Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Taking a flight to California Wine Country

Thanks to my Google Analytics obsession, I've noticed that I have a whole bunch of readers from states outside California, from Canada, the UK, and elsewhere. So I thought to help those people out I'd post about how to get here by plane.



If you want to fly here directly, in a word, it will be expensive. Wine Country's airport is the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport, coded as STS. You can see their website at http://www.sonomacountyairport.org/. There's a single commercial airline that flies there--Horizon Air. Horizon is a subsidiary of Alaska Air, partnered with American Airlines, a member of the OneWorld alliance. So if you collect miles on that system, lucky you. Personally, I'm a member of United's Star Alliance, so I can't collect on any flights out of this airport. You can fly here from Seattle, Portland, LA and Las Vegas (see map). Importantly, however, this airport is in Sonoma County. If you're staying in Yountville, or somewhere else in Napa, it could take you over 1 hour to get to your hotel from this airport! Many visitor don't realize just how distinct Sonoma and Napa valleys are--there are very few roads that traverse the hills between them (so you mostly have to go around). So if you land during rush hour, yikes. If you're visiting Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Healdsburg or the Russian River, this airport works great. Take a look at the flight schedule here.


You can also fly into the Sacramento International Airport. The airport is on the western side of the city, so you won't even hit capitol city traffic on your way. This airport is more realistic for those visiting Napa County. The drive to Sonoma is just too far. The Denver-Sac flight I think is pretty reliable, so this may be a good option. It's a small airport, so the craziness that you'll get at SFO (and somewhat in OAK) won't be a factor here.


Lastly, try the major Bay Area airports, SFO and OAK. They have the greatest volume of flights, so there's convenience there. Both are approximately equidistant from Sonoma and Napa. Flying into San Jose, SJC, you'll be driving for up to 3 hours in rush hour...so skip it.

Good luck to all--feel free to comment.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Day Trips in Wine Country--a review

Been obsessing over Google Analytics lately, and noticed that the most frequently clicked tag is "Day Trips". I guess a lot of people from the Bay Area have been coming up just for the day. It makes sense given the complete tanking of the economy--hotels are expensive here. Anyhow, I thought I'd write a little summary of my relevant "Day Trip" posts so you can browse at your leisure

Avoiding the Corny side of Napa. I think this one speaks for itself.
Picknicking in style. We're running out of time this year for outdoor picnics, but it's been pretty nice in the last couple of weeks.
Scenic Drives. Works for cycling too!
Drinking and Driving. How to avoid that pesky little problem.
Day Trip vs. Overnighter. Some stats and suggestions.
Free Tastings with Visa Signature. I believe you only have until December 2008 for this one...