Napa Valley?
Monday, July 6th, 2009 at
11:57 am
I comming to SF in May and I’m planning a side trip to Napa. Which of the following would give me the best Napa Valley experience and why?
Balloon Ride over Napa Valley
Bike Tour of Napa Valley
Wine Train Tour of Napa Valley
Filed under: Q&A
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bike tour because you would be able to stop whenever you wanted to look around, take pictures etc. on a balloon ride it is very beautiful but you cant stop a balloon whenever you want and on the wine train you eat and have scheduled stops, the wine train is very nice also but I think if you are only going to do one the bike tour is definitly the best just becuase of the freedom you will have for what you want to look at and stop for when you are there. Have fun!
The wine train makes the most sense. It’s a bit costly, but a lot of fun. The bike tour sounds like a pain. I’ve seen groups of bikes go by on hwy 12 (etc), and the shoulder at certain places is quite narrow. I’m not a biker, just my personal opinion.
I think your best bet is to drive to the various wineries & begin to learn about (and drink) the wines. Make sure you go to some of the smaller wineries. You’ll have a better chance to talk to the actual winemakers… as well, as a better chance for free wine-tasting (a thing that seems to be more and more rare in Napa).
I would do the bike tour. Weather should be nice. Balloon ride is really expensive and you have to go before the sun is up. Wine Train is completely overrated and you can get better food elsewhere. There are no scheduled stops on the wine train and you can only eat and drink whatever food/wine is on the train. You cannot get off the train anywhere. It leaves Napa, goes up the valley and back.
One of the biggest reasons to go to Napa Valley is to experience the Wines. For that I would say go on the Wine Train. This will give you a tour of the area as well as the chance to sample different wines.
The Bike Tour would be a close second but you would get a lot of scenery but not sure how much of the wine you could actually sample as that probably would not go well with ridding a bike.