Verdant valley

One of the great wine regions of the world, Napa Valley also offers a wealth of outdoor, culinary and pampering opportunities

Only a 90-minute drive from San Francisco is Napa County, home to California’s beautiful Napa Valley. Boasting more than 1,700 wineries and more than 400 tasting rooms, Napa is more than grapes and vineyards—it’s Michelin-starred restaurants, spas, markets, and hiking and biking trails, cloaked in a very attractive Mediterranean climate.

Although the Napa Valley was hit hard by the Glass Fire in 2020, the majority of the wineries, restaurants, markets and trails survived and have reopened. Be sure to check ahead, of course, as well as ask whether there are any COVID- related restrictions.

Start your visit in Napa the way the locals do: with an early-morning English muffin at the Model Bakery, a Napa Valley mainstay. The secret of the muffins? They’re cooked in clarified butter on a stovetop instead of in an oven.

The Oxbow Public Market, which holds 22 independently owned stores and restaurants, is a must-stop. The marketplace, which opened in 2007, has outdoor seating with great views of the Napa River, which runs alongside the market. Try the brittles and dessert sauces at artisanal chocolatier Annette’s, and the empanadas at El Porteño.

You can also immerse yourself in a gastronomic Napa experience: Sign up for a hands-on cooking class at the CIA—the Culinary Institute of America. Guest chefs host classes here; recent offerings include handmade dumplings and dim sum, Spanish tapas and Julia Child–inspired French cuisine.

Then, take to the skies. One of the best ways to see Napa is from a morning hot-air balloon ride over the Vaca Mountains. On some mornings you can see the San Francisco skyline in the distance, as well as the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. You can even combine the balloon ride with a bike tour through the vineyards.

Yountville is a small town located just a 15-minute drive from Napa. The place is packed with gourmet restaurants within walking distance of one another on Washington Street.

There’s also the Napa Valley Vine Trail, which lets you bike nearly 21 kilometres from Yountville all the way to Kennedy Park in Napa, with multiple stops at wineries along the way. If you don’t want to exert yourself, you can rent a motorized e-bike.

Another 15 minutes up State Route 29 takes you to St. Helena, a town of around 6,000 people. In my experience, St. Helena is the heart of Napa Valley. It’s home to about 175 wineries, including Beringer Vineyards, the oldest continuously operating winery in Napa (it opened in 1876), which features a 17-room mansion that preserves that history.

Located about half an hour north from Napa, up State Route 29, Calistoga is home to some of the titans of the wine world, including Chateau Montelena and Castello di Amorosa, both housed in ornate castles, and the hilltop Sterling Vineyards, with an aerial gondola.

But I go to Calistoga for a completely different experience: the mud baths. A number of hotels there offer these special baths, which use mud infused with volcanic ash from nearby Mount St. Helena. In many cases you don’t need to be a hotel guest to reserve a treatment. While mud baths may sound like a new-age therapeutic, this practice originated with the local Wappo tribe, and today involves a process where you’re suspended in warm mud that gives you a feeling of weightlessness and is said to exfoliate and improve the skin.

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