{"id":1218,"date":"2019-02-27T18:53:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T18:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1218"},"modified":"2019-02-27T18:53:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T18:53:36","slug":"planning-your-napa-valley-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1218","title":{"rendered":"Planning Your Napa Valley Vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve decided you\u2019re going to go wine tasting in Napa Valley.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ve never been or it\u2019s been a while.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to offer some tips on getting the most out of your vacation by investing some time planning before you go.\u00a0 Believe us, it will pay dividends.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>How much time do you have?<\/strong> It makes a big difference if you\u2019re going for just a few days (and if those days are a weekend) or more time, including weekdays.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try to pack in <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=338\">too much in a short time<\/a>.\u00a0 For one thing, you\u2019re dealing with alcohol, so you\u2019d better know your limits and not even get close to them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Which part(s) of the valley do you want to visit?<\/strong> There are 17 appellations in Napa Valley, and while a few such as Atlas Peak and Wild Horse Valley don\u2019t have wineries to visit, most of the rest have plenty.\u00a0 There are more than 400 tasting rooms in Napa Valley.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to get to them all in one vacation, so it makes sense to choose a sector (like Oakville or Calistoga) and focus on just one per day.\u00a0 You want to avoid driving from one end of the valley to the other, potentially in <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=654\">bumper-to-bumper traffic<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-1219 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3485-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"622\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3485-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3485-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3485-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px\" \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>The view from Viader winery on Howell Mountain.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Choose a hotel that\u2019s convenient to the places you<\/strong> <strong>want to go<\/strong>. The chain hotels are clustered to the south end of the valley, in Napa Town and environs.\u00a0 Carneros and Yountville have many spas and resorts these days and tend to be pretty pricy.\u00a0 There are bed and breakfasts scattered everywhere.\u00a0 In general, the further north you go, the fewer hotels and inns there are to choose among.\u00a0 Napa Valley is a very popular tourist destination these days, so don\u2019t rely on finding a place when you get there.\u00a0 Reserve in advance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Plan out your days<\/strong>. When do you usually get out of bed?\u00a0 It\u2019s your vacation, so don\u2019t plan on getting up with the roosters unless that\u2019s what you usually do.\u00a0 Eat breakfast!\u00a0 You\u2019re going to be sipping alcohol all day, so have something in your stomach before your first wine tasting stop.\u00a0 Figure you\u2019ll taste at, say, four wineries in a day.\u00a0 Leave time for a nice lunch; dining in Napa Valley is almost as much a part of your vacation as wine tasting.\u00a0 Think about what you\u2019ll do between the closing of the wineries and dinner.\u00a0 Your usual vacation plan of a pre-prandial cocktail may not make sense if you\u2019ve been sipping wine all day and will probably have some more with your evening meal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jeanty.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-1220 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jeanty-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"622\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jeanty-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jeanty.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Bistro Jeanty.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Sonoma Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Make dinner reservations<\/strong>. It is hard to get a table at some Napa Valley restaurants.\u00a0 Some are just impossible (e.g., French Laundry).\u00a0 Others are very popular and fill up their reservations well in advance (e.g. Bottega).\u00a0 There are quite a few that are local favorites, like Bouchon, <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=171\">Mustards Grill<\/a> or Bistro Jeanty where it\u2019s difficult to get in on weekends without a reservation.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a good idea to reserve before you travel; you can always cancel if you change yourmind.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t mind waiting, the Bounty Hunter and Ciccio don\u2019t even take reservations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Have a great vacation and drop us a note while you\u2019re there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve decided you\u2019re going to go wine tasting in Napa Valley.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ve never been or it\u2019s been a while.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to offer some tips on getting the most out of your vacation by investing some time planning before you go.\u00a0 Believe us, it will pay dividends. How much time do you have? It &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1218\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Planning Your Napa Valley Vacation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1221,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions\/1221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}