Need few questions answered on a 3 day visit to Wine Country

I%26#39;ve posted this on NAPA forum as well, I don%26#39;t want to duplicate and spam this forum but thought there might be some people, locals perhaps, who advice mostly on their forums. So here it is....

We%26#39;re taking our first trip to SF and Wine Country at the end of May from 5/30-6/6 (sat-sat).

We are checking into San Fran hotel (union Sq) on tuesday afternoon and will be there until we leave on saturday.

What we really need help with is if someone with knowledge of the area and some insight help us our time when we arrive satuday at noon at Oakland airport till we leave for SF tuesday around noon.

I would appreciate if someone can response to these questions here...

1). Are we better off staying at Sonoma or Napa or elsewhere?

Basically, we are novice when it comes to wine and we like mostly white wines such as sauv blanc, chardonnays, muscat, riesling etc.

Searching for accomodation, we%26#39;ve noticed that Santa Rosa is farther away from both Napa and Sonoma but offers less expensive options for 3-4 star hotels. Is it worth staying away from the hub (city centers) or staying in Napa or Sonoma is an experience that we need to have?

2). We like to know where most of wineries of our likings are located?

3). Between Napa and Sonoma, which town seems more appropriate for our profile (mid 30s foodies and novice on wine).?

4). Is it worth it to squeeze in a trip to muir woods and/or sonoma coast in those 3 days?

Would appreciate any advice or help here! thanks in advance...

Need few questions answered on a 3 day visit to Wine Country

I would not stay in Santa Rosa for a wine experience. It is a city, and the county seat of Sonoma County, and you would need to drive quite a ways to actual vineyards.

Either stay in the Napa Valley or the Sonoma Valley.

If you stay in the Sonoma Valley, if you like, you can easily make a day trip to the coast at Bodega Bay and on your way visit Armstrong Grove Redwoods State Nature Preserve. No need to do Muir Woods, which is near San Francisco, and this park is not crowded with tour buses.

The town of Sonoma is historic, around an 11 acre Plaza from the Mexican occupation of the 1800%26#39;s, and has boutiques, hotels, and some excellent restaurants. Search a few threads back and you will get recommendations.

The ';town'; of Napa is actually a city, and the wineries are spread out 29 miles north of there, in the Napa Valley.

Need few questions answered on a 3 day visit to Wine Country

If you are looking for inexpensive (but close by) places to stay to wine country, there are two places to consider: For Napa Valley, Vallejo. We stayed there recently at the Best Western - 20 minute drive to Napa Valley. For Santa Rosa, we have stayed at the Hotel La Rose and it is a perfect place to stay for a wine vacation. It is a 5 minute drive to the closest winery and perfect for Healdsburg Wineries as well as Sonoma Valley. The breakfast is delightful and short walk to several great restaruants (one is in the hotel itself). You will save $$$ by doing this and if you are like us, you spend the day at the wineries, enjoy a dinner out, and then use the room mostly for resting and relaxing and getting ready. If you are on the other hand someone who likes to spend a lot of time at the hotel (versus sightseeing) totally agree best to stay in Napa Valley or Sonoma.

There are so many wonderful wineries any of these locations work. If you have a specific winery you want to visit, then that will be a difference. For Napa, the wineries are larger. The othe areas are smaller wineries with a few large ones. Some of the more unique feature wineries are in Napa such as Castello di Amarosa, Jarvis, and others. So its more of ';what type of winery do you want to visit'; versus type.

All the areas have spectacular restaurants - Note that the drive between Sonoma and Napa is relatively short (30 minutes) and you can enjoy as such the restaurants in both areas. If you stay in Santa Rosa, you are still only 45 to 60 minute drive to Napa, but there are stellar restaurants in Healdsburg, Santa Rosa John Ash, some great mid price restaurants close to the hotel. The only sad thing about the restaurant scene is that there are so many good ones, you won%26#39;t have the time to do all.

If you stay in Healdsburg, santa Rosa, or Sonoma, I would definitely go to Armstrong Redwood State Park, the Sonoma Coast, and Bodega Bay. It is absolutely spectacular scenery....You can do Armstrong Redwoods instead of Muir Woods and see the redwoods. Or of course on the way to or backk to San Francisco you could incorporate Muir Woods.

I%26#39;d go for the less expensive lodging (do check some of the bed and breakfast in Napa if you are going midweek - some of them are running some really good rates right now due to both midweek and the economy and they are special places to stay.

You will love your trip and do ask if further questions. Enjoy planning your trip.

OK....if you want inexpensive and nearby take Vallejo and Santa Rosa. Then you can commute to the %26#39;wine counrty%26#39; If you want to be in the wine country then do that.

Hi Katfile.

It might help you to check out the following websites to get your trip in order.

www.winecountrygetaways.com has been very helpful to us because it suggests specific routes for specific wine-types in a region...so if you want to try white wines, look at their suggestion for white wine tasting.

www.bestinsonoma.com has a great map of wineries and appellations with a description of what types of grapes grow where, so that was helpful to us in determining where to focus our trips.

www.winecountryguide.com is the online version of a booklet that describes wineries and offers dining and lodging suggestions as well. They carry interesting stories about different wineries and activities and I like their small maps as that makes them easier to carry around.

www.winetravel.com is another site that offers ';route'; suggestions for specific varietals. Lodging and dining information are also included.

These are sites that have helped us as newbies getting our feet wet and as we have gotten more experienced. We are more ';Sonoma people';, but you can find information about both Napa and Sonoma on most of these sites.

There are Best Western properties in both Sonoma and Calistoga, we have enjoyed stays in both of these towns. If you stayed in Calistoga, you could dine in St. Helena and Yountville, both places have excellent restaurants, a couple of weeks ago we enjoyed meals at The Grill @ Meadowood for lunch and Botteaga in Yountville for dinner, foodie%26#39;s heaven! :)

Thanks Puter and Mini for helping me figure out the lodging dilemma. I agree with Mini as we will be out all day and exploring so I rather pay less for 3 or 4 star place rather than staying close to city of napa or sonoma. Maybe, I%26#39;ll save that experience for our next trip if I feel its worth it.

Mini, you answered probably almost everything I wanted answered for my pre-planning stage. I will get accomodation and a first draft of itinerary using previous forum postings and some nice helpful links from footloose...

All that information can be overwhelming but once I I figured out accommodation (Santa Rosa), it%26#39;ll help determine what is doable and such.

I will report back once I have something and run it by you folks to see it looks reasonable or need tweaking. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!

You might want to check out www.cabbi.com there are a lot of bed and breakfasts that don%26#39;t have the money to advertise and end up being soooo much better than best western.

Also, Sonoma is better than Napa for newbies. Sonoma has more of a small town feel with wine makers willing to chat and help you understand the wine.

When making your itinerary, allow at least 45 minutes per winery. There are some great ones in Sonoma, and they are all on or off the one main road.

Santa Rosa isn%26#39;t bad, but the traffic getting there can be. You will be commuting to wine country and it isn%26#39;t pretty. After a long day of driving and wine, you don%26#39;t want to get stuck in traffic!

The Wine Room, Imagery, Eric Ross, Mayo, Valley of the Moon are all good stops for beginners.

Blackstone is another one to add to the list of Sonoma wineries, very good wines at prices for all budgets. :)