We thoroughly enjoyed our trip. Silvio was our tour guide and kept us entertained. They were about 10 mins late picking us up from our hotel, but we called Tower Tours and they told us how far away our shuttle was. Silvio explained the scenery and the history of the 2 wine regions. Madonna Estates was my favorite and then we went to Sutter Homes. Both were in Napa Valley. Silvio stopped at the Napa Valley sign and allowed us to get out and take pictures. We ate lunch in historic Sonoma and Silvio drove around explaining the different restaurants around. Our final destination was Sebastiani. I didn't enjoy their wine, but they had the most beautiful winery of the 3. We had enough time to sample wine, tour, shop, and take pics at each destination. Everyone should go on this tour.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable of the city and provided a great historical lesson! The wineries were good. This was my first time on such a trip and I was really impressed with the hosts at each of the wineries. Definitely recommend this trip to others!
The tour, overall, was just- good.
The positives first: Our tour guide was great. He was knowledgeable and a safe driver. He made sure we had all the information we needed, got to where we needed to be, and gave good suggestions for lunch. A to him. The shuttle picking us up at the hotel was a bonus. It was there promptly at 8 a.m. and we departed for the tour at 9 a.m. We arrived at the first winery around 10:30 a.m. The wineries we went to were good, the first one Madonna Estates being my favorite because there was more opportunity for tasting.
Things to change: Out of a 9 hour day, less than 3 hours was actually spent at the wineries. This, I will say, was a bummer. The first stop was about an hour the second and third we were only there for about 45 minutes each. Also, the wineries were good, but only one allowed you back to the barrel and wine making areas. The other two, we were told, weren't allowing participants back to the wine making areas any more. This was a bummer. Out of three, two were essentially quick info sessions and guided tastings. I would see if there are more tour friendly wineries to work with.
Also, while Yountville is a cute town, we didn't need to spend an hour and 40 minutes there for lunch. Most people were ready to go after an hour. This resulted in us getting to the last winery late and shortening our time there. Also, this caused us to have to come back to San Fran during 5 o'clock traffic. Nightmare. It took us 3 hours to get from wine country back to our hotel. There weren't working bathrooms on the bus either so no one could use the restroom for 3 hours.
Overall, the tour was decent. I had never been to wine country before so it gave me a taste of what it was like. I would just suggest restructuring the day so more time is spent at the wineries and to avoid traffic.