Has anybody been to Copia yet? Can you give me a report? About how much time should we allow to see the place and the gardens? It looks fantastic!

Anybody????

ttt

My first visit there won't be until early next month so I can't help much. But I have two friends who were there about three weeks after it opened and they really enjoyed it. They allowed some time (I don't actually know how much) but the main reason for their trip was for the factory outlets in Petaluma and Copia was a last minute addition. Afterwards they regretted not allowing all day.

The write ups in the N. California media have been really good.

I was there a couple of weeks ago when my daughter was here from Ireland. We live in Napa. The gardens were very interesting but will be even more so when everything is growing. We had lunch in their deli.(not in Julia Childs). The food was excellant. I couldn't believe the wine list. Almost everything by the glass. There is no charge to just go in and eat. We didn't have tilme to go in and see the exhibits.

My parents went recently and raved about it. They said to plan to spend 3 hours there, which seemed a lot to me but they swear it will keep you interested that long.

I may be going to Napa later this month, so of course I tried to search Fodor's... in their description of CA wine country the wine train and Copia do not exist!!!

I want to see Copia, my children want to take the train ride, so I'll keep you posted. Any advices for these 2 places? Is it possible to do both in one day (Sunday).

Strange, this has been discussed many times...I liked one Italian visitor's comment that Copis is "strange". We are members only because they have a Friday night Flicks discount for foreign films. The museum is OK. It depends on your interests. The exhibitions are quirky to say the least. I think three hours is a long time myself, but that depends on the activities you take part in (tastings, cooking demos etc). There are so many great places to eat in the Napa Valley, we have not tried JC's yet and we were not thrilled with the deli at Copia at all. There is a little Italian place called Ruffino's across the street that is a much better buy (without the glitz of course!)I do love the gift shop as it has great cookbooks and food related novels etc.