Napa
Vineyards from Napa up to Calistoga, five small towns along the valley floor, three MICHELIN stars at Yountville, and a county airfield five miles south of town.
- Arrival
- San Francisco International · SFO
- To the valley
- About 1 h 30 to Yountville by car
- Private jets
- Napa County Airport, two FBOs
- Best time
- April to October
The city
Five towns and the vines between them.
The valley runs north from the town of Napa through Yountville, Rutherford and St. Helena to Calistoga, where the spas still use the volcanic mud of its geothermal springs. The French Laundry in Yountville holds three MICHELIN stars, and each of the towns up the valley has a starred table of its own.
The weather follows a simple pattern: rain in winter, almost none from May to September. From April to October the days reach 20 to 28 °C under mostly dry skies. Meadowood, a fixture of St. Helena for half a century, has held three MICHELIN Keys since they were first awarded.
Arriving
Three airports and a county field.
Scheduled flights land at San Francisco, Oakland or Sacramento. Private jets can fly straight to Napa County Airport, five miles south of the town of Napa.
- Los Angeles 1 h 10
- Las Vegas 1 h 15
- Miami 5 h 40
- Tokyo 10 h 55 long-range jet
- Nice 12 h 40 long-range jet
When to go
April to October.
Rain falls in winter, and then comes a long, dry growing season for the vines. From April to October the days are warm, peaking at around 28 °C in July and August, and rain is rare from May to September.
- 13° J 157
- 16° F 115
- 17° M 97
- 20° A 47
- 23° M 14
- 26° J 5
- 28° J 1
- 28° A 3
- 27° S 10
- 24° O 41
- 17° N 100
- 13° D 127
What to see and do
Days in and around Napa.
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Landmark
Yountville
A small town of a few streets with The French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc within a few blocks of each other.
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Landmark
The Silverado Trail
The road up the eastern side of the valley, with inns, spas and Auro's estate along the way.
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Landmark
Calistoga
The northern end of the valley, known for its geothermal springs and mud baths.
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Food & wine
Napa Valley Wine Train
Restored Pullman and Vista Dome cars carry lunch and dinner guests on a 36 mile round trip from Napa up the valley to Saint Helena and back.
Official site -
Food & wine
Opus One Winery
Founded by Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild with the 1979 vintage, the Oakville estate receives visitors for seated tastings by appointment only.
Official site -
Food & wine
CIA at Copia
The Culinary Institute of America runs one day cooking classes, multi day boot camps and wine classes with its sommeliers at this riverside campus in Napa.
Official site -
Culture
di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art
Some 1,600 works by Northern California artists fill galleries across a 217 acre art park in Carneros, open to the public since 1997.
Official site -
Golf
Silverado Resort North Course
Redesigned by Robert Trent Jones Junior in 1967, this par 72 course of 7,166 yards hosts the PGA Tour's Procore Championship each September.
Official site -
Nature
Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
From Highway 29 north of the valley, a trail climbs 5.2 miles to the 4,343 foot summit of Mount Saint Helena.
Official site
Where to stay
Inns and estates among the vines.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Meadowood Napa Valley Thirty-six rooms, suites and cottages, each with a fireplace, and a restaurant cooking from the estate's own farm.
- Auberge du Soleil A restaurant first and a hotel afterwards, with fifty rooms opening onto terraces above the valley floor.
- Four Seasons Resort Napa Valley Eighty-five rooms on a working estate with its own organic cabernet vineyard, and the starred Auro in the house.
- Solage One hundred bungalow rooms and a large spa that uses the volcanic mud of Calistoga.
- Milliken Creek Inn Twelve rooms on the Silverado Trail, every one of them looking over the Napa River.
- Bardessono Rammed earth and reclaimed wood, with an organic vineyard of its own and a farm for the kitchen.
- North Block Twenty rooms on Washington Street, a few minutes on foot from The French Laundry.
- Stanly Ranch Rooms, suites and villas spread across a ranch of seven hundred acres, with Bear for dinner.
- Rancho Caymus Inn A hacienda built in the 1980s from the timber of a nineteenth-century barn, around a courtyard with a plunge pool.
- Le Petit Pali St Helena Twenty-nine rooms and cottages among the vines, with champagne at breakfast and no restaurant to dress for.
Where to dine
Three stars in Yountville, and up the valley.
From the MICHELIN Guide 2026, shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these restaurants.
- The French Laundry Three Michelin stars Contemporary French $$$$ Washington Street, Yountville
- Auberge du Soleil One Michelin star Californian $$$$ Rutherford Hill Road, Rutherford
- Press One Michelin star Modern $$$$ St. Helena
- Auro One Michelin star Contemporary French $$$$ Four Seasons Resort Napa Valley, Calistoga
Elsewhere in United States
More reasons to come.
- New York Manhattan, with Teterboro and Westchester for private aircraft.
- Los Angeles Bel Air, Malibu and the canyons between them.
- Miami South Beach, the art fairs, and the gateway to Latin America.
- Palm Beach An island of winter residences, a bridge away from its airport.
- Aspen A silver-mining town turned ski resort, with its runway minutes away.
- East Hampton Summer houses on the South Fork of Long Island.
- Las Vegas The Strip, the residencies and the title fights.
Flying to Napa?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.