Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Napa/Sonoma house rental recommendations
Hello, I'm looking for any suggestions on where to stay in Napa/Sonoma for a 3 night stay in the fall. We'll mainly be touring wineries and are open to renting a house/cottage or staying at a resort. Would like to keep the nightly rate under $300. There will be another couple traveling with us so we'll need a two bedroom arrangement. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Also, any other suggestions while on a Napa/Sonoma wine tasting trip?
Re: Napa/Sonoma house rental recommendations
I just got back from a trip to Napa. I went for a girl's weekend and we stayed in the Hawthorne Inn in Napa, because it was cheap (haha) and we got free breakfast. It was nice, but it doesn't sound like what you're looking for. Here are some of my recs:
Food:
Rutherford Grille - great food for reasonable prices. I got the best veggie burger of my life, no lie. You'll probably want to make reservations.
Norman Rose Tavern - very good pub food. I had an excellent salad there. You have to try their flavored fries.
Bistro Saboor - cheap Mexican food. It was ok, but they have Salsa dancing every Saturday night which is really fun.
Bounty Hunter - awesome BBQ place. It smells amazing. I had an awesome grilled veggie sandwich.
Downtown Joe's - ok, nothing special. Do not drink the beer! It's not good. They do have a DJ on weekends, so it's a cool bar to go dancing in.
Wineries:
Mumm - I really like it. It's definitely worth it to take a tour at a sparkling wine place, and their tour was very good and informative.
Cakebread - I loved it. They have a tasting/tour for $15 that is very nice.
Mondovi - Ugh, totally touristy and not worth it. Everyone told us we HAD to go there, but I was really annoyed by our tour guide and the tour dragged on forever (I think it was 1.5 hours or something).
Peju - I liked it. The building is beautiful.
Tasting Rooms:
I loved: Napa General Store, Uncorked, Vermil (Calistoga)
I did not like: 1313 (they were really snobby)
Other:
We went to the Calistoga Geyser and Petrified forest (to break up the drinking a little, haha). We all really enjoyed that. The geyser was cool to see, and the petrified forest is pretty much a trail through the woods with some petrified trees. We also rented bikes one day and biked to some wineries, which I would recommend. I guess this depends when you're going, though, because it might get too hot in the summer.
71 workouts completed in 2012
I have five entries in my blog for Napa/Sonoma, so there's a lot of information there. Keep in mind that fall can be very busy for the area since it's harvest time (aka crush).
For our last trip we went with another couple, and I liked the look of this place, which is right off the Square in Sonoma. We didn't end up staying there but the price and location are really good, and I like that it's nice and modern.
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
My Travel Blog
Just got back from the Napa area!
DH and I stayed at the Harvest Inn in St. Helena. We splurged on it and our room was around $300 a night so I don't believe that fits your criteria.
Other suggestions:
Food: my favorite meal was at Farmstead in St. Helena. Delicious food and most of it was all grown on their farm or sourced locally
Check out the local magazines when you get there, we picked up two and there were several coupons in it for 2 for 1 tastings.
Wine: we loved Etude, Markham and Whitehall. We splurged for cave tours at Jarvis. It was a cool experience but not worth the amount that we paid.
Try VRBO.com. We were able to find a beautiful house for a long weekend with a pool and enough space for 7 of us for my bachelorette party in Napa. We rented a limo and went tasting for a day and had dinner at the Greystone which was fabulous and not crazy expensive.