Napa Valley, California
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Tour It Yourself |
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Napa Valley, California
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Tour It Yourself |
Here are some ideas for "off-the-shelf" drive-it-yourself tours. The attractions in each tour are similar; only the length of time varies—from a quick journey through the valley to a more leisurely one or two-night stay.
They focus on places that can handle large numbers of drop-in visitors. Ideally you'll have even more time to visit and you'll be able to put together your own personalized tour, based on the hundreds of listings you'll find in this book.
If you're just passing through the Napa Valley, heading north or south to get somewhere else, try this tour. It's set up for those driving south to north through the valley. Simply reverse it if you're heading in the other direction.
However you approach the valley from the south, head north on Highway 29. Continue north till you come to Yountville. Take the Washington Street turnoff, turn right at the stop sign, then immediately left at the next stop sign. Continue into town, staying on the left at the fork. You'll find yourself at Vintage 1870, 40 shops in a three-story brick building on the west side of Washington Street. Stop, park, shop and/or have lunch. (If there's no time, just keep on driving through Yountville and pick up the directions in the next paragraph.) You can eat lunch at Pacific Blues at Vintage 1870, just south across the street at Redd, just north of Vintage 1870 at Compadre's, or at the north end of town at the Napa Valley Grille.
After lunch, continue north on Washington Street. Turn left at Madison Street (there's a stop sign there) to Highway 29. At the traffic light, very carefully turn right on the highway and head north. Approximately two miles ahead, just past Oakville, you'll see Robert Mondavi Winery on the left. Go into the left turn lane, then head into the winery. Park in the visitors' area. If there's time, take a tour. Otherwise just taste a few wines, take a few photographs, and head north again. Be careful as you make a left turn onto Highway 29.
A few miles further north and you'll be in Rutherford. On the right, just past the Rutherford Cross Road and the Rutherford Grill restaurant, pull into the Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) parking lot. Taste a few wines from this more than 100-year old winery. If you have the time, and the next tour is soon, take it. It's an excellent tour of wonderfully wine-smelling cellars and aging areas.
After BV, head north and drive through the town of St. Helena. Admire the quaintness of the town and overlook the fact that having a main highway through your quaint town is a traffic nightmare.
The "Avenue of the Elms" along Highway 29 at Beringer Vineyards just north of St. Helena.
Continue through town, taking pictures out the window as you pass Beringer Vineyards and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone on your left just north of town.
Continue a few more miles till you reach Calistoga. Turn right on Lincoln Avenue and drive into the heart of Calistoga's main shopping area. Here you can window shop, have an ice cream cone or cold beer (it's not all wine here), or, if you've suddenly decided you're not in so much of a hurry, visit a spa and have a mud bath and massage. Your I'm Just Passing Through tour is over and you're on your own.
Head up Highway 29 until you're just north of Oakville. Visit Robert Mondavi Winery on the left (west) side of the highway. Take a tour, taste some wine. It's the first of the major new Napa Valley wineries; that is, it opened in 1967, the first large winery built in the valley after Prohibition. Since Mondavi, several hundred others have appeared.
Leave Mondavi, turn left on Highway 29 and continue north. Just past the Rutherford Cross Road, turn right into Beaulieu Vineyard. This is the true monarch of the valley, built in 1900 and famous for its wines, particularly its Cabernet Sauvignon. Taste a variety of their wines, then tour the winery and experience the 100-year-old buildings. This place looks and smells like a winery. It's wonderful.
After BV, keep your car in the parking lot and walk into the Rutherford Grill for lunch. Good food, extremely varied menu, and very casual and comfortable. Good place for kids, too.
After lunch, continue to the north on Highway 29 and go into St. Helena. Wander around, enjoy the windowshopping, maybe even buy something. There are top-notch stores for all tastes.
Leave St. Helena and head back south. If you still have time, you can visit another winery, shop at Vintage 1870 in Yountville, or visit Moët et Chandon's Domaine Chandon sparkling wine facilities (also in Yountville but on the west side of the highway).
We mentioned the view? It's everywhere. Highway 29 is an incredibly scenic highway and you'll see wineries and vineyards galore on the entire stretch.
Enjoy.
Most first-time visitors tend to start at the bottom of the valley and work their way north, generally visiting wineries on the right-hand (east) side of the road. We suggest you skip the crowds and drive directly (but enjoy the view) to Rutherford. Visit Beaulieu Vineyard (outstanding wines, historic winery facility, excellent tour guides), then drive through St. Helena to Sterling Vineyards (beautiful winery, self-guided tour, and an air tram ride up and down the hill—there is a charge) just south of Calistoga.
After Sterling, drive to Calistoga, walk around town, and have lunch. Then do a leisurely drive back downvalley, drive through St. Helena (stop for a little window shopping if you wish), then visit Robert Mondavi Winery just north of Oakville. Mondavi is perhaps the best known winery in the Napa Valley. The tour is optional; take it if you have time and are interested in yet another winery tour.
After Mondavi, continue south on Highway 29 to Yountville and visit shops in Vintage 1870 (40 shops in an historic building formerly a winery/distillery built in—yes—1870). Be sure to leave town by 3:30 or 4:00 to miss most of the traffic.
If you want to have dinner in the valley, stay in Yountville and cross Highway 29 on California Avenue at the south end of Yountville. Just before the entrance to the Veterans Home, turn right into Domaine Chandon. Chandon has an optional tour and excellent sparkling wine. They're usually open till 6 p.m. They also have an outstanding restaurant. You may get lucky and find they have a table available for dinner.
Or, after your pre-dinner sparkling wine, go back into downtown Yountville and have dinner at one of the many outstanding restaurants in town. (Yountville probably has more good restaurants per capita than any town in California.) By the time dinner is over, you can head home, secure in the knowledge that you've missed the worst of the traffic.
The Napa Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau would like you to stay overnight because that way you'll leave more money in the valley. We suggest that you'll find it a good idea for your own reasons, too.
By staying at least one night, you'll be able to enjoy a leisurely dinner, stroll around whichever town you're staying in, and go back to your hotel or B&B for a good night's sleep without having to fight the traffic leaving the valley. The next morning you can enjoy breakfast, shop, visit another winery or two, and then drive out of the valley ahead of the pack of day visitors.
Which part of the valley should you stay in? It really doesn't matter. You're just minutes from wineries no matter where you stay. And the various towns are separated by about a ten-minute drive, so distance isn't much of a problem. Some towns, such as Yountville and Calistoga, offer many rooms right in the downtown area, so you can spend most of your time afoot. But you'll still have to drive to almost all wineries, no matter where you stay. If you book a B&B room far in advance of your trip, you should be able to stay anywhere you wish. If you're trying for a last-minute reservation, or you're already in the valley and need a room right now, you may have your best luck with one of the large hotels in the city of Napa.
We suggest that each time you visit the valley, you stay in a different town, so that you can get to know one locale well on each trip.
Weekends don't have to mean Saturday and Sunday. If your schedule allows, we suggest that you spend two nights in the middle of the week in the Napa Valley. You'll find far fewer visitors, a greater chance of getting a room in one of the more popular inns and, at some hotels and B&Bs, cheaper room rates as well.
Two nights gives you one full day when you can either kick back and totally relax, or fill the day with dining, wine tasting, shopping, even golf or tennis if you wish. If you want to relax, we suggest you book a room at a place that has a swimming pool, so you can lie in the sun with a book and a glass of wine. If you want to fill your day with activities, you might consider a B&B located right in one of the downtown areas, so you can walk in minutes to shops and other entertainments.
Read the various town sections of this book and pick a place that seems to offer what you seek. If you're looking for a full-service spa, as well as shops, restaurants and near-by wineries, Calistoga is the place to stay. St. Helena offers a good variety of shops and restaurants, as well as some of the Napa Valley's oldest and best-known wineries. Yountville is famous for its restaurants, and its many shops include those at the historic Vintage 1870 building.
The city of Napa offers hotels and B&Bs, excellent restaurants, museums, historical buildings and Victorians, and such visitor favorites as Copia and the newly renovated Opera House. In Napa you'll also find movie theaters and other amenities that only the largest town in the valley can offer.