Any Napa winery and restaurant recommendations?

thanks.

cmeyer54 or anyone else - what marriott did you stay at? We are using Marriott points and there are so many so want to make sure we stay at right one. Thanks.

For Napa restaurants try Bistro Jeanty in Yountville or the Martini House in St. Helena. Taylor's Refresher (great ahi burger!) or the Oakville Grocery are my favorites for lunch.

We stayed at the renaissance lodge in sonoma - got a little upgrade to one of the casita type rooms. make sure you ask for an upper floor as we had a very noisy family above us with 3 small toddlers, two cribs, etc that pounded and scraped until they all fell asleep.

Shelja - I just looked over my trip report from 4/18 on this forum. Our driver was named Marcus - try to get him if you can. We had an absolute blast with him at the wheel. Of course, we were a laid back bunch of folks - mellowed on wine and not wanting to rush anywhere!

thanks. also, did you need to rent a car then... or with the limo driver were you ok?

Shelja,
I have stayed at both the Napa Marritot and the Lodge at Sonoma which is a Renaissance hotel and therefore in the Marriot corporate "family".

There is no comparison between these properties...if you are using points I would certainly choose the Sonoma property.

The Marritot in Napa reminds me of an airport hotel, located just off a freeway it is entirely characterless. There is a rather nice new spa but it has no outdoor space and you have to cross a large ugly parking lot to find it.

The Lodge at Sonoma is far prettier, though still a corporate proterty it has excellenct staff, large attractive bathrooms (seperate showers with rainheads) and very attractive gardens. We found the restaurant surprisingly good and the spa was a very nice addition. It isn't in the center of Sonoma but I'm sure if your using points you'll be very happy. See tripadvisor for more reviews.

I agree with lots of the above comments including razzledazzle's recommendation of Willi's....wonderful cocktails if you're looking for a break from all the wine!

We rented a car to drive to and from SF and for the first day of the trip. The limo was a little luxury which was great. We booked it for 5 hours and wished we'd had 6 or more. They know the lay of the land, highways to avoid due to traffic, lesser known wineries etc. We chose this firm because we could get a real limo for the trip - with two couples, we wanted to be seated across from each other and the other firms had chevy suburbans or towncars that had us in different seats or with the towncar, one in the front seat with the driver and three in the backseat! With just the two of you, a towncar would work fine.

We have stayed at both Marriot properties (most recently at the Lodge at Sonoma in September)and I agree with welltraveledbrit on his/her description
(s) of the two-and if you can upgrade to a casita as cmeyer advises, well then, Stay in Sonoma.

Dining in Napa (town of):
Celadon
Pearl
Pilar

in Yountville:
Bouchon
Bistro Don Giovanni
Gordon's

in St.Helena:
Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen
a second for Taylors'!
Terra-if you want to spend $$$ is quite good
My friend Kal raves about Martini House


Napa Wineriesthinking of reds)and again these are smaller,premium wineries
no tour buses, you know?
Turnbull
Chimney Rock
Robert Sinskey
Caneros Creek
Duckhorn (Paraduxx!!!)
Del Dotto
I really like cmeyer54's idea of a limo driver to takr you to the little known gems!
Have fun planning!
R5

HMMMM...
Don't know where that frownie face came from!
Must be a Ghost in the Machine or
that stalker who is following me around!
R5

Hi shelja: I'll give you my list and I'll include Calistoga for Napa Valley favorites:

Calistoga- Wappo Bar & Bistro, www.wappobar.com also check out Stomp at the Mt. View Hotel which replaced Catahoula's which was very good.

Yountville: Bistro Jeanty for lunch and Domaine Chandon, we like to dine al fresco on their patio, beautiful grounds here, also.

St. Helena: Terra for a nice dinner and Tra Vigne is a casual favorite with very good food and fun atmosphere.

Rutherford: we really like Auberge du Soleil, dine out on the back terrance for sweeping views. La Toque is supposedly very good, but I haven't tried it yet, but will when we visit this spring. Bon appetit! ***kim***

I'd go for Martini House in St. Helena. It's a Pat Kuleto designed restaurant in an old SH home and is excellent. I would also second the rec about Tra Vigna-very popular. The pappardelle with rabbit is the best I've ever had. In Napa, the Foothill Cafe is a place known mostly by locals but serves excellent CA American food.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE GREAT ADVICE!! I will post my itinerary closer to the trip to see what you all think. Thanks again so much.