Hi:

Planning for our upcoming family trip to California. Are there kid-friendly wine tours in the Sonoma Valley? We're staying in Santa Rosa on the way to San Francisco. Last time I was there was pre-kids and it's all a bit fuzzy...

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks.

The age of these children???

Kid friendly wineries sounds like an oxmoron.

Try this link. http://www.sonomacounty.com/

Here's a kid friendly link. http://sonomaonthecheap.com/2010/03/...sonoma-county/

Two teens and a tween. They're not going to be drinking, of course, but we want to show them vineyards, etc.

I did look at sonomaonthecheap before I posted. I'm just trying to see if anyone has taken kids to any of the wineries listed and that opinons where.

at the coppola winery (which is in a gorgeous location) there is a fab pool. the prices are reasonable-- but if it's a weekend, they will be fully booked unless you reserve a fairly expensive cabine. you can try some wines poolside-- and prices for his wines are very reasonable. you can walk through the vineyard. it's also near healdsburg which is a good tourist town-- with a little park right in the middle of the shopping streets. (one can shop, and one can play w/ the kiddies.)

or you can go to korbel. it has a beautiful garden that you can wander around... so the kids could do that before/after one of you tastes wine. it's quite near the wonderful russian river at guerneville-- with a little beach "johnson's beach' which is a throwback to the 50's . (they'll pound an umbrella into the ground for you for $5 and snowcones are cheap... and best of all they don't charge for parking.) every kid loves johnson's beach.
lots of other wineries near there as well. hope that helps.
kawh

Staying in Santa Rosa you are very close to Benzinger which offers the tram tour that is so popular.
But by then you are just a couple hours from SF..don't know if you'll be wanting to do a tour that close to your destination.
Coppola was designed for families, so it will work, you might check to see which places are participating in the "vineyard Walk" program...its free and takes you on self-guided tours of the vineyard at participating wineries. I think the sponsoring entity is Sonoma County Winegrowers, but you can google the Vineyard Walks and find the list.
Bella might work- the cave is pretty neat and they offer a slew of tour options including a vineyard tour in a Penzauer ( spelling probably wrong but its like a souped up jeep), or maybe Preston since that is a working farm and they sell things besides just wine.
Last summer, winecountry.com had a feature about travel with kids in the area. Haven't been over there for a while, but if they aren't running a similar item this year, that may be archived.
You might consider Jacuzzi on the way out of the area- they offer olive oil tastings at the Olive Press and your kids may find that interesting. Its a pretty cool facility, too.

My first thought was also Benziger.

Thanks!

(just a side note: in Santa Rosa you are very close to Safari West, may be interesting for kids and adults)