The drive from the downtown Napa to Healdsburg's Plaza Park is all of 50 miles if you take Route 128, but the differences cannot be measured simply in miles. Skip busy Route 101 and take the route that takes you through Calistoga then Knights and Alexander valleys.

It's an hour's drive, maybe a little longer if you get behind a truck going through the hills. But take two-lane 128 if for no other reason than the fact that the abrupt changes in topography and geography make it worth every minute, as pastures alternate with hills then vineyards then pastures again. Coming from the Napa Valley, where every square inch of open space seems given over to vineyards or new houses, it is revelatory and refreshing.

Once in Healdsburg the drill is simple. You find a parking spot and leave your car there. Almost everything worth seeing is within easy walking distance, perhaps two or three blocks in any direction. All of this makes for an easy day trip, or as simply an excuse to get out of town and go somewhere different for lunch and perhaps a little wine tasting.

Healdsburg, like Sonoma, has a town plaza as its urban core. Bordered by Healdsburg Avenue -- the closest the town has to a traditional Main Street -- and Center, Plaza and Matheson Streets, it differs significantly from Sonoma by the fact that each of these streets are worth exploring as they extend beyond sight of the plaza.

For instance you can walk a block or two south on Center Street and there is the store P.S. Italia, and the new but already acclaimed Barndiva restaurant (open for dinner only). Go north from the plaza on Healdsburg Avenue and there are blocks of shops and restaurants, including Willi's Seafood & Raw Bar, Toad Hollow Vineyard's tasting room and the Costeaux French Bakery & Cafe.

Step over Abby, the enormous and sweet-tempered Bernese Mountain Dog at the Sonoma County outlet of Fideaux and check out the pet-oriented gifts and necessities. The Healdsburg Dog House, on the same street but south of the plaza, also provides much the same service.

There are plenty of art galleries in Healdsburg, but not so many that you think that you have been transported to Carmel. Just as there are a nice assortment of home decor shops, but it is not like East Hampton. And while there are plenty of bookstores no one will ever confuse the town with Cambridge. All in all that is what makes Healdsburg work: there is enough of everything, but not too much of any one thing. It is a matter of unplanned balance.

There is plenty of shopping to be found, much of it in the form of specialty stores such as Clutch (purses and bags) and Papitre (stationery). Or you take a break from shopping and visit the Hand Fan Museum, something you are unlikely to find in other towns, large or small.

Another spot to visit is Plaza Farms, a new venture right on the plaza. Under one roof are wineries, the cheeses of Bellwether Farms, the wines, olive oils and more from DaVero, chocolate from Scharffen Berger, bounty from the Healdsburg Farmers Collective, tea and tea pots from Teaspotz and sandwiches (including ice cream sandwiches dipped in melted Scharffen Berger chocolate), scoops of gelato and salads from Bovolo. This is also a good place to pick up one of their box lunches; they also have child-friendly selections, to make every age group happy.

If you decide to make a longer trip of it, a long weekend perhaps, the Hotel Healdsburg and the even newer Les Mars Hotel are the four-star places to check into. The Hotel Healdsburg is also home to Chef Charlie Palmer's highly-rated restaurant, Dry Creek Kitchen, while the truly exceptional Cyrus occupies a beautiful ground floor space at the Les Mars.

Other good if less cutting edge choices are the two perennially-popular Ravenous locations (one is called Ravenette, and is also open for lunch), just off the plaza, as well as Zin Restaurant & Wine Bar on Center Street and the bistro-like Restaurant Charcuterie near the Kendall-Jackson Tasting Room on your right as you come into town.

For a more casual approach to lodging, Healdsburg offers a full roster of bed & breakfasts. One, the Camellia Inn, could win over even those travelers averse to B&Bs. Set in an 1869 Italianate Victorian house a five minute walk from the center of the plaza, it takes the breakfast part of the equation seriously while also providing quiet, comfortable rooms and a most civilized and complimentary array of wines and cheeses before you head out to dinner. The fact that the owners, Ray, Del and Lucy Lewand, are also in the wine business has more than a little to do with that.

Even in the rain a trip of any length to Healdsburg is a present interlude, a nice break in the routine, especially now, around the holidays and we enter winter. Healdsburg is not the town of Sonoma, nor is it St. Helena or Calistoga or Yountville; it is not San Francisco in miniature, nor is it a capsule version of Portland or Seattle. It is, simply and obviously put, Healdsburg -- one of Northern California's quintessential wine country towns.