I love Sonoma’s top inns, but my friends can’t afford $500 rooms, so I’ve selected the first four spots with them in mind. Other midrange choices follow. My top-drawer favorites—the most fabulous of Sonoma’s properties—are at the bottom of the page.

Sonoma Valley Hotels & Inns: My Favorites
I hate to popularize Beltane Ranch ($$$) for fear of never getting a room there again, but it’s just so fantastic, I have to write about it. Surrounded by wildflower-studded fields with horses chomping tall grass, the enchanting 1890 farm house has double wrap-around porches with white-wicker furniture and swinging chairs outside, perfect for wiling away the afternoon with a book. The sunny and cheerful rooms have simple, but comfy furnishings, and there are no phones or televisions to distract from the pastoral bliss. NB: In the old-school tradition, there’s no a/c. No pool or hot tub either, though there is a tennis court. For my money, this is Sonoma Valley’s most charming inn.

A mile east of the plaza, Les Petites Maisons ($$$–$$$$) has four freestanding cottages with smartly decorated living rooms, semi-private patios, and full kitchens. Okay, so they’re not exactly cheap, but some units sleep four, and you can economize by cooking at home; pick up groceries out front at the fabulous Fig Pantry. Free bikes available to, ideal for the one-mile trek to the plaza.

You’ll get the most bang for your buck by staying off a semi-suburban stretch of Hwy 12 at the Sonoma Creek Inn ($–$$). Built in 2000, but styled to look like a vintage-1950s motel, rooms have smart design details like bold, primary-color paint jobs, vaulted ceilings, and cheery country quilts. This place is c-u-t-e! And oh, those rates. So what if it’s in the middle of nowhere?

If location matters, but you’re short on cash, choose the Jack London Lodge ($$–$$$) in Glen Ellen, a picturesque small town in the middle of Sonoma Valley, on the shady banks of a poplar- and oak-lined creek. The ‘lodge’ has the classic motel layout, with two stories and exterior corridors, but rooms are gussied up with a few simple antiques, and there are lovely flower gardens outside. A hot tub and pool sweeten the deal. Best of all, sleeping in Glen Ellen is a treat: At night the sky blazes with stars, and the streets are as quiet as a church on Tuesday.

Sonoma Hotels & Inns: Midrange Near the Plaza
Three hotels in historic buildings front directly on the plaza; all have smallish rooms. Book well ahead. The Swiss Hotel ($$–$$$$) opened in 1909, and has five rooms done up in country-cute style (think knotty pine and wicker). The floors are slanted, but that’s part of the charm. Choose a room that’s not over the loud (but fun) bar.

A step up, the Sonoma Hotel ($$–$$$) anchors the northwest corner of the plaza. Rooms sport a mix of Spanish Colonial furniture, with a few American country-crafts pieces like wicker lampshades and tables of manzanita logs. The same old man has been working the front desk for years, a testament to the consistency of service here.

The hippest of the three is the El Dorado Hotel ($$$), which has been styled out with a few sharp-looking details, including bright-white duvets and shiny-shiny chrome fixtures a la Restoration Hardware. Best of all, every room has a balcony, perfect for morning coffee. I like the rooms facing the plaza because you get to look down on the action, but if you’re a light sleeper, choose a room facing the courtyard. (NB: Book a room far from the buzzing rooftop fan above the kitchen.)

Six long blocks from the plaza, El Pueblo Inn ($$–$$$) is basically a motel complex, but it was built before the days of prefab construction and has some lovely architectural details. The cheaper ‘adobe rooms’ are perfectly comfortable and have adobe-brick walls and wooden furnishings; a nearby courtyard fountain dampens traffic noise. Newer ‘Sonoma rooms’ look fresher and have patios (but they have no privacy screens). The pool is big enough for lap-swimming. If you’ve got kids and you’re on a budget, make this your first choice.

Sonoma Hotels and Inns: The Top End
If you want real luxury, skip the business-class Sonoma Mission Inn, and instead choose one of these three places. During the off season—especially midweek—you can score great deals. Don’t even think of bringing kids.

Built around an 1880s manor house on nine spectacularly landscaped gardens complete with boxwood-hedge mazes, MacArthur Place ($$$$) is a compound of freestanding white-washed cottage buildings tucked beneath hundred-year old trees. Rooms nod to the estate tradition, with high-end conservative furnishings (think hardwood and floral prints), but they have all the latest bells and whistles—especially the suites, which have surround-sound systems and wood-burning fireplaces. When the sky’s the limit, book a spa suite for maximum romance; all have private gardens with outdoor tubs. These are by far the best digs in the town of Sonoma.

When you’re seriously in the dog house and need an extravagant kiss-and-makeup weekend to redeem your bad behavior, but can’t afford first-class tickets to Paris, book a room at the Kenwood Inn and Spa ($$$$). The formal-fancy rooms are decked out like a château in the Loire Valley, with Oriental rugs, wall tapestries, sumptuous fabrics, original artwork, and wood-burning fireplaces. Flagstone paths meander through lush landscaping, leading to ivy-covered bungalows perfect for a lovers’ tryst. Suites are gorgeous, but frankly, they’re too big, unless you like to ballroom dance. But do shell out the extra cash for a balcony room overlooking the romantic gardens. All your sins will be forgiven—until next time.

I love the Gaige House Inn ($$$$). Five of the 22 rooms are in a grand 1890 Victorian house restyled with a smart collection of European and Asian furnishings. But the spa suites are where it’s at. Built a couple of years ago, they overlook a shaded creek and have all the requisite top-flight amenities, like dimmer switches on perfectly positioned halogen lights, and zillion-thread-count linens. The bathrooms are the focal point, with tubs of hollowed-out granite boulders, their interiors polished to a mirror shine, their exteriors left rough as a rock. They’re so big that you need a step stool to get in them. Connecting the bathroom to the bedroom is a Japanese meditation garden, perfect for zoning out after a scalding-hot soak. If you want to hop in and out of water—and bed—all weekend long, these are the rooms to book. A chef prepares the lavish, two-course breakfast, served at well-spaced individual tables, saving your from having to deal with chatty strangers before your first cup of coffee. One complaint: Only the spa suites have down pillows, not the rooms in the main house—an inexcusable oversight at this price.