Hi there, it's Ernest from Trip Astute. In this video, we wanted to share one of our
recent adventures -- exploring Napa Valley, California.
(light chiming music)
We visited Napa Valley in
February 2018 and it was the first-time visiting for both myself and Fiona. Napa
is located just north of San Francisco, and is one of America's most renowned
regions for wine. We'd heard great things from friends who
had visited the area, so we couldn't wait to explore the area for ourselves.
Most of the wineries in Napa are family-owned, so it's great knowing that
we were supporting local businesses during our visit. Since we were visiting
during the off-season, it was much quieter, and also meant that we were able to take
our time visiting the wineries without feeling rushed. As with all our
destination reviews, we always try to share with you highlights from our own
experience and also some top tips to help maximize your trip. So, here are some
of the highlights. Number 1: Wineries. No surprises here.
The top thing to do when visiting Napa is to check out the wineries. There are
so many to choose from and most of them are just off of the SR-29, which is the
main highway that runs through the region. Two of our favorite wineries from
the trip were Domaine Carneros and Sequoia Grove Winery. Domaine Carneros is
a larger winery that was founded by the family behind Taittinger champagne and
specializes in delicious sparkling wines. We tried four of their different
varieties of sparkling wine for $30 and really enjoyed sitting on their patio
which overlooks some of the beautiful views of the countryside and vineyards.
In fact, we flew our drone nearby after our wine tasting, so check out our video
to see the aerial footage. The Sequoia Grove Winery is a smaller winery with a
110 year old barn and tasting room located beneath gigantic sequoia trees.
This winery stood out because of the great experience we had at Sequoia
National Park last year, so we were excited to check it out. We tried four of
their wines for $25, which included their specialty Cabernet Sauvignon.
We loved the ambiance of this winery, and really enjoyed the
attention that we received during the tasting. These are just two of the many
options available in the area. Please comment below if you have any
suggestions or recommendations on wineries. Number 2 on our list was
hiking. We always enjoy the outdoors when traveling and definitely needed to walk
off the wine-tasting. We hiked in the Skyline Wilderness Park, which is a short
distance from downtown Napa. Entry to the park is only $5 and that covers
parking, a map of the trails, and use of the restroom facilities at the trailhead.
It was a quiet place to hike and offers 25 miles of different trails that are
really easy to navigate. It also gave us an opportunity to try out some of the
new features on our Mavic Air drone. Number 3: Great restaurants. On our
first night in Napa, we found La Taberna, which is a cozy
tapas place in downtown Napa. This place was perfect for what we were looking for.
It offered an awesome selection of small dishes, and of course, lots of wine. We
love the patatas bravas and the Spanish omelette, and really enjoyed the relaxed
atmosphere. We decided to try the Farmers Table at the Andaz which is known for
its fresh and locally sourced ingredients. We had a nice breakfast on
the first day of our trip here, which we needed before starting a day of wine
tasting. The farmstead in st. Helena was a great place for a midday stop and
quick meal. The property has a few dining options including a cafe, an upscale
restaurant, and also an outside terrace bar.
We chose the outside bar. The staff was super friendly and the restaurant
offered great lunch options. We decided to go with a couple of appetizers which
were delicious and a great way to break up the wine tasting. Though the highlight
of our trip, and really our top food experience for the year so far, was
Ad Hoc in Yountville. Ad Hoc is owned by Thomas Keller, who you may have heard
from his upscale renowned Napa restaurant French Laundry. This is
definitely a more casual and low-key restaurant from French Laundry, but the
food and the ambiance was outstanding. The restaurant has a fixed four-course
menu for $55 and is served family-style. The quality was the best we've tasted in
a while, and the casual dining experience made you feel right at home. If you're
interested in going, make sure you make a reservation well in advance since the
place gets booked pretty quickly, especially during the weekends. Number
4: The Andaz Napa. We stayed at the Andaz Napa which is located in downtown
Napa. I have to admit we love the Andaz brand and picked the hotel without paying
too much attention to the different areas that you can stay in within Napa.
Downtown Napa has a lively vibe and is full of restaurants, bars, shops, and lots
of art galleries. We did notice a few bachelor and bachelorette parties, so
it's definitely well-suited to a younger crowd. Though if we were to visit again, I
think we would have picked a more laid-back area like Yountville or St.
Helena. Maybe we're just getting old, but I think
these seemed more our style being relaxed but also offering some excellent
food and drink options within walking distance, and maybe with less of a
college party vibe. The three towns are within 15 to 20 minutes of each other
and close to all the wineries, so you can't go wrong staying in any of these
places. As always, we want to make sure you have the best experience in Napa, so
here are our top tips. Number 1: Use ride-sharing services to hop between the
wineries. There are plenty of ride-share options available in the area. Both Lyft
and Uber are active in the Napa region. Unless you have a designated driver,
we highly recommend making the most of the reasonably priced services to get
around the wineries. Most wineries are within fifteen to twenty minutes of
downtown Napa, which makes ride-sharing an inexpensive option, and you'll get to
relax and enjoy all the great wine that Napa has to offer without having to
worry about driving. Number 2: Fly into Oakland Airport. Oakland Airport is the
closest large Airport to Napa and is less busy than San Francisco Airport.
This made it easy to pick up our rental car and get straight on the road.
Door-to-door, you can expect to reach Napa in an hour and 30 minutes, depending
on the traffic. Number 3: Use the toll roads. When we
landed in Oakland, Waze was showing a 40 mile trip but estimated the drive
to be two hours and 30 minutes. This seemed
crazy and we were confused as to why we were given such a strange route. We
realized that we had the "avoid toll roads" option in Waze selected. When we
unchecked this option, our drive time reduced by an hour. While we did have to
pay a small fee for the toll, it was well worth it to arrive at our destination an
hour earlier. On the way back to Oakland, it
didn't seem to make a difference either as there weren't any toll roads. Number
4: Research wineries and make reservations. We highly recommend doing
your homework before heading to Napa. We don't consider ourselves wine experts by
any means, but we do enjoy sampling good wine. And honestly, we really weren't sure
where to start. We searched for some of the top wineries listed on TripAdvisor
and noted a few that sounded interesting to us. But also, we got good
recommendations just by talking to wine specialists throughout the day. It's
definitely a good idea to make reservations for the newer wineries, as
they tend to have a cap on the number of people that they can accommodate every
day. The older wineries generally don't have restrictions and will take people
on a drop-in basis, but it never hurts to check in advance. If you plan to
transport any wine home, check out our video on the topic for some tips on
packing wine and recommendations on useful gear. Number 5: Get off the beaten
path for some great photo opportunities. As you might have noticed, we love taking
photos and capturing videos on our trips. Everywhere we look, there were great
photo opportunities. However, some of the more popular stops along the way,
especially off the main Napa Road, were really crowded. So we decided to get off
the main road and head down some of the smaller country roads. We managed to get
some great photos and drone shots while avoiding many of the crowds. Have you
been to Napa? If so, what are your favorite wineries and restaurants? Please
share them below in the comments section. Also, if you have any questions, let us
know. If you enjoyed this video or found it useful, please hit the "like" button and
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