Bodega Bay Restaurants and One Great Wine Bar

Use this handy map to find a restaurant in Bodega Bay. Don't wait until you're hungry.

Wine Tasting Etiquette

On caution's side, be careful when driving around the wine country in your expectant state of euphoria.

If you just roll into any old winery and tumble out of your car looking for a good tasting experience, you might find staff a bit grumpy. While many winery owners love visitors, some emphatically do not (think Alien vs. Predator).

As mentioned above, the majority of wineries on the Central Coast and in Napa and Sonoma who do allow visitors would like you to give them some advance warning before you come at them like a mob of thirsty zombies.

Most wineries also charge a tasting fee these days. These fees are normally set at a fair price and most fees are waived if you purchase wine.

So do your homework here on WCW before coming to the Wine Country. Again, our individual town pages provide extensive information on wine-tasting fees. Print out the pages and take them with you.

Car Rentals in the Wine Country with CarTrawler

CarTrawler? Who the heck is CarTrawler? Find out here.

The short version is, we have some of the best prices for car rentals in Paso Robles, Santa Rosa, Napa, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and around the world. If you're traveling abroad, CarTrawler has over 24,000 car rental locations worldwide.

Compare prices on the booking engine at the top of the page.

How to Find a Winery

If you want to browse through all the wineries in Napa or Sonoma, please visit the Town listings for Napa County Wineries Central Coast Wineries and Sonoma County Wineries pages on our website. These winery pages are set up for easy scrolling and we have indicated what wineries have tasting rooms (again, please call them first to confirm tasting fees and appointments).

Wine Country Weddings

California's wine country provides the perfect venue for weddings. Visit our Sonoma and Napa weddings page or our Central Coast weddings page to see what wineries offer on-site services for your wedding or reception. We also list resources to help the wedding parties find just the right music, photographer, flowers and non-winery venues.

Perhaps nowhere else in California offers as remarkable a venue for a wedding as does the Wine Country. Not only does it have world-class hotels and services but it gives your wedding guests a remarkable array of activities to indulge in.

From the Armstrong Redwoods to 78 miles of pristine beaches to the beautiful Central Coast, the California Wine Country really is the best spot to host your events.

Central Coast Tasting Rooms and Wine Bars

If you are visiting the Central Coast of California and want to do some wine tasting, you can find information on what wineries have tastings on site and where to find tasting rooms and wine bars in the various towns.

Napa Tasting Rooms and Wine Bars

It's easy to find tasting rooms and wine bars in Napa County because the towns line up from south to north.

Sonoma Tasting Rooms and Wine Bars

Whether it's your first visit to the Wine Country or you are a local, one of the easiest ways to enjoy a variety of wines is at a tasting room or a wine bar. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference.

Of course, you can drive around the county looking for wineries offering wine tasting and this can be fun. However, an easier way to find the wine of your dreams is to take a stroll around the towns of Sonoma County and pop into the many available tasting rooms and wine bars.

On our Tasting Rooms and Wine Bars page, we have some photo listings with direct links to websites so you can plan ahead.

Wine Country Hot Air Balloon Rides

Sailing away in a Hot Air Balloon is one of the favorite highs in the Wine Country. Mix fun people, beautiful weather and the feeling of floating away and you get an elixir to rival those enjoyed by kings, moguls, Civil War spotters and Sub chasers.

Wine Country Wine Cave Tours

There are close to two hundred wineries in Napa and Sonoma Counties with wine caves. There could be more but, well, they're hidden, you know. We've gathered together a few who do Cave Tours with all their information and links to their web pages.

If you'd like to have an extraordinary wine-tasting experience, we suggest you consider a visit to a Wine Country winery with a wine cave.

Wine Country Day Spas

Want to feel pretty like Violet Fur Pants (shown in the photo after experiencing a lovely facial and massage)? What's with the hair, Violet?

Wine Country Welcome has an extensive list of spas in Sonoma and Napa, including Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary in Occidental where you can experience a Cedar Enzyme Bath, the only one of its kind in North America.

Skincare, waxing, aroma therapy, it's almost too much to think about.

So don't think about it. Get on up (or down) to Wine Country and pamper yourself. Violet Fur Pants does.

Wine Country Activities

From the thrills of riding a wine train to suspending high in the redwoods on a zip line, Wine Country has plenty of things to do.

Even Violet Fur Pants knows this and she's all over the Safari West tour in Santa Rosa if her date ever comes to pick her up. Where the heck is he anyway? Doesn't he know she's looking lovely?

Take a Tour on the Wine Side

When visiting wineries in the Wine Country, we highly recommend booking a tour. There are plenty of them available. Just check with your hotel when booking a room or visit the local chambers of commerce for free coupons.

Back in the old days (the '70's), we used to drive our VW's into Napa Valley and see how many wineries we could hit in an afternoon.

In that geological period, most tastings were free and, although we bought plenty of fine bottles of happiness to take home with us, we certainly drank more wine than we should have as we continued on our merry way.

You can't do that today and, let's be honest, it was pretty stupid to do it back then. But we were young and, well, we were stupid.

You can experience so much more when you take a Central Coast, Sonoma or Napa Valley winery tour. On a winery tour, you are availed a good amount of local knowledge and more time to enjoy the day with your fellow thrill seekers.

Thank you for taking a little time to visit our website. We especially welcome our Irish and other European visitors from Tour Clare. Tour Clare is our travel website out of Ireland with resources and tours throughout Europe.

Drop me a line if you would like to have your winery, your posh hotel or your apple-dumpling B&B listed on WCW. We'd love to hear from you.

Jim Kelly
Wine Country Welcome