Exploring Napa Valley
/My best friend Sarah was getting married in L.A. and she invited my parents. They decided they were going to make a vacation out of it and head up north to Napa Valley for a week of wine tastings. Since I was in the wedding and didn’t have any plans after the wedding I decided to tag along.
We left bright and early the day after the wedding and drove the 5 hours north to wine country.
Airbnb’s are my favorite way to stay, you can cook your own food and they are usually a lot cheaper than staying in a hotel, and we found the cutest one right in the middle of downtown Napa. It was incredibly centrally located to all the wineries and trollies and walking distance to amazing restaurants— this is important because remember, we were on a WINE tour, aka no one can remember what we ate for dinner any night we were there.
Now, my mom owned a wine bar at the time so she had a long list of wineries to visit so naturally we started our endeavor at 10 a.m.
Ok, so number one most important tip I could ever pass on to you about this trip is to UBER everywhere. It can get expensive but in relation to the cost of a D.U.I. it is infinitely cheaper.
We scheduled our UBER’s bright and early and headed out to our tastings.
Each day was different, but nothing less than 5 wineries in one day. To have a tasting at some of these places you might need an appointment, but you can read about that here. Others you can just walk right in and start to taste a surprising amount of wine. Most tastings run anywhere from $15-30 per person but you are allowed to share some. Thats a good idea sometimes if you’re schedule for the day is pretty packed. You’d be surprised how inebriated you can get off little sips of wine all day.
One of my favorite things to do is the Wine Trolley. They picked us up outside the V Marketplace (where there is a great little coffee shop) and they drive you around in an open-air trolley from vineyard to vineyard. We visited 5 different wineries with tastings included. Including your transportation, wine tastings and little nibbles along the way is a great way to explore the gorgeous Napa Valley.
They are going to tempt you with amazing wine clubs, go with your gut, if you are totally floored by a place and love the wine than go ahead and join the club, you won’t regret it. My parents joined the Peju wine club and I certainly love mooching off their monthly wine.
I am trying to compile a guide based off the pictures I took, the only problem is I have no pictures of almost any restaurant we ate dinner at, this is because of wine. So if you all have any suggestions that I should share please send them my way!
I do remember that the restaurants allow you to bring in your own wine for a small fee. So if you’ve bought a couple bottles on your journey you can always bring one to dinner that night.
Truly every winery is incredible, from their presentation to the taste of each glass of wine you will love every minute of your time in Napa Valley.
