Top 10 Reasons to Drive Through Wine Country

Driving tours are the ideal way to see the sights of larger areas of history, specific subjects and natural beauty.  Typically these tours have been taken in buses,  but more recently private cars are being used.  Automakers are building new technology into the cars, such as GPS reception and satellite radio, opening up many possibilities for creating mobile tours.  The valleys of Napa and Sonoma have long offered one of the America’s most beautiful drives.  Now driving tours of the area are possibly and here is why.

1. The area has one exciting theme. Winemaking is what’s happening in  Napa and Sonoma and growing grapes is intense.  From the time the last of the early Spanish missions was built in Sonoma, when California was still under the Crown of Spain, growing grapes and making wine has been the single dominant activity of this entire area.

2. Napa and Sonoma Valleys are incredibly beautiful. The rolling hills, low mountain background, small bubbling streams, picturesque villages, and intense variety of trees all combine with entire valleys of grapevines to create an incredible variety of vistas in all directions to drive through.

3. Closeness of interesting sites. There are many sites of interest within a short driving distance in the wine country.  The SelfTour Audio Adventures App driving tour of Napa and Sonoma leads the listener on the most popular route circling the valleys from Buena Vista, the first commercial winery, to celebrity owned wineries such as the Frances Ford Coppola, the Walt Disney Family and the Getty winery.  Plus famous name wine makers such as Mumm, Beringer, Beaulieu, Stags Leap, Sterling, and Sutter Home to just name a few.  Each offers spectacular wine making facilities and tasting rooms to visit.  And it is just a short hop between them.

4. Many different options for taking a break in the driving. Culinary excellence abounds in these valleys and villages where one can find cafes featuring innovative recipes spread between world-class four and five-star restaurants.  Add these to the tasting rooms and picturesque towns and there a many reasons to take a break in the driving. Or try a picnic in the hills among ancient trees and wild flowers under a sunny sky.  Or how about a mud bath?

5. The area is geologically unique. The Napa valley was a hotbed of volcanic activity and still utilizes these seismic sources for sparking water, hot spring soaking and mud baths.  There is a petrified forest, a geyser and the entire valley was once the cone of a volcano.

6. Close in hotels. The area of the tours incudes many five star resorts and  leading name hotels as well as picturesque Victorian B&Bs .

7. End where you began. The cleverness of our tour designers of the SelfTour Audio Adventures App for Napa and Sonoma is making the driving tour a complete circle allowing users to join at any point and still experience the entire tour.  This also means you never repeat where you have already driven.  There is always something new ahead.

8. A Wow factor. One wow factor is exploring the first commercial winery, Buena Vista Wines established in 1857, with its hand-dug wine storage tunnels extending like a spiderweb into the adjoining hill.  Or the old French style winery of Chateau Montelena who grew the grapes and made the wine that astonished French oenophiles in 1976 and won the top prize putting Napa forever on list of top wines worldwide.

9. Long temperate periods. California’s wine country is blessed with perfect weather all year long.

10. A learning experience. There can be no better way to learn about wine, wine making and the differences in wine than on a driving tour of Napa and Sonoma.