First time experience in San Francisco's wine country

[Noel Pagany]

 

 

Hi,

My wife will travel to San Francisco for the first time this December with me and I wanted to take her to experience wine country culture and food, possibly over night, and wanted to get recommendations of the best places to stay.  She is pregnant so she would not be enjoying the wine (unfortunately) so if possible we would also like to take in red woods, nature, coast line or other sites close to the location... 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Regards,

Noel.

[Lori Keller]

I would recommend a visit to Sonoma County instead of Napa.  That way you will be close to both the redwoods and coast as well as lots of wineries.  It's also a little less hectic.  You might consider staying in Healdsburg as it's fairly easy to get to from San Francisco...just north on 101.  It has a lovely town square, good restaurants and lots of B & Bs in the area.  From there you could venture out to Guerneville and go to Armstrong Redwoods and then onto Jenner for some coastal time.  If you wanted to do a loop  you could go from Healdsburg to Jenner to Bodega Bay and then back through Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.  You'll go by several wineries.  I would recommend you visit the Sonoma visitor's bureau site, www.sonomacounty.com for more detailed information.  I hope this helps!  I used to live in Santa Rosa so I know the area well.  Have fun!

[Darryl Musick]

I like the Flamingo Inn in Santa Rosa as a nice, centrally located, reasonably priced hotel in the neighborhood. http://www.flamingoresort.com/
If you'd like to try some wines, even though the wife can't, I'd recommend Folio in the south end of Napa Valley for a fairly big selection of different wineries or V. Sattui in St. Helena. If you get the free brochure at a visitor's center...or your hotel...you can find coupons for free tasting at both of those.

Spend some time in the town of Sonoma. Try Murphy's Pub for some hearty Irish fare. The Sonoma Cheese Company offers everything you'd need for a great picnic.

North of Santa Rosa, go west along River Road off of the 101 and follow it along the Russian River to the coast. Lots of opportunities for great scenery, redwoods, and some places to stop, have some coffee or a meal overlooking the river and the ocean when you get to Jenner at the end.

Here are a couple of links to articles and videos that we've done on the area:

http://wheelstraveler.blogspot.com/2010/02/napa-valley-california-2...
http://wheelstraveler.blogspot.com/2010/02/napa-valley-california-2...

[Bescover]

Just north of San Francisco you have some of the top wineries in the world! Sonoma County is only about 45 minutes north of SF and have 100's of wineries around. Sonoma and Healdsburg are great areas to soak in the wine country atmosphere. If you are looking for another option of lodging near this destination you should check out http://bescover.com/California. They have the best bed and breakfasts nationwide and it is a great way to meet the locals.