Travel
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Day trip from San Francisco to Napa or Sonoma?
DH and I are taking a trip to California this summer. We tried to fit in a few nights in Napa or Sonoma, but it just wasn't going to work out for this trip. So, we're hoping to take a day trip from San Francisco. Is this doable? Do you have any recommendations on a tour company or any other tips? We'd like something with transportation because we'll be returning our rental car as soon as we get to SF. We don't want to deal with driving or parking in the city, plus, once we do our wine tasting, we probably wouldn't want to drive anyway. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!!!
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Re: Day trip from San Francisco to Napa or Sonoma?
Getting to Napa or Sonoma from SF is easy - takes about an hour. That being said, I'm not aware of any organized tours that start / end in SF. Have you checked TripAdvisor? I know there are lots of tours that start / end in Napa, but you'd still have to get yourself up there and back. Whenever my friends and I decide to all do Napa / Sonoma and all want to drink, we just rent a limo / van / bus with driver and go that route, but it's really expensive if it's just the two of you (like $1200 for the day or so).
Honestly, most the time we go up to Napa / Sonoma DH and I just trade off driving and one of us gets to drink a lot, while one of us just does small samples. I would maybe just keep the rental car, go up there the first day, and then return it after Napa / Sonoma.
We just got back from our 5th trip to Wine Country. My husband was in SF for business and I stayed with him a night before we left. I randomly started talking to a bellman at the hotel and he does private wine tours. This is his company. No idea how expensive it is, but I imagine it's not cheap. He knew what he was talking about and gave me a ton of good recs.
I personally think you should just keep the car an extra day (or just pick one up and drop it off the same day downtown) and drive up. Just do 2 or 3 vineyards and space them out, have the driver not do full tastes (dumping is completely OK), drink plenty of water, eat breakfast and lunch and bring snacks. You can do the drive from downtown in an hour if you drive like my husband, or an hour-and-a-half if you drive like a normal person. Also be sure to look into the Russian River and Dry Creek Valleys. They're more of a straight shot up 101, while Napa is quite a jog east.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
Mark Twain
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We just got back from a trip last week. We did not rent car for SF, you don't need one, the parking at the hotels are very $$, we bought a pass for the bus and saw the whole city using the public transportation system. We were also doing a daytrip to Napa. There are rental car places in town, it was a little pricey, the best one we found was with Budget for return to the aiport. Our friend came from Sacremento and picked us up, so ended up not renting a car.
As far as being able to do the Napa Valley in a day, depends how many places you want to go and if you are doing a tour at each one of them, or you will get a tour at one and tasting at the few, (that's what we did). Most vineyards close at 5 or 6, so you really won't be staying out that long. We wanted to have dinner in Napa Valley, there are amazing resteurants that one should not miss, imo. We ate at Redd in Yountville and the food was amazing and very reasonably priced comparing to FL, we brought our own wine and saved a lot of money, our wine was $100 for the bottle, + 25 corckage fee, but if we had gotten the same wine, it would have been $450 at the resturant. Another must go, it's bouchon bakery for the dessert.
We spent the night in Yountville, but we could have very easily had dinner sooner and returned back to SF.
One more thing, don't forget to make your lunch and dinner reservation well in advance, specially if you want an earlier dinner or lunch between 12 and 3.
Totally doable as a daytrip! We actually got engaged during a day trip to Napa.
That said, I actually prefer the wineries in Sonoma. My personal favorite is Viansa, but there are so many amazing choices!
We had a great tour with Platypus Tours when we were in Napa. They have an option where you can take the ferry to/from San Fran; they will pick you up/drop you off at the ferry terminal and take you on a tour in Napa or Sonoma.
http://www.platypustours.com/vallejo-ferry-terminal.php
Baby248 - ETA 1/10/13