O.T.: Visiting Napa Valley on Vacation, Need some guidance from the N. CA gang Options

[ThinAir]

I'm gonna be passing by Napa valley on my vacation in a couple of weeks. We'll be coming south from Humboldt Redwoods State Park on Hwy 101 and heading towards Big Basin State Park, just North of Santa Cruz. We're planning to go across the Golden Gate Bridge and make a stop in Redwood City at HPH to see Brad and pick up some parts.

We'd like to take in a little bit of Napa along the way. Mostly just a drive through, with a stop at 1 or 2 wineries. I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good route and perhaps some favorite wineries to visit.

[Dave_Darling]

Another good option is to go to AAA and get a map and guide. They've got a pretty good Wine Country map, covering Napa and Sonoma counties. Napa has two main roads that have the wineries on them, Highway 29 and Silverado Trail. Lots of good stuff there... I made up my own tour last year (damn, that long already?) by finding all the places that produced ports that I could and underlining them on the map. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Sonoma also has quite a few wineries. I know you'll pass through wine country on 101; some friends of mine have a winery just off 101 in Geyserville, and you'll be seeing vines on and off just about all the way into Santa Rosa.

Or you can bail off 101 and take 128 at Geyserville, which should take you through to 29 at Calistoga. Or take 12 at Santa Rosa to get to Sonoma, then cut over... Lots of fun, prety roads in that area. Lots of vineyards. Lots to choose from.

Of course, if you take 37 over to Napa you will go right past Sears Point. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Just don't try it this coming weekend, NASCAR is there and traffic will be beyond horrible.

--DD