Napa Valley Wine Train

Before you read further into this blog, let me make this perfectly clear.

I really enjoyed this train ride and I would recommend it to anyone.

That said, the train wasn't quite what I expected.

The round trip ride is 3 hours. It goes to St. Helena and then back. You go through the heart of Napa Valley and pass many notable and not so notable vineyards. Robert Mondavi and Sutter Home come to mind.

Of course, in the heart of winter, the scenery is not quite so beautiful, although it is stunning to see the acres and acres of vines.

We decided to be seated in the a la carte train called The Silverado. The meals that are served, fixe prix, seemed to be pretty heavy and of course, costly. So we ordered a lighter lunch that included a salad, a pumpkin-butternut squash soup, marinated olives, and a plate of cheese. You could order tastes of wine that included 4 tastes for $5.00 and we got 2 reds and 2 whites, all of which were good (but the red by Sterling was my favorite). The company was gracious and the service was wonderful. The restroom was clean and the train was easy to travel on

Still...

The train followed Highway 29, the same road my husband and I took from Geyersville south to Napa. So we didn't see anything we hadn't seen already on our drive.

Very few of the wineries were pointed out to us and little was told of the history of Napa. Our "guide" was also our waitress and she was busy serving lunch and drinks.

We sat on the west side of the train, and quite a bit of the "photographic" part of Napa was to the east. The west also had the sun facing into the camera.

We had our photos taken (like at roller coasters and duck tours) for a mere $21.50 if you decided to purchase it (I got one).

We took the same road back as we did up. At least that gave me the opportunity to get pictures of things I missed the first time up.

No map was given to show what was coming up.

But still, I enjoyed the ride. I'm not trying to talk anyone out of it. I'm just suggesting that maybe the train company do a little improving to make the trip worth the $49.50 we each paid to ride it.