Yountville

Yountville sits in the middle of Napa Valley, roughly nine miles north of the city of Napa on Highway 29. It is small enough to cross on foot in fifteen minutes, and that walkability is the point: hotels, tasting rooms, bakeries and some of the valley's best-known restaurants sit within a few blocks of Washington Street.

Stay in Yountville when you want to eat well and walk home. It is the easiest base in Napa for travelers who would rather not drive after dinner, and it puts Oakville, Rutherford and St. Helena within a short drive north.

Most Napa towns ask you to drive to dinner. Yountville does not. The concentration of serious kitchens, spas and tasting rooms inside a walkable grid is unusual for Wine Country, and it changes the shape of an evening.

Yountville works as a first-time Napa base, an anniversary weekend, or the dining-led half of a Napa and Sonoma trip. Two to three nights is typically right.