Where
to Stay in Northern Wine Country Part Two
In our previous article we looked at southern Napa and
Sonoma but now let’s venture a couple of hours north of San Francisco to
locations where a wine tourist can walk to dinner. My two favorites are
Healdsburg in Sonoma and Calistoga in Napa. There is a funny role reversal
here, Sonoma is seen as rustic and Napa sophisticated, but Healdsburg is
sleeker than Calistoga which has held onto its rustic beginnings as a ‘Hot
Springs’ destination. Read our article ‘Calistoga on My Mind’ for more.
Healdsburg was a sleepy country town of dairy farmers and grape
growers when California hearty burgundy was a hodgepodge of red grapes that
grew well in the surrounding valleys. The proximity of those vineyards is what makes
Healdsburg a great wine destination today. It is fifteen minutes from their charming
plaza to the vines of three diverse valleys. Inside the city limits are traditional
wineries like Seghesio and Simi, and around the plaza a delicious abundance of
tasting rooms, shops and restaurants.
Conveniently, there are wonderful accommodations steps from
the plaza, ranging from full service hotels to Inns and B&B’s. In its style
Healdsburg reminds you of Napa ‘s St. Helena, which unfortunately has few hotel
rooms in the downtown. Their historic importance as a prosperous Napa wine
center makes it hard to fit in the architecture that newer hotels demand.
Likewise, Calistoga has mostly Inns and B&B’s downtown,
but its history as a hot springs has produced a wide variety of small hotel
spas. It is easy to find a moderately priced place to stay walking distance to
the many downtown restaurants. Over the years the prices have crept up, and the
rooms have gotten nicer, although not any bigger, but between the springs, the mud,
the wineries, the shops and the restaurants you’re not going to spend much time
in the room.
A less rural, but very convenient location for the wine
tourist is historic Railroad Square in Santa Rosa. The Hyatt Vineyard Creek, a Courtyard
by Marriott, and the small charming Hotel La Rose anchor this district of nice
shops and restaurants. Santa Rosa is Sonoma’s county seat and it sits in the
middle of the county so most of Sonoma’s wine growing valleys are between fifteen
minutes to half an hour away in various directions. As an added bonus you can
take a scenic twenty minute drive over the mountains to Calistoga and tour the
Napa Valley from there.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery
Guides, and owners of Amicis Tours and Cuore Libre Publishing. They are authors
of over twenty books on health, design and travel. Their products can be found
on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com
|