Where are you flying in from?
Florida
Fyi if you can fly Alaska you can fly into Santa Rosa which is right in the middle of Sonoma wine country and is a big advantage and time saver. You land, quickly get your bags and when you get your rent a car it’s less than 50 yards out the front door. You can also each take a case of wine home for free if you fly out of there. I always fly into there from San Diego. Depending upon where you are in Florida if you can fly Alaska, you can easily connect there through San Diego or LAX.
Great tips on Cook in Saint Helena, burgers and half bottles in Yountville, model, bakery for breakfast sandwiches and the pork chop at mustard’s is one of my favorites
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The key is IF he can fly on Alaska from Florida. That or the amount of plane changes it would take could negate the benefits of flying Alaska into Santa Rosa (I absolutely love flying Alaska, but it is still west-coast focused in its nature).
An easy option into Napa is to fly into Sacramento if flying direct into SFO isn’t an option. You’d still have to make a connection somewhere, but you’ll be in a car for less time and Sacramento has been a good hack since I moved here.
Correct and I know they fly nonstop from Orlando, Tampa, and Fort Lauderdale into San Diego, which has two flights a day to Santa Rosa. The options into LA may be even better, so it really depends where from Florida, which he neglected to say.
Palm Beach County area. It doesnt make sense unfortunately though with the layovers and not to mention prices are a lot more than what I paid to fly direct into SFO. Thx for suggestion though
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One more thing I’ll throw into the mix is the Mozzarella cheese appetizer at Brasswood in Calistoga if you are up that way lunch time. I dont think its on the menu but everyone gets it and it is amazing. I send people to get it all the time and they come back talking about that as much or more than the wine they drank
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I was actually looking at SMF flights for our upcoming trip, but ultimately decided against it. We can fly nonstop to either one, but far fewer flights to SMF and the timings are not really ideal. And I don’t think it really saves you that much driving time, plus a stop in SF for half a day is much more pleasant than anything going on in Sac-town…
Now Charles Schultz? Absolutely, always fly there if you can.
Charlie Brown airport is great!
My suggestion for Option 2 is bubbles at Iron Horse @ 11, lunch at Underwood and then go see Fred and/or Judi Scherrer after that as you’ll want to spend some time with them, trust me.
If you do Sonoma plaza and Bedrock, Girl and the Fig is a great place for lunch.
Have a great trip.
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Thank you! Might just have to do that
This may get some ridicule, but we liked our visit to Rombauer, since you mentioned your wife is more into views. We went with three other couples. Picked up lunch fixings at Oakville Grocery on our drive from downtown Napa, found a nice picnic bench, and bought various wines on site. Very nice outdoor setting and views. Wives loved the Chard, and I remember the guys liking some of the reds.
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Looks like this is how its actually playing out but I’m planning lunch at sonoma pizza co
Excellent choice! Be sure to order the Burrata Appetizer.
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Finalized the itinerary and changed things up a bit, will report back!
FRI:
10 am Chappellet
12 pm Lunch at Gotts
2pm Baldacci Family Vineyards
Back to DT Napa maybe hit a tasting room or something or just walk around
Dinner at Bistro Jeanty
Sat
Out to Sonoma. Hired a Driver
10:30 Iron Horse
12ish Lunch at Sonoma Pizza
2pm Scherrer
Nothing else planned
Dinner at Charter Oak
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For Friday, I’d highly recommend hitting up Decant or Compline, grabbing a bottle there and just hanging out. Both places will have snacks and fun wines to choose from.
If it’s nice out, definitely do Decant to hang out in the patio area. If it’s kinda meh, compline will have some sort of vinyl spinning and is a fun spot to chill at. Decant will be closer to Bistro Jeanty
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I prefer Sonoma over Napa personally. Healdsburg is a great little city that rivals anything in Napa. As mentioned upthread, the Barlow in Sebastopol is worth a stop. If you want to do something exciting you can go zip-lining one morning (google Sonoma Zipline Tours) we have done that at least 6 times now its a lot of fun and not far from Occidental which is a cool little bohemian town with one or two spots for a tasting.
Healdsburg is very walkable and there are plenty of fun tasting room there, so its easy to do a day of walking around Healdsburg and a day of driving - its also easy to hit the coast, to see Goat Rock Beach, for example.
I agree Tom, Rombauer has fantastic outdoor seating and some great wines.