We leave Sun for Napa Valley - yeah!

Would love comments on our tentative itinerary - re: restaurants, wineries, etc.

We want this to be a truly relaxing vacation, so we have tried not to pack too much into the week. Most nights we will eat dinner in - it's more relaxing for us - so good ideas for places with good prepared food would be a help. We've made reservations for all our eating just in case.

Sun -
Arrive SFO @ 10:15am
Drive to the house in Yountville, unpack, then head into Yountville for lunch and shopping.
Grocery shopping at Safeway after then to the house for a quiet dinner in.

Mon -
Calistoga
10am - Schramsberg winery tour
lunch in Calistoga - Calistoga Inn (??)and shopping, then to Chateau Montelena - no tour. Home for dinner.

Tues -
Napa - Do the Victorian Walking Tour, shop, then eat at either Celadon or Bistro Don Giovanni (haven't decided).
Hess Winery
Home for dinner.

Wed -
Viansa winery.
Lunch at Della Santina
Meeting with a realtor after lunch to tour Sonoma and see a few properties.
Domaine Careneros winery.
Home for dinner.

Thurs -
Sterling Vineyard - mostly for the view
St. Helena for lunch at Market and shopping
Beringer Vineyard
Home for dinner.

Fri -
10:30 - Meeting friends at Opus One for tour.
Lunch at Cindy's Backstreet - St. Helena
Home to relax
Dinner at Martini House

Sat -
8am (yikes!! - this was all they had left for breakfast times) - breakfast at Auberge de Soleil.
Domaine Chandon Winery
Home to pack (boo....)

Sun -
1pm flight out of SFO (remind me re: driving time from Yountville to SFO - someone told me last time and it was right on, although I would not have believed the traffic until I saw it!! I thought Boston was bad!)

We also intend to include some driving time - we completely missed the Silverado Trail last time. Also want to see Oakville Grocery and Dean and Deluca (is this a good place for prepared foods?)

If anyone has other "must-sees" or suggestions for shops, please let me know! Cannot wait to escape the snow and cold here. It has "warmed up" to 34 degrees and we all think we're having a heat wave! How IS the weather there?

R5 - where we meeting?

Sounds like a great trip. I really enjoy Bistro Don Giovanni, so I'd go there for a lunch or dinner. Sit outside on their patio (if it's sunny) and it's the next best thing to Tuscany.

Never had breakfast at Auberge de Soleil, but their dinners (with matching wines) are excellent. Dean & Deluca is worth stopping in, but prepared foods can be expensive. Oakville Grocery is smaller and crammed, but a nice place to get sandwiches and picnic supplies. Their dolmas are a favorite of mine.

As for weather, it's been in the mid-60's in Napa, but a rain storm is coming in. It will probably be an on-again off-again kind of rain, and it won't get too cold.

Napa is one my my favorite places to visit... I've been there 2x and am ready to go back again. Your itinerary sounds great. One thing that I'd definitely do is spend more time driving on the Silverado Trail... it's so much nicer than the other road (I think Highway 29?) It's very scenic. Silverado and Pine Ridge are nice wineries on the trail. I've never been to the Dean & Deluca out there... but there are a few of them in NYC where I live... and they have amazing food... great sandwiches, etc. I'm sure it's a good place for prepared food.

Have a great trip!

We like both Dean & DeLuca plus Oakville for lunch sandwiches to go, as well as some great specialty food items. We always try to also stop in D&D or Oakville to get foodie ingredients we can't get in Santa Cruz before driving home...Sunshine Foods in St. Helena is good as well.

It looks like your lunches are pretty booked out, but since you say you are cooking some dinners at your house the specialty food stores can offer more than Safeway in my opinion.

Anyone know what happened to Trilogy - is that now closed?

Cannot find anything on it anywhere.