How does one experience Napa Valley’s wine scene, incorporating a variety of wineries and tasting rooms with the safety of not driving? It’s easier than you’d think, thanks to a multiple options from bus tours to hiring a private driver to the option we chose on a recent visit, the Napa Valley Wine Trolley.
We were staying in San Francisco for a long weekend and wanted to devote a day to revisiting Napa’s wine country which we’d previously done, by tour bus, several years ago. Lured by the idea of riding in a charming, open-air trolley that would take us to multiple wineries, we signed up for one of the tours the Napa Valley Wine Trolley offers.
There are two styles of Napa Valley Wine Trolley tours available:
The Classic Napa Valley tour visits four wineries and includes a picnic-style lunch catered by a local chef. It’s more of a casual day of winetasting and an introduction to different winery experiences from small, family-owned wineries to larger, commercialized ones.
The Up Valley tour visits three wineries, one of which is in a castle, and includes a sit-down lunch at an area restaurant. This is the option we chose.
Both tours last about 6.5 hours and take guests around in a trolley, with a driver who provides a balance of narration about the area, teasers about each of the upcoming wineries, and reading of the group to encourage sociability, even picking certain songs to bring out some group singing. It’s an interesting bit of psychology the drivers have to do to enable people to let loose and have fun while still maintaining some sense of decorum as the tastings go on. It was interesting to see how each grouping in our tour kept to ourselves initially and, by the end, were hugging goodbye!
Hungry for more? Weekend at the Presidio.
Pre-Tour Suggestion: Get there early and explore
My husband and I chose to get to Yountville in the Napa Valley really early, in advance of the 10am Trolley tour, to have an opportunity to explore a little bit. We had arranged ahead of time for a private driver to pick us up in San Francisco, take us over the Golden Gate Bridge, through meandering and stunning countryside to Yountville and then pick us up later in the evening after dinner, for the return ride home. It cost around $250 to do this which wasn’t much more than what we’d priced using Uber or Lyft. And, with a private driver, we could ensure we had someone available to take us back in the evening…