My cousin sent out an invite to her wedding in Napa Valley, So I immediately booked a flight. We flew into San Francisco, we had originally planned to check out San Francisco on our first day there but the woman at the hertz car rental counter urged us to just head straight to our hotel because of all the car break ins. We did get to see a gorgeous view of the city from the plane during landing.

Taking her advice we hopped on the freeway and headed to our hotel in Napa. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, the hotel my cousin had chosen for the wedding hotel block. It was very nice, clean and the staff was super helpful and welcoming! The hotel was in a very convenient spot right in the heart of Napa. Our room had a nice mountain view and pretty flowers outside the window.

After we got our stuff situated in our hotel room, we were starving from the long flight and needed to make a plan for the day. We went and had lunch at a local lunch spot near our hotel called Heritage Eats. I ordered the Shrimp Bowl and a Thai Iced tea, it was very good and the staff was very nice. We deliberated and decided to head to the redwoods and see the ocean after our meal.

We headed to the Armstrong Redwoods, situated north of the Russian River. The drive there was very scenic and the town the park is in, Guerneville is a historic logging town with a quaint downtown area with shops and cafes. once you arrive at the park they do require you to pay a $10 parking fee. The trees aren’t quite as large as the ones in the Redwood National Park, but never having seen a redwood in person they were incredibly impressive. One thing I did not expect is the wonderful smell the trees have and the way they seem to dampen the sound making it incredibly quiet in the forest. I can’t imagine anywhere quite as relaxing.

Next stop was the Sonoma Coast State Park to see the Pacific Ocean and drive a bit of Highway 1. Driving on highway 1 is absolutely beautiful but also quite the challenging place to drive. I would recommend to be very careful and try to leave your anxiety at home when you drive on this road. Although, the view was worth it.

After nearly getting in many car accidents we headed back to our hotel for the night to rest up for our wine tastings the next day. I have heard that you used to be able to go to any winery and do a tasting without a reservation but that is no longer the case. With some advice from a friend of mine that had moved to Napa, I had booked a few tastings months in advance. One at Beringer Vineyards and another at Castello di Amorosa both were quire affordable.

To start off the day we checked out the world famous Napa Valley sign! We also spotted the wine train while we were there. We did not ride the wine train, I actually had no idea there was such a thing. The people on the train looked like they were having a great time. I would absolutely put that on the list if I were to visit Napa again. After that short detour, we headed to our first vineyard.

Our first vineyard of the day was at Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga. This winery is housed in a medieval style castle, The castle was completed in 2007 but you might feel as if you are in a real medieval castle. We toured the castle and went down to the cellar for our wine tasting, we got to chose 5 different wines each and were given chocolates and biscuits to pair our wines. I liked all the wines I tried but I would have to say my favorites were the Gewurztraminer Varietals.

Our second wine tour of the day was at St. Helena’s Beringer Vineyards. Beringer Vineyards was founded in 1876 and is one of the oldest continuously operated wineries in Napa Valley. The Beringer family immigrated from the Rhine Valley in Germany. They built their historic home on the estate to mimic their home in Germany. The estate features an impressive wine cave that was hand chiseled into the Spring mountain. The Winery on the estate was built into a hillside to utilize gravity flow methods to make the wine, which was customary in Rhine Valley. We did not get the tasting at this winery but with the grounds tour you were given a glass of wine upon entry. The wine we chose was a dry chardonnay, but there was also a red option.

Since the wineries close relatively early we were just about out of time for wine tasting. We headed to downtown St.Helena for dinner. If you plan to go to many wineries I would recommend to try to give yourselves at least 2 hours at each winery. You could probably do up to 4 in a day if you planned it right. Downtown St. Helena is super historic and incredibly charming it even has one of Oprah’s favorite bakeries, The Model Bakery! We wanted to go in and get the buttery english muffins she recommended but unfortunately for us, they had closed for the day.

After our english muffin disappointment we headed to the restaurant Cook for dinner. Cook had been featured on St. Helena’s instagram page many times and the food looked delicious. I ordered the eggplant parmesan and my sister ordered the roasted chicken, both of which were fantastic.

After dinner we walked around St. Helena for a bit and checked out some shops and took some pictures. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel and rest up for the wedding day. The next morning we met up with some family that had gotten into town and went out to breakfast. We let our uncle pick this time and he chose Downtown Joe’s in Napa. I think he mainly chose it cuz it was a brewery but they did offer great breakfast and river views, so I approved. I ordered the Eggs Benedict Florentine which is always a favorite of mine and it did not disappoint. While we were enjoying our breakfast, to my surprise there was people going on Gondola rides down the river. I don’t know why but I was very impressed by this and also sad I didn’t have time to go on a Gondola ride. So if you are planning a trip to you should make sure you had time for a gondola ride. Heck maybe even a hot air ballon ride! They also do that in Napa also.

Once we finished out breakfast we walked around downtown Napa until it was time to get ready to be wedding guests. Downtown Napa had endless shops, cafes and boutiques to see. My favorite was the plant store Riza it had some amazing cactuses. I wanted to buy them all but I would assume they would not be welcomed by the TSA to ride in the plane back home with me. We found some really great souvenirs and headed back to the hotel to get ready and wait for the wedding shuttle to pick us up.

Once our shuttle arrived, We all got on and were whisked away to the wedding Venue, V.Sattui Winery. We got off our shuttle and were greeted with an absolutely stunning venue and sparkling wine to drink during the ceremony.

After the wedding ceremony, cocktail hour was held in the gardens featuring wine cocktails named after the bride and Groom’s Dogs.

Dinner and dancing were held in the wine cellar amongst the wine barrels. We were served a 3 course meal of salad, Entree ( i chose the salmon) then, dessert all of which were paired with a different V. Sattui Wine.

We then danced the night away until it was time to hop back on the shuttle and go back to the hotel and get ready to sleep. We were in for a long day of travel back home the next day. After an extremely eventful weekend we got up and drove back to the airport in the San Francisco fog. we successfully made it back to the airport, and hopped on the plane back to Ohio. overall Napa Valley was an incredible experience! It was not really what I had expected. I was expecting people to be more fancy and stuck up and maybe I was expecting it to be more cheesy than it was. I would say Napa Valley exceeded my expectations and would absolutely go there again if I got the opportunity. Everyone was very nice and I felt welcomed everywhere i went. Napa was much more historic than I was expecting and everything was scenic and stunning everywhere you went. I would imagine no matter what you did in Napa Valley you’d have an amazing time and a trip you’d never forget.

Also, we flew over the Rocky Mountains on the way home and that was one my favorite bonus parts of the trip.