Wine country uncorked

Planes, trains and automobiles
Touring the green, rolling hills of Napa Valley is one of life’s indescribable journeys. Lush fields seem to undulate suggestively with row after row of well manicured fruit of the vine. Majestic mountains frame this verdant panorama straight out of Monet or Gaugin, and travel options are as plentiful as the award winning varieties of wines produced in the region.

The do-it-yourselfer will find the absolute joy of asphalt discovery by renting a car to explore this Wine Wonderland, or for the more luxury minded, you can book a Limo Tour from any number of companies that specialize in Wine Country so you can luxuriate with an informed designated driver while you imbibe and sample the finished product of the harvest.

If you have some Boxcar Willie lurking in your genetic code, you can ride the rails on The Napa Valley Wine Train, enjoying champagne brunches or dinners in a restored Pullman car as you sniff and sip your favorite varietal concoctions. The Pullmans harken back to a time of railroad style and grace and are completely refinished in rich, imported Mahoganies, brass fixtures and grape motif etched glass to surround you with quiet elegance as your Wine and Dine Magical Mystery Tour rolls gently up valley for a culinary experience you’ll not soon forget.

The Wine Train station is located in downtown Napa, and while your waiting to board the Vino Version of the Orient Express, you can avail yourself of the many gift stores to shop for that perfect Wine Country gift or souvenir. Don’t forget to stop at the Wine Emporium that is filled to the cork with more than 200 varieties of wine and wine related items. All aboard!

The Wright Brothers and Charles Lindberg certainly made aviation histoire, and you take advantage of their innovations in flight and take to the skies for a Birds Eye Tour of Wine Country by booking a flight on a Wine Plane! Charter a wine tasting flight over the Valley and enjoy the view while sampling Mother Grape. In addition to flights over Napa Valley, many of the charter companies offer combo tours of the Valley and San Francisco. All in all, this tour gives new meaning to the term “flying high.”

Balloons
Ever since the Montgolfier Brothers soared the big blue in their big balloon, the race was on! Everyone from Jules Verne to Steve Fossett had been bitten by the gas bag bug. In Napa Valley, champagne balloon flights of fancy are not only a reality, but plentiful, and you have your choice of flight specialists to take you soaring into the early dew-laden morning sunrise.

The balloons themselves are works of aeronautical art, stretched like an artist’s canvas as they expand and fill to reveal brilliant, colorful designs that float above the valley floor as though on display at some private flying museum of modern art…and is one of the definitive Wine Country to dos that is not to be missed.

Once you visit Wine Country, you’ll come back time and time again, if for no other reason than to keep the grapes happy — after all, nobody wants to feel the wrath of grapes…

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