Napa Valley & Sonoma, between the rows
An hour north of the Golden Gate, two valleys share a mountain range and little else in temperament.
An hour north of the Golden Gate, two valleys share a mountain range and little else in temperament. Napa runs formal along Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail, Sonoma keeps its oaks and its town square at Healdsburg. The hotels here are estates and inns rather than towers: a hillside inn that began as a restaurant, a private club from 1964, bungalows under the oaks, a resort with its own winery, five rooms above a restaurant in downtown Healdsburg. We kept only the addresses where the service holds up to the setting. All five hold five-star standing. Five made the cut.
Five-star hotels in Napa Valley & Sonoma
5 hotels
Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley
Five-star · Napa Valley
A working winery with a resort around it, at the top of the valley in Calistoga.
From $1,100 per night
Any mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.
Montage Healdsburg
Five-star · Sonoma & Healdsburg
Bungalows scattered through 258 acres of oak woodland – the one address we list in Sonoma County.
From $900 per night
Any mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.
Auberge du Soleil
Five-star · Napa Valley
A Provençal inn on a Rutherford hillside that started as a restaurant with a view.
From $1,600 per night
Any mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.
Meadowood Napa Valley
Five-star · Napa Valley
St. Helena's 1964 private club, back at 36 rooms and rebuilding after the Glass Fire.
From $1,000 per night
Any mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.
SingleThread Inn
Five-star · Sonoma & Healdsburg
Five rooms above a restaurant in downtown Healdsburg, kept so that dinner can end with a staircase.
From $1,300 per night
Any mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.
Napa Valley
The valley floor between Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail, where three of the five addresses sit. It runs from the Carneros ranchland south of Napa through Napa itself, Yountville, Rutherford and St. Helena to Calistoga.
The neighborhoods
Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley · Napa Valley — © Four SeasonsNapa Valley
The valley floor between Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail, where three of the five addresses sit. It runs from the Carneros ranchland south of Napa through Napa itself, Yountville, Rutherford and St. Helena to Calistoga.
Sonoma & Healdsburg
Sonoma County's oak woodland and its plaza town, Healdsburg, home to the two addresses here. It lies over the Mayacamas to the west, and the Dry Creek, Alexander and Russian River valleys meet at Healdsburg's edges.
Good to know
Which are the five-star hotels in Napa Valley & Sonoma?
Five. Every hotel we list in Napa Valley & Sonoma holds five-star standing: Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley, Montage Healdsburg, Auberge du Soleil, Meadowood Napa Valley and SingleThread Inn. Each has its own page, reached from the list above, with a concierge behind every stay.
Where should I stay – Napa Valley or Sonoma?
Napa Valley is the formal side: three of our five addresses sit there, along Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail from Rutherford and St. Helena to Calistoga, ten to twenty-five minutes apart. Sonoma is the looser county over the Mayacamas – two addresses, both in Healdsburg, whose plaza is the best small town in wine country to walk after dinner. Highway 128 links Napa and Healdsburg in about forty minutes, so a stay can take in both.
When is the best season for wine country?
Harvest, from late August into October, is the valley at full stretch – warm days, cool nights, crush under way and the restaurants booked well ahead. Spring brings the mustard bloom between the rows in February and March and the quietest roads; summer is hot and bright by mid-afternoon; winter, which the locals call cabernet season, is the time for fireplaces, rain on the vines and rooms that are easier to come by.
Do the hotels have vineyards of their own?
Two do. The Four Seasons in Calistoga is built around a 4.7-acre organic Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard with a working winery, Elusa, on the property, and Montage Healdsburg has a 15.5-acre estate vineyard among its oaks. Auberge du Soleil sits in olive groves and oaks on a hillside above Rutherford, and Meadowood's 250 acres go to golf, croquet, tennis and trails – in each case the wineries begin at the end of the drive.
How do I reserve a stay?
Search your dates on the hotel's page to see reference rates, then send the concierge a request. The concierge confirms exact rates and availability with you before anything is booked, and any payment and its timing are set out before you confirm.
