Vineyards, warm afternoons and tastings that run into the evening – the Napa Valley is California's answer to Tuscany.
Photo: Rachel Del Rosso (Unsplash)
From San Francisco it's a good hour to Napa. Then a single road begins, Highway 29, with one winery after another all the way up to St. Helena and Calistoga. The Silverado Trail runs parallel – quieter, with the smaller estates.
I spent two days there and would take three today: tastings take time, and after the third you don't want to drive any more. The solution is the Napa Valley Wine Train or a day trip with a driver from San Francisco, visiting four wineries without having to think about anything.
Prices are high – tastings cost 40 to 100 dollars, and hotels in St. Helena and Yountville are hard to find under 300 dollars. On the other hand, the food is outstanding: Yountville has more top restaurants than many a big city.
Napa (the town) is the cheapest and has the widest choice. Yountville and St. Helena are more charming and more expensive. Calistoga in the north has thermal baths and quiet motels.
I almost always compare hotels, apartments and guesthouses on Booking.com – with genuine reviews and usually free cancellation.
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