My wife is going to San Jose and Napa on a business trip next week and I'm tagging along. We're flying into San Jose for a night and day then driving up to the Napa Valley area, its a short trip.
I'd appreciate it if you guys who are familiar with the area could recommend some things to do and see in a short amount of time. Recommending good places to eat would also be helpful.

Not sure if still there and may not be worth it but Napa Valley Wine Train for lunch? I enjoyed it long ago. I assume you’re visiting some preferred wineries - for me visiting 4-5 is enough. Having dinner at the CIA was pretty good, even with chefs in training.

Doubtful you’d get in but please don’t patronize Newscum’s restaurant, the French Laundry.

San Jose: have not been in a long time but one of my favorite dinner places was Le Papillon. There are many excellent Chinese and Korean places as well - authentic. You have to know what dishes you specifically want though. No authentic Japanese places though (well, there are but you may not like them). Do not try BBQ - you’ll be disappointed.

I live in the area and can recomend places.

How long will you be in the area and where will you be staying? Napa Valley is about 50-miles in length (Napa to Calistoga), takes just under an hour to drive one-direction. Let me know what you're interested in and perhaps a budget and I can throw out some ideas; fyi- wine tasting is averaging about $50-60/person these days, higher for more premium winereis; 3 winereis/day is about max for most people, taking a car share is recommended (or hiring a driver) if you plan on doing some tasting.

Napa is the big work-a-day town that's grown up and can compete with the much smaller, up-valley towns and the county seat. Oxbow Market kick-started the contemporary food hall popularity in the country; downtown has recovered from the '14 earthquake and most of the new resorts surround Napa itself.

Yountville is the land of Thomas Keller. Arguably the US's greatest chef, his restaurant The French Laundry is tremendous, however reservations are hard to come by....and Newsome's only connection is he ate there while flaunting his own quarantine guidelines. Yountville is one of the greatest concentrations of top-tier dining and hotels in the world, lots of people from around the world, spending eye-watering amounts of money. There's a few favorites in town that I always recommend.

St.Helena is the boutique wine country town. Classic main street with a variety of dining and shopping, nearby hamlets of Oakville and Rutherford offer additional charming touches to the central portion of the valley. A number of the surrounding appellations produce some of the best wines in the world.

Calistoga, the most 'rustic' of the Napa Valley towns, much slower than the other communities and not as developed. A lot of locals enjoy Calistoga as it represent the 'old valley', far away from many of the developed amenities that the other areas down valley have. Chateau Montelena of "Judgement of Paris' Fame (their '73 Chardonnay took first) is located in Calistoga.

It has been quite some time but we enjoyed partaking of Sattui Vineyards wines and deli offerings in their outdoors picnic area.
https://www.vsattui.com/visit/...deli-picnic-grounds/

We did a hot air balloon ride there on our honeymoon. It was pretty awesome! Super early in the morning start though.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
It has been quite some time but we enjoyed partaking of Sattui Vineyards wines and deli offerings in their outdoors picnic area.
https://www.vsattui.com/visit/...deli-picnic-grounds/

Have to echo that, we went there a few times a month when I lived in the bay area, hit it back when they first started having the deli and picnic tables. Some of the wines are quite good,

V. Sattui was always my fav too, but they got discovered and the crowds were unbearable last time I was there. And that was 15 yrs ago.

We were hitting it in 85-86 when the stone building was being completed, quaint, easy to access, great deli and wines.

Drive up to Calistoga and start there. You might enjoy the Culinary Institute on the way back towards Napa. Stop at a couple of Wineries as well. I wouldn't bother with St. Helena and Yountville unless you enamored with strolling the streets with San Francisco pop tarts up for the weekend.

Wife and I both agree, our favorite wineries were Sterling Vineyards and Castello D'Amor. We are not wine aficionados by any means, so don't interpret that as they were the best wines. It was the scenery, buildings, etc. Castello was very interesting and by far our favorite. The construction, torture devices, armor, everything about it was way cool. Sterling Vineyards has a nice tram ride up as it sits back into the hillsides and beautiful views of the valley when you get there. Helena as mentioned is the place for dining. Have fun.

My wife and I have not been to the Napa Valley area in a while. We did enjoy the Wine Train for lunch and the Culinary Institute for dinner as others have said. The El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma was very tasty as well.

A suggestion, you may want to hire one of those wine tasting tour companies to do the driving for you...

My Daughter is the GM at a restaurant in Napa ( Avow) https://www.avownapa.com/.
Stop by and ask for Her, Kristy.

Hit as many tasting rooms that you can. Oakville to Rutherford has about 10-15 top class wineries.

If you want a truly memorable dining experience, the French Laundry in Yountville.

Willi's Seafood & Raw Bar in Healdsburg is very good for lunch or dinner; small plates.

My wife and I used to enjoy the Wine Spectator Restaurant in Greystone (the old Christian Brothers stone winery building) in St. Helena, which is now closed. I guess the CIA now has a restaurant there called the Gatestone.
It's a spectacular location with a gorgeous view overlooking Napa Valley.

There used to be a glider port in Calistoga, but it's gone.
I guess I can't offer much current advice.

We used to go there at least a couple of times a year. COVID kind of screwed that up, so the only winery I can remember is the Prager Port Works outside St Helena (too many tastings may have impaired my memory). Family owned and run, you walk through the barrel storage barn to get to the tasting room/office.

I’ll ask my wife for her suggestions.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nuclear,

If you're into airplanes this is worth a visit:

https://pacificcoastairmuseum.org/

It's in Santa Rosa the Charles Schulz Airport. For those of you in Rio Linda, he's the creator of Snoopy.