Vacation ideas

[mdsusan]

Girls, ahem ladies, thanks so much for your vacation ideas for me (nice way to steal my idea bing). I am a really bad wife and have nothing for Todd's birthday which is in 3 days, so I am thinking "shit, better book this surprise trip now and pass it off as your birthday gift". So, I gotta get to booking today or tomorrow. We would be leaving on

Comments

[mobwife]

We stayed at the Westin St. Francis for our anniversary. It was really nice, but pricey (but we stayed in May, it may be cheaper in Dec). It's downtown, right in Union Square, which we liked, but it really depends on what atmosphere you're after. The Clift is supposed to be really funky and crazy. If we were staying in SF again, that is definitely where I would stay, but for our anniversary we wanted something very SF-ish, and I was told we couldn't beat the WSF for that. Other recs I got: Mark Hopkins, Mandarin Oriental, Fairmont, Ritz, Claremont, and Adagio

[mobwife]

I forgot the link to my dream destination in Napa:

http://www.aubergedusoleil.com/

[bruingirlie]

I think SF/Napa would be awesome :)

I don't know your budget, but if you are looking for something walking distance from restaurants and the center of town and inexpensive (for Napa/Sonoma), we stayed at the Inn at Sonoma last June and really liked it. It's one of the Four Sister Inns: http://www.foursisters.com/inns/ and they have other cute places in Napa as well that looked adorable. After talking to many people about where to stay, just about everyone suggested we stay in Sonoma rather than Napa.

Here is my trip report from June:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/bruingirlie/71186.html#cutid1

I'm sure dakotapie and others who visit Napa/Sonoma often will give you great recommendations on other wineries and more secluded/romantic type B&Bs up there as well :)

Hope that helps

[dakotapie]

For SF, you should check out the Joie de Vivre hotel group. Of them, my favorite hotels are Hotel Adagio, Hotel Rex and Petite Auberge. They are all centrally located in Union Square, close to transportation, so getting around would not be a problem. Of course, these are just some hotels that I personally like. The city has many more great hotels to choose from as well. My only word of caution would be that some of the rooms at The Clift are very small. One of my clients was here a couple of months ago and kept complaining about stubbing his toe and ramming his knee because the room was so cramped. I've also heard that you can get the Westin St. Francis fairly cheap from Hotwire.com but don't know if this is true or not.

As for Napa, I've only ever stayed at The Daughter's Inn, but it was very nice. Not the nicest place to stay in Wine Country, but it was pleasant. I've also read a ton of wonderful things about the Four Sisters Inns. I would definitely look into those as well

[mobwife]

I don't like Coppola's wines (though I may try a reserve tasting next time I'm there), but the grounds are fabulous. I also really recommend Cakebread, just b/c I looooooove their wine. We had a great time at Merryvale last time we were in Napa, and they let us share tastings so we could try more things, which I thought was cool. (Plus it was our fifth winery, so sharing was probably a fabulous idea at that point!) The guy at Merryvale was also really great to chat with, which usually I don't like, but it was fun. We also had a really fun picnic-y lunch at ... you know that place, with the store? Damn, I just forgot the name! But I'm sure someone else knows it, or I will remember it and post back. Anyway, the wine seriously sucked there, but the tasting was free, so we did it anyway. Then we bought some bread and cheese and fruit and sat in the grass and relaxed (er, sobered up a bit, for some) before hitting a couple more wineries. I do want to go to Stag's Leap next time we're up there (we have a hard time making it off

[dakotapie]

Yeah, the regular Coppola wines are crap but the Reserve and Library wines are truly very good. And of course, I loved going down into the private cellars to drink them. My memories of Cakebread are tarnished because we went on one of those van tours and the women we were with were Fucking Morons and were loud and obnoxious. Merryvale was also good. I always forget about that one. I think you're talking about V.Sattui. Yeah, the wines suck, but the grocery store has some great eats.

wah-la!

[mobwife]

V. Sattui is the one with the store. Horrific wine, good prices for great cheeses. Also, Sterling is an interesting winery to tour, even though the wines were only okay. I would probably try a reserve tasting there if I went again, too.

[bruingirlie]

Ok, we must be seriously lame, because we not only love Sterling wine (especially a lot of their 'Cellar Club' wines) and the winery, but we also thought V. Sattui had some very yummy drinkable wine. Not spectacular, but we just liked their style, since we had just come from some very stuffy wineries. Although they were kinda wussy foo-foo wines: We bought some of their Gamay Rouge and their Muscat. Definitely a great place to get lots of free tastes (It was the only free tasting--and we got a LOT) and to have a great picnic...especially since a lot of the bigger wineries in Napa don't allow picnicing at all.

[mobwife]

I shouldn't say their wine was horrific - it was good for free. ;) At Sterling we just did the regular tasting (no cellar club), but we had just come from Cakebread so I'm seriously biased by that.

[bruingirlie]

Ah, following Cakebread would be tough act to follow :) I didn't even get the full experience at Cakebread since I was drizzunk by that time and my tastebuds were DONE. Didn't plan that well at all ;)

[dakotapie]

I like their Muscat but think everything else is on par with 2 Buck Chuck.