Napa Valley - Best Hotels, Wineries, Breweries & Food

First thing’s first.. with so many options to choose from where do you stay?! We stayed at The River Terrace Inn, a Noble House Hotel. This hotel is located along the Napa River and has a walking trail that leads you right to the Oxbow Public Market within five minutes. We booked the King Room.

It was very clean and having a fridge, coffee maker, and a little seating area was a plus! This hotel does offer more luxury hotel rooms with a river view, and more updated bedroom if that’s your thing. We personally are hardly in the room except to sleep so as long as it is clean and comfy we are happy! Customer service at this hotel was top notch. Every single employee was extremely kind.

We ate breakfast one of the mornings at the hotel restaurant ALBA. Every single thing we had was delicious. We loved that they had your basic breakfast but also unique options as well.  We were able to eat inside as Napa County opened up to 25% capacity indoor dining. They also had outdoor dining available too with heaters and fireplaces. It was a very cozy, and inviting place.

Upon arrival on our first day we immediately took advantage of the beautiful weather. We began walking the short 7 minute walk to Oxbow Public Market. We were greeted with a 40,000 square-foot market filled with eateries, craft beer, wine options, and so much more. We weren't hungry quite yet and decided to continue our walk into downtown Napa.

Before this trip Jacob did not enjoy wine so we opted for a brewery called Stone Brewing.  (P.S he now loves wine haha) We chose to sit outside where there were a bunch of tables, high tops, and Adirondack chairs made out of wine barrels. Napa County was not allowing any places to just serve guests alcohol without food so we opted for the pretzel. It came with beer cheese, and mustard. Highly recommend! We split a beer flight to get a little taste of a few difference ones.

While walking throughout downtown Napa you will notice we are wearing our masks as we are outside as everyone was wearing them, and in some areas there are signs posted “masks must be worn on sidewalks.” 

We went back to the Oxbow Public Market for dinner and chose to try the highly recommended Gott’s Roadside. We both got the California Burger, fries, and the Peanut Butter and Chocolate shake for dessert of course. Anyone else a huge PB&C fan like us?! Everything was delicious and with full tummies we headed back to The River Terrace Inn, A Noble House Hotel to get some rest. 

Our second day we ate breakfast at ALBA as pictured above, which was the restaurant located inside our hotel. We then headed out to explore the downtown areas of Saint Helena, and Calistoga before our noon wine tasting reservation at Castello di Amorosa. In both locations it was filled with so many stores, restaurants, and much more. 

We had a a second breakfast and stopped at the famous Model Bakery Saint Helena location. Oprah named their English Muffins her favorite so of course we had to see what the hype was about. We also found out this vacation the best tactic to try more food is to just order one delicious option and split it with your partner! This allowed us to try more places during our trip. We split the Original Breakfast sandwich. I understand why Oprah says they are her favorite! 

We continued on to Calistoga and stopped in this small homemade ice cream shop because the smells pulled us right in! (It’s never too early for ice cream right?!-haha.) We opted for the Insomnia which was homemade espresso ice cream blended with a shot of espresso…OH MY GOODNESS! Coffee Lover’s this is A MUST!! We couldn’t stop talking about how delicious it was.

As we arrived at Castello di Amorosa we were greeted with Napa’s well renowned vineyards, located on green hillsides. We pulled up to this giant beautiful castle that although was opened in 2007 took 15 years to complete construction. The owner wanted to authenticate a true Tuscan castle and bravo to him as it was breathtaking and truly makes you feel as you are in a different country. While we were here they were filming a movie so pictures were limited as a lot of the set was around the castle and its lands. 

After you check in you are brought to the outside terrace and seated at a table where a host will arrive shortly after. Our goal with this tasting was to find a wine that Jacob liked haha. Ladies and Gentleman…we were successful and purchased not one but two bottles!  After your wine tasting you are free to walk the property as long as you'd like.

We drove back to our hotel and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We parked and immediately walked back to downtown Napa to see what our options for dinner would be. Our first stop was Bounty Hunter Wine Bar & Smokin BBQ. We can't resist good BBQ and split a pulled brisket sand which and a side of baked, gooey Mac and Cheese. 

The second stop of the night was Don Perico Mexican Restaurant. Here we just enjoyed homemade guacamole with chips and both got mango margaritas. We highly recommend the mango margarita as it tasted so fresh. Our last stop of the night ended back at our favorite Oxbow Public Market to try Live Fire Pizza. Remember friends the trick is to split everything so you can enjoy food hopping without feeling overly stuffed and uncomfortable! Here we split the margarita pizza with homemade ranch. I personally love wood fired pizzas. Do you have a favorite kind of pizza? I know it is hard to choose as pizza is a good idea no matter the type. 

Waking up on our third day we are sad to go home but excited to pick up our dogs Milo and Max from Uncle Fredies House of Pet’s in Reno, NV. We stopped again at Model’s Bakery Napa location to get a quick breakfast for the drive home. This time we each ordered our own breakfast wrap, and a little treat for the road. I ordered the St.Helena Chipolte Pesto Breakfast Sandwich and replaced the english muffin with a spinach wrap. Jacob ordered the Model Wrap. This trip was everything and more than we hoped it would be.