Visiting Napa Valley, California - good places to visit

[Wannabelongarm]

My husband and I are going on a vacation, flying into Sacramento, staying a week in the Napa Valley. What should we see besides wine tours?

What do you see in San Francisco in a day?

How close are the Redwoods?

and of course . . . .quilting shops!!!!

Thanks for any information. We love to find the out of the way places locals love and most tourists don't find.

Joanne Flamand

Artistic Quilt Design

[Brenni]

Alkatraz is interesting. They have marvelous 'City' tours so you can spend a little and have them take you around. I am sending my mother and niece there this summer so I am planning their trip now.

[Heritage Keepsakes]

I don't live there, but had a vacation there 2 years ago, so will tell you what we managed. The Redwoods can be done in an afternoon or even a morning. Of course you can spend longer if you like. We did a half day tour for the Redwoods, which also went to Sausalito on the way back. It's all very close to San Fran, on the other side of the Golden gate bridge. If you do the Redwoods, the cafe there has some "famous" toastie sandwiches that need to be tried.

We also managed Yosemite national park. It's a long day tour, about 16 hours start to finish. Well worth it as well and the scenery, amazing!!

As I'm not from San Fran, I can't help you with the quilt shop scene. I'll leave that to one of the locals!:cool:

[RitaR]

When we lived there our quilt shop was Joanns and Hancocks.. the one quilt shop was having so much friction we chose not to go there.. As for quilt shops in San Francisco, we were so busy when there, we didn't have time to find Quilt Shops.

The Wine Train, if it is still running, has a wonderful ride up the valley and back. One food car had inexpensive meals, sandwiches, soup, etc.. the other was pricy and was a full meal.

Calistoga is a town to visit, really unique.. hippie style was still there 15 or so years ago.. our last visit was in 2003 or 2002. Much of it was still there.. Not much in downtown Napa.. so much has changed.. The downtown shopping center never did get all the units rented, after roughly 10 years or longer. A few pricy stores rented space and weren't doing enough business to stay open there.

St. Helena is a cute town, several interesting shops, and there really is a : 1-2-3-4 Main St. there.

Just outside of Yountville was a "Santa Claus" store. So much cute, and beautiful stuff. Not sure if it is still open.

Yountvilles two big features are the Veterans Home and the one winery building which the last I knew, was many boutiques.. ice cream shop is so very tasty, well, their ice cream is.

Oakville and Rutherford don't have a lot more than intersections and not many of them, and maybe a winery or two.

Of course the valley has a multitude of wineries. Many of them have wine and people take a snack and buy some wine and eat out at tables or on a blanket on the lawn.

I would recommend you do not take the highway between Oakville and Santa Rosa. curves and a lot of them, we even had to stop to walk and get some fresh air, put our feet under us and our bellies back in place..

Unless there were a lot of changes in the highway and the drivers, I for one wouldn't recommend taking Silverado Trail.. a lot of accidents there in the past.

Hiway 29 too wasn't bad, probably because of all the small towns and wineries.

Mondavi Winery had summertime concerts and people sat out on the lawns to listen. I can't say for sure as we weren't able to go. That is just what friends told us. Too blasted hot, and too costly.

Thats all I can think of in the valley.

The California Redwoods are a sight. The size of them are unbelievable.. some they can drive cars through and the tree is still living.. one log was a family home, there are a lot of places. I think the Redwood Highway started at Garberville and ended just before Scotia.

I can't think of anything else.. Yosemite is one place that is plainly beautiful. I would think twice about the drive from Napa round trip. We usually only went when we could stay overnight.

When do you plan to make the trip and visit? I can't remember any Hidey Holes that were unknown.

Be careful of the California drivers.. LOL.. they can be bad..

Try to not drive on I 80 during rush hour. Definately not during rush hour.

There are so many things in San Francisco.. the ferry (air boat) ride from Vallejo to Pier something or other in San Francisco is really nice. That puts you right at or near Pier 39, Ripleys Believe it or Not, crab shops, ornament shops, street venders, music, guitar players, Mimes at the trolly car stops, jewelry shops, clothing or accessories shops and FUDGE shops.. my favorite stop. China Town, a trolley car ride to and from is fun. Oh, the park where the Presidio Army base was, Lombard Street, the real curvy drive in a single block about 2 blocks long.

It Will be interesting to hear of other peoples recomendations..

What we did after we were no longer new comers was to ask locals what they would recommend.

We usually got some good information, and they'd be more apt to know about Hidey Holes.