The Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, and cable cars are just a few of the many iconic hallmarks of San Francisco, so it’s a little wonder that the city is heavily visited by tourists every year. However, wine tours San Francisco are also one of the popular decisions that tourists often make whenever they are vacationing in the city.
Whenever they think of the wine tours in the city’s outskirts, the Napa and Sonoma Valleys are usually the first ones they go to. Napa Valley, in particular, has been one of the finest wine destinations in the world, since after its local Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons surprisingly upset the French counterparts at the 1976 Judgment of Paris competition. The region is also home to several Michelin-starred restaurants, so that’s just another feather in Napa’s cap.
Millions of tourists each year flock to Napa Valley to sample and enjoy its wines, local cuisine, and other pleasurable activities. Holidays in Napa Valley are basically wine tours, and no visit to Napa is ever complete without knowing and learning its wine culture — whether you drink wine or you don’t.
A wine tour would be ten times (or more) fun when you include activities such as a hot air balloon ride over the Napa Valley fields. You’ll get conflicting feelings once you are flying in the sky. First, you’ll get a dose of the much-needed adrenalin rush as your basket gradually lifts off the ground. But as the balloon gently floats in the cool breeze, you will later find a feeling of peace and tranquility. Feast your eyes at the breathtaking expanse of the Napa Valley — the neatly-arranged rows of grapevines, the rolling hills, and mountains that may be occasionally enveloped by a fog, roads that stretch long between the fields, and the trees and the estates that dot the fields.
Upon your safe return to the ground, you and your friends will enjoy a bubbly champagne — an ages-old custom when celebrating a successful flight.
Balloons Above the Valley (BATV) offers more than hot air balloon flights — we also offer pre-flight breakfasts (depending on the package), post-flight brunches, wine tours, a picnic lunch at the winery and even an olive oil tasting.
You’ll get to experience them by choosing one of BATV’s comprehensive packages, the “San Francisco Balloon and Wine Tour,” for two — tailor-made for you and your loved one or your best friend.
This two-day tour package begins with a limousine bus that will drive the guests from San Francisco to the Wine Country. A Continental breakfast with mimosa awaits them inside the limo bus as they are coasting for the next stop at selected wineries. A picnic lunch at one of the wineries awaits them. We’re sure your bellies will be full with a sample menu consisting of pasta, turkey roll, lasagna, hummus, and chocolate-coated strawberries. Yum!
Guests can go back to their chosen places to stay — a bed and breakfast establishment, or accommodation downtown Napa and surrounding areas, or even a bigger resort.
The following day is the hot air balloon adventure! Meet with the other guests at The Model Bakery to enjoy breakfast that consists of freshly brewed coffee and pastries just hot out of the oven. After a brief orientation, you will be driven to the launch site where the balloons are being inflated and getting ready for the flight… then the airborne adventure begins!
Following the one-hour flight, you will be treated to a delectable seasonal brunch with a sparkling wine. Get to meet and chat with your new-found friends and talk excitedly about how extraordinary that hot air balloon flight was.. and who knows, you may be planning together to have another flight again!
If you’re planning to have wine tours in San Francisco, get the most out of it by embarking on a hot air balloon adventure over the picturesque Napa Valley!