I enjoyed my indoors tour of the Capitol. Our guide was well informed and funny, if a bit rote. Be sure to see the portrait gallery of governors, especially Jerry Brown's startling choice. Most of us non-Californians probably don't know the governors of other states, and yet most of us probably know the names of most of California's recent governors (Reagan, Brown, Schwarzenegger, and more). Very interesting to see the different styles of portraiture and how they (at least in recent times) reflect the leaders' personalities. Staff are friendly and helpful, and bathrooms available.

My wife and I, touring from New Jersey, took a docent tour of the capitol. First, the grounds are very impressive with palms swaying around the perimeter and the dome very prominent. While we gained some insight from the tour, we were disappointed. Our guide, while knowledgeable, was a fast talker and not albeit clear. It was hard to pick up on his rehearsed delivery: we were led to several rooms no longer used rather than seeing and learning about today's working government. Most disappointing was that we weren't brought into either the Senate or Assembly chambers; a must with our other capitol visits. We did visit the Assembly on our own later, but didn't get into the Senate. It was fun seeing the portraits of Arnold and Ron, but why is Reagans statue in the basement adjacent to the gift shop?

California's Capitol is the most similar to DC's Nation Capitol. It's modeled upon DC's, but finished earlier. That's because of CA wealth due to gold rush and mining which mostly started and ended here, in Sacramento. That gave Sac great advantage over SF and LA to become the state capital. That, and many other interesting stories we learned from our tour guide, whose name I unfortunately don't remember. Tours of CA Capitol run on the hour from 10AM to 4PM. Luckily for us, some people cancelled so we were the only on the 3PM tour. Throughout 45 min he gave detailed explanations about CA history, took us to the assembly room and by the painted Governors portraits. The rest of time we could roam freely, seeing the small museum and other interesting things.

This was excellent, we saw the museum and did the tour, which was a bit limited due to renovations. Our guide was brilliant, lots of insider titbits, and made the place - which is delightfully grand - come to life. The Governor portrait gallery was fascinating. Highly recommended

Great place for Californians and visitors to see and learn more about our history ! People who worked in the building were very friendly , beginning with the security, state highway trooper, attendants inside . A Must see when in town !