Sonoma
After adding my friend, Rhea, to my flight benefits one of the first places on our travel bucket list was wine country. As two wine lovers how couldn’t it be?
After a trip to LA, we convinced two of our friends from college who lived out there to drive up and meet us in San Fransisco. Them being the stand up gentleman they are scooped us up from the airport.
Before heading to our Airbnb in Vallejo (a spot we picked between San Fran and Sonoma), we got dinner and explored the city a little bit.
We got dinner and drinks at a Mexican restaurant in the Mission District. It was pretty good but the highlight of the Mission District for me was finding Rhea’s Deli and Market. Why you ask? It’s my best friends name and we got an amazing picture in front of it. We didn’t go in but with a name like that it has to be a classy joint.
Since it was my friends first visit to SF, we did the dishonorable tourist thing and went to Ghirardelli Square. Now if you haven’t been it is a fun thing to do and see, not to mention their chocolate.
After getting stuck in the tourist trip, we met up with a friend of Rhea and mine that had moved to San Fransisco from Chicago. The house where he was at had such an incredible view of the bay. It was a place in the Marina District, which I’ve heard is kind of frat boy vibes, but the view spoke for itself.
We called it a somewhat early night and made our way to our cute, but in my opinion kinda creepy, Airbnb.
Early(ish) the next morning we got ready and headed to downtown Sonoma to catch our trolley tour. It was a short drive from Vallejo and picked us up in the historic, adorable downtown of Sonoma.
We opted for the Sonoma Wine Trolley tasting tour. It picked us up at 10am for a six hour tasting tour on, you guessed it, a trolley. It wasn’t too expensive compared to other tours we were looking at.
For $99 we got a guided tour throughout Sonoma, visited three wineries (some were free and others we paid a reasonable fee), were provided lunch and became fast friends with some of our fellow trolley passengers.
The whole tour was so much fun. We tasted so many different wines and learned things, that I already forgot, but never would have known about wine and how it’s made.
One thing I did take home with me was how to swirl wine in your glass to get the best aroma. I don’t recommend trying with a full glass however.
After the tour we were dropped back in the Sonoma Plaza, which I guess is the largest plaza in California according to Google. There were plenty of restaurants within walking distance and to chose from. We got dinner with some people we met on the tour then ended our night at a fun local bar.
Sonoma reminds me so much of Italy and is a very close second for wine tasting. The hills are gorgeous to drive through especially on an open air trolley. The short trip from San Fransisco was definitely worth it and a trip I will without a doubt be making again.
Where to stay in Sonoma?
Check out booking.com or Airbnb for reasonable priced places to stay - I recommend somewhere near Downtown Sonoma!
If you want to see a highlight from my Sonoma adventure click here and click through my pictures below!
