There are easy walks, gentle hikes and bike rides, but they're not why people come here. It is for the good restaurants, antique galleries and the sheer sense of the city sloughing off your skin. Above the masthead on the Mendocino Beacon it reads, "alternative approaches to good health".
You just feel healthier here wandering past picturesque gardens. On Fridays between May and October there is a farmers' market on the corner of Howard and Main.
Dozens of movies and TV shows have been filmed in Mendocino (you may have seen it in Cujo and Karate Kid III), and Mel Gibson, Jane Wyman, Sean Penn, James Dean, Bette Davis and dozens of other Hollywood luminaries have walked these streets.
And because it looks like somewhere else, but has better weather for filming, it was the stand-in for New England in Murder She Wrote.
"Most guidebooks tell you Mendocino looks like a Cape Cod fishing town but the streets are too wide and straight, and the houses are set too far apart and don't have shutters," says Mark Williams in his book Off the Beaten Path.
That seems picky, and it also needs to be noted that the locals - other than those in shops and the hospitality business - are not that friendly. They didn't escape here to chat to tourists.
But the town is pretty and quaint, and being within striking distance of San Francisco it is a pleasant drive which can be done in half a day, but is best enjoyed at leisure.
The coast just out of San Francisco looks uncannily like New Zealand with its rolling farmlands of cattle, then it slips into Australian gum forest, and finally opens out into pure California coastline with the Pacific crashing against black rocks below the road which hugs the cliff edge.
The coast road can be winding so a vehicle with power steering is recommended, but other than that, this being America - wonderful roads, courteous drivers, good signage - you can just enjoy the drive.
The Golden Gate disappears in our rear-view mirror and we head off on to the famous Highway 1 which initially skirts the huge Tomales Bay with its small fishing villages and seafood restaurants where barbecued oysters are the speciality.
It is quicker but less interesting to take the 101 up through Santa Rosa, but you would miss massive and beautiful Tomales Bay created by the San Andreas Fault.
Further up is Bodega Bay and nearby Bodega town which were used in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and then five minutes before Stengel Beach is a remarkable and confusing sight, like an enormous split tree trunk lying in a meadow near the highway. It rears up on the right and we rapidly pull the car to a halt.
The sign on the gate says it is the Sea Ranch Chapel - a non-denominational sanctuary for prayer and meditation - and we learn from a brochure inside it was designed by the San Diego architect James Hubbell and opened in December 1985.
The cedar roof, teak doors and native redwood are topped by an elaborate bronze spire, and there is a ceramic fountain outside with Italianate mosaics all of which make for a remarkable and restful building.
This is an especially beautiful part of the coastal drive - the expensive houses merge with the landscape, the sea views are spectacular, and there is easy access to nearby beaches.
A few minutes further north is the ideal place to spend the night if you want to break the trip to magical Mendocino: the Timber Cove Inn which commands a rugged piece of headland on the wild Sonoma Coast.
We are drawn to it by the enormous totem pole outside, and the manageress invites us to look around. We check out one of the luxury rooms where the view from the bath takes in the coastline in one direction and an enormous satellite television in the other. At US$350 ($473) a night it is a little beyond us, but the rooms downstairs which look out over the Japanese pond are less than half that. With private hot tubs, a stone fireplace which runs 10m up to the A-frame wooden ceiling of the lounge, piano bar, and 10ha of walking trails, the Timber Cove Inn is where you encounter the quietly moneyed taking time out.
It is also half way to Mendocino and the final drive along Highway 1 takes in more spectacular coastline to the left and the Redwood Empire to the right across Highway 101.
Day trips through the redwoods are possible from Mendocino, although once seduced by the mellow mood there seems little reason to leave.
The town has dozens of small art galleries (seascapes are big), romantic restaurants (vegetarian and organic are popular) and shops with names like Out Of This World (binoculars and telescopes) and Rubaiyat Bead Shop (tarot cards, pashmina shawls, Tibetan rugs).
At the Mendocino Hotel and Garden Suites on Main we take a garden room (deep bath, open fire and the biggest bed I've ever seen) and then make for the Victorian dining room. It breathes sumptuousness and old world sophistication.
In the morning we have breakfast on the upstairs patio at the nearby cafe and scan the ocean for whales, amble around the village, and then drive into the even quieter suburbs which huddle beneath the canopy of the forest on the other side of the highway.
On the beach by Big River kids are playing in the sand; along the foreshore couples walk hand-in-hand. Nothing is happening, but it is happening with orderly serenity.
The lead story in their paper is about locals cleaning up the beaches and celebrating alternative fuel options. Mattelyn Pressly is pictured holding a golf ball she found during the big cleanup. That's news around here.
As the song says, "Mendocino, where life's such a groove."
* Graham Reid flew to San Francisco courtesy of Air New Zealand.
Checklist
Mendocino
Where
Located on the spectacular Sonoma Coast of California, 240km north of San Francisco.
Getting there
Air New Zealand flies direct to San Francisco daily. Round trip flights start from $2110 ( including airport and government costs, excluding departure tax). See www.airnz.co.nz or phone 0800 737000.
Getting Around
The town is small enough to walk around easily but local companies organise tours of the surrounding redwood and wine regions.
Further Information
www.mendocino.
