1. How long is a tour?Tours are typically 9 hours for someone staying in San Francisco. Pick-ups are (more or less);
8:45 to 9:00 for someone staying south of Market Street or downtown.
9:00 to 9:15 for someone staying in the Union Square area
9:15 to 9:30 for those staying in the Fisherman’s Wharf area
9:45 to 10:00 for the town of Sonoma
10:00 to 10:15 for the town of Napa
Your day will end at about 5 pm for wine country hotels
and approximately 6 pm for San Francisco hotels.
2. How many wineries will we see in a day?
In a typical day, we should get to four or five wineries. However, the group can dictate the speed to a certain point. Driving times, traffic and distances between wineries are also a factor.
3. Can I choose the wineries?
Of course! Because we aren’t in a tour bus or van, and always in groups of 6 or less, we can visit all 700+ wineries up here! (not all in one day of course) Please let us know well in advance which wineries you are interested in, and keep in mind that if there are other people on the tour, we will try and go to some of their places also. You can, of course choose everything with a private tour. Very often, there aren’t any requests, in which case we will take you to many of our favorites.
4. Which wineries do we visit?
The same tour has never been done twice so there is no schedule or list to give, but if you leave it up to us, you will be more than happy. Wineries are chosen because they make great wine, are non-touristy, have beautiful grounds and/or historic value, have knowledgeable and fun people, and are very well respected within the winery community. You can feel assured that you had the best possible day in wine country.
5. How much are the winery tasting fees?
Winery tasting fees range from free to $25 a tasting. We will always try to average the tasting fees to about $10 per winery. Wineries will often waive the tasting fee if wine is purchased, so most people don’t pay any tasting fees all day. You can then have us ship your wine home at the end of the day (USA only), or check it as luggage on the plane.
6. Which Valley is better?
Tough question, I get asked this all the time. My answer is that there are truly great wineries in both. I personally enjoy the northern parts of both regions, being the area around and everything north of St. Helena in Napa, and the Dry Creek and Russian River regions in Sonoma. This doesn’t mean that we will only go there, but since you asked…
7. Which hotels do you pick up from?
For Napa tours, we can pick you up in San Francisco, Sausalito, the TOWN of Sonoma, Napa city, or Yountville.
For a Sonoma tour, we can pick you up in San Francisco, Sausalito, Santa Rosa or Healdsburg.
Please understand that it is not time effective to pick people up in Napa to do a Northern Sonoma tour, and vice versa. Sometimes special arrangements can be made, so please inquire and we will do our best to accommodate you.
For Private Tours, we can pick you up anywhere...
8. What do we do for lunch?
A nice part of spending a day in wine country is the fabulous food! We usually visit one of the nearby restaurants for lunch. Sometimes if the weather is nice and everyone is OK with it, we can have a picnic in the vineyard.
9. How do I book a tour?Just click “book tour” at the top of any page and fill out the form. We will get back to you within 24 hours.
10. What is your cancellation policy?
In the unfortunate event that you need to cancel this great tour, let us know as soon as possible. Tours cancelled outside 72 hours are charged a 10% cancellation fee. Tours cancelled within 72 hours of departure will be charged the full amount of the tour.