), featuring tales of Central Pacific Railroad “Big Four” member Mark Hopkins Jr. and other rail figures, and “Drugs in the Old West” ( June 13), delving into all manner of scandals, from opium-addicted gentlewomen to rival pharmacists at war over a patent medicine whose secret ingredient turned out to be… poisonous hemlock. $11. 916-448-0811. historicoldcitycemetery.org

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park

Fished out of the American River by James Marshall in 1848, California’s first piece of found gold was only half the size of a pea. But Marshall knew right then and there, with a prickle up his spine: This changes everything. The discovery unleashed the hounds of history, a force that would eventually lead California to becoming the fourth largest economy in the world. And it started, quite arguably, right on this spot, at what is now the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park. Nestled in rural Coloma, the park offers a twice-daily walking tour (at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.) that brings the magnitude of Marshall’s discovery roaring to life. Across 45 minutes, the Gold Discovery Tour leads you to Grandmother Rock, the only known Nisenan grinding rock left on the land; stops by a replica of the sawmill where Marshall first spotted a glint in the water (the original was abandoned following his discovery and washed away in the Great Flood of 1862); and visits a pair of original Chinese-owned stores. After the tour, ask your guide to point you to the short, scenic hilltop hike nearby for sweeping Gold Country views. For chasers of the bright and shiny, this tour is a veritable gold mine. $3 (with $10 parking). 530-622-3470. parks.ca.gov

Old Sacramento Underground

After repeated, catastrophic floods—culminating in a devastating deluge of water drowning much of the town in 1862 (the Jan. 11, 1862 Sacramento Bee  reported, “The city is as one vast lake”)—civic leaders decided to make major changes to protect the state capital from future floods, and over the next 13 years, Sacramento was raised up, building by building, street by street. The Sacramento History Museum’s Underground Tours not only take you into the brick-work hollows beneath Old Sacramento, letting you stroll where the city’s original sidewalks once stood, but also set the scene with in-character guides—many with backgrounds in theater and improv—playing real figures from our city’s history. Our recent hour-long tour, for instance, was led by “Mary Gregory,” a 19th-century female business owner who survived the flood and helped organize the effort to lift the city, literally and figuratively (she’s also the namesake of a small park in the historic district). For adults, the museum’s summer-only After Hours Underground Tours offer a similar, 90-minute historical plunge, but with tales of “murder, mischief, madness, mayhem—and madams.” We can’t wait to dig in. $30–$40. 916-808-7059. sachistorymuseum.org

Courtesy of the Sacramento History Museum

Sutter District Food Tour

Local Roots Food Tours co-owner Dawnie Andrak is so passionate about Sacramento’s culinary scene that she wrote her master’s degree thesis on the city’s farm-to-fork movement, so you know her excursions will stimulate the brain as well as the palate. The company offers popular guided walks in high-profile areas like downtown and the trendy R Street Corridor, but those looking for a different slice of foodie bliss with a nourishing serving of River City history might want to explore the Sutter District. During a three-hour stroll held daily Monday–Friday, Local Roots leads groups to a rotating roster of four or five sweet and savory destinations in the Sutter’s Fort neighborhood. You could start with a cup of joe and breakfast burritos at Coffee Works, for instance, followed by a jackfruit lotus blossom salad at Coriander Vietnamese Restaurant, gluten-free chocolate crinkle cookies at Pushkin’s Bakery, craft mocktails at Hawks Public House and more. Every tour is seasonal and serendipitous, so you never know what delicious tidbits you’ll get—ours happened to include a few visits from chefs—but always on the menu will be a brain-boosting crash course on John Sutter’s Nueva Helvetia colony. $104. 800-407-8918. localrootsfoodtours.com

Discover Davis

Genealogy sleuth Serena Williams created a thriving travel business in 2016, leading well-heeled travelers on bespoke tours to visit their roots. When the pandemic struck, the Aggie alum pivoted to apply her prodigious research skills to prying Davis’ rich history out of the cracks in the sidewalk (did you know the town was once called Davisville?), giving fresh-air walking tours of her adopted hometown. For example, you’ll visit the UC Davis campus, where you’ll see the olive and fig trees planted by 19th-century farmer Jerome Davis, the town’s namesake, that still produce fruit, and learn the story behind the Patwin-language-inscribed obelisks in the UCD Arboretum’s Native American Contemplative Garden. While the two-hour Walk and Discover Davis History tour—which Williams will offer multiple times a week until June 10, and then again starting on Sept. 23, through Airbnb Experiences—makes an excellent orientation for student families, the host’s favorite kick is to give us locals a “who knew?” moment when she reveals a hidden gem we’ve been passing right by all these years. $15. bit.ly/daviswalk

Photo by Julia Aue, courtesy of Serena Williams

Capitol Tours

It’s a view that screams City of Trees: You’re driving in from West Sacramento toward the Sacramento River, the pillars of the Tower Bridge gleaming in the sunlight and framing the alabaster dome of the Capitol as it’s flanked by a sea of lush green leaves. But we’ll bet you haven’t—not since that sixth-grade field trip—actually been inside the halls of this monumental, majestic building. The California State Capitol Museum leads free hour-long Capitol Tours (every hour on weekdays, first-come-first-served). How else would you ever learn about the roughly 75 hidden bear symbols scattered throughout the building’s décor, or sit in the third-floor viewing gallery to see the legislature when it’s in session? Capitol Park Tours (1 p.m. on Sundays and Wednesdays, also free—register online) take you back outside though the 40-acre park, where you can learn why Sacramento is called the Camellia City and visit the Civil War Memorial Grove, home to trees from historic battlefields such as Gettysburg and Lexington. Free. 916-324-0333. capitolmuseum.ca.gov

Photo by Brian Baer © California State Parks, All Rights Reserved