Denver Breweries to Napa Vineyards – SOLD OUT See our Sept 7 departure

Today is the arrival day into Denver. We’ll begin activities in the late afternoon, after checking into our accomodations. We’ll head off to two very cool neighborhoods. the LoDo and RiNo districts. There are all sorts of eclectic shops, cafes, and historic buildings to explore. We’ll provide access to an optional bike tour of these areas. We’ll have a welcome dinner in one of the cool speakeasies in one of these hip areas, and sample some craft beers Denver is famous for.

Note: schedule is now changed due to concert at Red Rocks Ampitheater today instead.  The activities above will now be on Day 2.

Today we’ll enjoy the scenic vistas surrounding the city as we do a Foothills of the Rockies Tour. After lunch we’ll continue with exploring the hip areas of Denver with a Pedal Bar Tour! Welcome Dinner will be tonight after our Pedal Bar Tour.

Today we board the California Zephyr for our 33-hour train ride. But don’t worry, we’ll be entertained with majestic views for much of the morning and afternoon. We’ll get first class service with all meals provided, and we have access to lounges for drinks anytime we want. Our rooms contain sleeping berths, and the sleeping cars have bathrooms with showers.

We’ll continue our train ride until late afternoon, with special entertainment just for our group. We’ll present a wine sommelier’s lessons in wine tasting, so we’ll be prepared to know how to properly taste wines like an expert!

Our Zephyr train ride ends at 5pm in Emeryville, CA, so we’ll take bus transportation to downtown San Francisco. Our 2 night accommodations are right on Fisherman’s Wharf – the Hotel Zephyr!!! That evening is free with no planned activities, so you can eat somewhere on Fisherman’s Wharf and stroll along the piers.

This morning we head out to visit Alcatraz Island and tour the island and facilities, and learn the fascinating history of this iconic prison and its infamous inhabitants. Once we ferry back, we’ll take a street car to Chinatown, where we can enjoy a lunch of authentic Chinese food (dim-sum, anyone?). Then walk it off by exploring the unique shops and markets there. In the evening we will have dinner at Jim’s Favorite – The Stinking Rose! The rest of the night will be yours to explore as you see fit.

We have private drivers and vans lined up for these next two days as we venture out of San Francisco. We’ll stop at the Golden Gate Bridge to see the views and take obligatory pictures, then drive into the magnificent Muir Woods, where we can do an easy hike for about an hour. Then its back into the van, stopping at 2 exclusive wineries where we have private tastings booked.  We’ll check into our luxury boutique hotel in Napa for the night. We can take in the views at the outdoor patio in our hotel, before heading out to one of the fine restaurants in the area for dinner.

Private Tastings at Salvestrin Winery and Spire Collection (or similar)

We’ll continue with 3 more exclusive wine tours and tastings, in unique and luxury wineries. We’ll learn about the history of wine making in the area and visit some historic places. The vans will then take us back to San Francisco to our airport hotel for our last night before we fly home in the morning. We’ll have our farewell dinner tonight, included in the tour, at a very nice restaurant, to cap off our wonderful week.

Private Tasting  (or similar)

Private Winery Tastings at Freemark Abbey Winery, Lokoya Winery, Cardinale Winery in St. Helena (or similar)

After breakfast at our airport hotel we check out, then go to the San Francisco airport to fly home.