Sacramento, United States: Self-Guided Walking Tour

The best things to do in Sacramento bring together Gold Rush history, museums, civic landmarks, Indigenous culture and religious heritage. California’s capital is especially rewarding for travellers who want to explore at their own pace, from the historic streets of Old Sacramento to the State Capitol and its surrounding museums. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Sacramento with 50 narrated places.

What to See in Sacramento

Old Sacramento and the Sacramento History Museum

Old Sacramento State Historic Park preserves the atmosphere of the city’s Gold Rush era with restored buildings, gas lamps and cobblestone streets. The district grew rapidly after gold was discovered nearby, as hotels, saloons and shops appeared for people preparing to travel to the goldfields.

The Sacramento History Museum stands along the Sacramento River between the Tower Bridge and I Street Bridge. Housed in a replica of Sacramento’s 1854 City Hall and Waterworks building, it traces the city’s development from the arrival of John Sutter in 1839 through the transformation brought by the Gold Rush. Its exhibits also explain how the city was raised in the 1860s to protect it from flooding.

California State Railroad Museum

The California State Railroad Museum is one of the key places to visit in Old Sacramento. Built at the western terminus of the first transcontinental railroad, it explores how railways connected California with the wider world and helped shape the American West.

The collection includes locomotives and rail cars dating from 1862 through 1944, including passenger, freight and maintenance cars. The Golden Spike exhibit focuses on the completion of the railroad and its opening ceremony in 1869. Model railroads and the Sacramento Southern Railroad excursion add a more hands-on dimension to the story.

California State Capitol Museum and Capitol Park

The California State Capitol Museum combines public history with working government. The building has housed California’s legislature since 1869 and still contains the state legislature and the governor’s offices.

The museum occupies the basement and first floor. Visitors can see restored historic offices, rotating exhibitions and a large collection of paintings, statues, murals and antiques. The two legislative chambers have different colour schemes: red in the Senate chamber recalls the British House of Lords, while green in the Assembly chamber refers to the House of Commons.

Outside, Capitol Park extends the experience with historic and commemorative landmarks. It is included in Neywo’s Capitol Sacramento walk, alongside the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Sacramento Memorial Auditorium.

Crocker Art Museum

The Crocker Art Museum is a landmark for discovering art from California and around the world. Founded in 1885, it is described as the oldest art museum in the Western United States.

Its collections connect California’s Gold Rush era with the present day. The museum began with Edwin B. Crocker and Margaret Crocker, whose European travels helped them build an extensive collection of paintings and drawings. The original Crocker family mansion forms part of the museum. Redesigned in the Italianate style and later expanded with a gallery, bowling alley and skating rink, it is considered one of architect Seth Babson’s masterpieces.

A large modern addition opened in 2010, following an expansion that began in 2002 and tripled the museum’s exhibition capacity. The result is a broad artistic journey, from Californian works linked to the Gold Rush to international art.

Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park

Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park offers a close look at Sacramento’s political and architectural history. The four-story mansion was constructed in 1856 and completed in 1857. Its Renaissance Revival design was commissioned by local merchant Shelton C. Fogus.

Leland Stanford bought the property in 1861, shortly before becoming California’s eighth governor. He expanded and modified the house, including raising it above flood level, and used it as both his home and executive office. The mansion later became a children’s home before California purchased and restored it. It now serves as an official reception centre for the Government of California while remaining open for public tours.

The California Museum

A block from the State Capitol, the California Museum focuses on the state’s history, the contributions of women and the arts. Its exhibitions occupy more than 20,000 square feet within the March Fong Eu Secretary of State Building complex.

The museum opened in 1998 as the Golden State Museum. Its focus developed further after the 2004 exhibition “California’s Remarkable Women.” In the courtyard, the six-story public artwork “RIGHTS” uses words from the California Constitution. As the light changes, words including “redress” and “assemble” become visible.

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

At the intersection of 11th and K Streets, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament stands as both a religious and civic landmark. It is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento.

Construction began in 1887 under Sacramento’s first bishop, Patrick Manogue. The design was inspired by the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris. Its exterior follows an Italian Renaissance style, while the interior is Victorian. The cathedral is about 200 feet long and 100 feet wide, with seating for 1,400 people; its central bell tower rises 215 feet.

California State Indian Museum

The California State Indian Museum explores the diverse traditions of California’s Indigenous peoples through traditional objects, stories and information. It also presents Native communities as a contemporary presence in Sacramento, rather than only as part of the distant past.

California Automobile Museum

The California Automobile Museum examines more than the appearance of cars: its exhibitions explore the automobile’s influence on society. More than 150 vehicles are displayed across 72,000 square feet, including classic cars, race cars, muscle cars, hot rods and early models.

The museum began in 1983 as the California Vehicle Foundation and opened to the public in 1987 as the Towe Ford Museum. As the collection grew beyond Ford vehicles, it became the California Automobile Museum in 2009. Many vehicles are loaned by private collectors, so the display changes over time.

Crest Theatre

The Crest Theatre is a downtown landmark that remains a venue for films, music, comedy and community events. The site began as the Empress Theatre, a vaudeville house opened in 1913. After the building later became the Hippodrome, the Crest Theatre was constructed within the retained shell and opened on October 6, 1949.

Its restored 1940s Art Deco character reflects the building’s cinematic history. The theatre closed in 1979 and reopened in 1986 after local advocates brought it back to life.

Sacramento’s Other Cultural Landmarks

Sacramento’s cultural history also appears in smaller and more specialised places. The Old Sacramento Schoolhouse Museum recreates a nineteenth-century one-room classroom with period desks and a pot-bellied stove. Viewpoint Photographic Art Center presents changing exhibitions, ranging from traditional photography to pinhole photography and Polaroid manipulation.

Congregation B’nai Israel, founded in 1852, is Sacramento’s oldest Jewish congregation. Its origins reach back to Jewish settlers gathering during the Gold Rush, and its first building became the first synagogue west of the Mississippi River.

The California State Military Museum’s original site is now closed and a new location is under development. Its former exhibitions focused on Californians and California military units in United States military operations and wars.

Explore Sacramento with Neywo

Neywo turns a visit into a Sacramento self-guided walking tour, with stories that play as you reach each place. The app includes 3 walking tours, 1 bus route and 1 bike route, with 50 narrated places in total. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The routes include:

• Capitol Sacramento: Statehouse, Park and Cathedral — a 2.5 km walk lasting 72 minutes, with 8 stops.
• Gold Rush Waterfront: Old Sacramento and the Pony Express — a 1.36 km walk lasting 66 minutes, with 11 stops.
• From the Crocker to Capitol Mall: Art, Skyline and a Governor’s Mansion — a 2.1 km walk lasting 61 minutes, with 7 stops.
• Yolobus 43: From 12th Street to Old Sacramento through the Centre — a 4.1 km bus route lasting 18 minutes, with 6 stops.
• Sacramento Riverfront by Bike: Old Sacramento to Capitol Mall — a 5.4 km bike route lasting 27 minutes, with 4 stops.

Each story starts when you reach the place, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Download Neywo and explore Sacramento independently, while the app tells the story of the landmarks along your route.

Sacramento is part of California in the United States.