Your Driver Picks Three Napa Wineries and Sets Out Lunch
Three small Napa wineries chosen by the person driving, roughly an hour at each, and a boxed lunch opened on winery grounds partway through. Pickup runs mid morning from most lodging in the valley, and the shuttle returns you to the same spot.
Some Napa wineries are visible from the highway and built for volume. This day goes the other way. The shuttle turns onto the back roads and stops at three properties that tend to be small or family owned, and you will not know which three until the morning.
That is deliberate. The operator says the driver plans the day for whoever is on board, and that the list changes from tour to tour. Tell them at booking which wineries you have already seen and they will keep those off the route.
The stops are chosen on the operator's own criteria: strong feedback from earlier groups, smaller and less touristy properties, good wine at moderate prices, and perks it lists as cave tours, barrel tasting, and a winemaker or owner being around.
The shape of the day is fixed even though the stops are not. Pickup runs 10:00 to 10:30 in the morning for most locations. Three wineries follow at roughly an hour each, with longer at whichever one hosts the picnic. Call it most of a day either way: the booking page sells seven hours, and the operator's own page puts it at six and a half or so.
Whether you get collected depends on where you are staying. The operator says this tour often picks up from lodging in American Canyon, Napa, Yountville, Rutherford, St. Helena, and Calistoga, and that some private addresses are too remote or too awkward for its shuttles to reach. It asks you to phone with the address so it can check. There is no pickup from San Francisco hotels on this tour. People staying further out drive in and park at the central meeting point instead.
Napa Valley Small Group Winery TourThree back-road wineries, a boxed picnic lunch, and pickup within the Napa Valley tour region. One booking covers up to four travelers.www.viator.comThe Seats Face Inward, and That Is the Point
The vehicle is a small tour shuttle with perimeter seating, which the operator likens to a conversation pit. Everyone sits facing in, toward the other guests. It is tall enough to stand up in and to walk on and off, and the windows are large, so the valley reads from any seat.
The operator says a join-in group usually runs between eight and twelve guests. The booking page caps a single reservation at four travelers. The company describes the people who turn up as easy going and interested in wine without necessarily knowing much about it, which is roughly the brief.
The guide works in English only. Chilled bottled water is served on board and again with lunch. There is room on the shuttle for whatever you buy, and the operator sells a shipper box on board for USD 15 that holds twelve bottles and checks like luggage on a flight home. Most of the wineries it visits can ship directly too, though not to Utah or Mississippi.
A Boxed Lunch, Opened on Winery Grounds
The operator runs its own kitchen and packs the box: deli turkey sandwiches on fresh sliced ciabatta, a house made pasta or grain salad, sliced fruit in some combination of apples, pears, Asian pears, pineapple and watermelon, a rolled oat dessert cake, and bottled water. Condiments come on the side. It gets set out on the grounds of one of the three wineries, and that stop runs longer than the other two.
Vegetarians are covered and so are most other restrictions. The company says it is particularly used to dairy and gluten, that it will swap in a hummus and vegetable sandwich, and that the rest of the box is already vegetarian. Flag any of this when you book. The operator asks for advance notice.
Buy a bottle at the lunch winery and they will open it and hand you glasses.
What the Ticket Does Not Cover
Tasting fees are the large one. They belong to the wineries, and the operator puts them at roughly USD 20 to 25 per person at each stop. Three wineries at that rate is another USD 60 to 75 a head on top of the ticket. The operator says it tries to avoid wineries charging more than that, and that this is not always possible. It also says the fee is usually waived for anyone who buys wine or joins a winery club, so what you actually hand over depends on whether you leave with bottles.
Gratuity is the other. For a reservation of four guests or fewer the operator leaves tipping to you. For parties of five or more travelling together it adds 20 percent itself. Past those two lines the company says there are no taxes and no fuel surcharges on the tour price.
Who This Day Is Closed To
The minimum age here is twenty one. The operator's own FAQ answers the same question with a flat no and adds that exceptions are rare.
Registered service dogs are welcome. The operator restricts service dogs that are not registered, and gives two reasons: guests on board with animal allergies, and winery dogs that do not always take kindly to visitors.
Half days are not offered. The operator will let you join a tour late or leave it early, but it does not sell a shorter version. It also says it never cancels a departure for want of numbers, and the booking page agrees. Confirmation is instant, the ticket is one per booking, mobile or paper, and cancelling twenty four hours or more before departure returns the full fare.
If you are driving in, the meeting point for this tour is the corner of Main Street and Fifth Street in downtown Napa. The operator picks a central spot for each of its tours with all day parking and restaurants within reach, and drop off is at that same spot at the end of a day of tasting. Its own advice is to eat dinner in that neighbourhood before driving anywhere, or to book a room nearby and not drive at all.
By then the shuttle has been out on the back roads since mid morning, the box lunch is long gone, and the people sitting opposite you have names. Downtown Napa is right there, and so is dinner.