Bakersfield sits at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, surrounded by oil derricks and agricultural land. It is not a place most travelers seek out, but it has genuine character — particularly its Basque heritage and its outsized role in country music history.
The city hosts the largest Basque community in the United States, descended from sheepherders who arrived in the late 19th century. The Noriega Hotel, opened in 1893, still serves family-style Basque dinners at long communal tables. Wool Growers and Pyrenees Café carry on the same tradition. This is some of the most distinctive dining in California.
Bakersfield also gave the world the "Bakersfield Sound" — a raw, twangy style of country music pioneered by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in the 1960s as a reaction to the polished Nashville establishment. Buck Owens' Crystal Palace on Buck Owens Boulevard is a museum, restaurant and live music venue that celebrates the legacy.
The Kern County Museum on Chester Avenue spreads across 16 acres with over 50 restored historic buildings dating from the 1860s to the 1930s. The California Living Museum, east of town on Alfred Harrell Highway, combines a zoo, botanical garden and natural history museum focused on species native to the state.