If you want to make great food the theme of your next girls getaway, then Napa Valley is the place to go. Located about 2 hours north of San Francisco, Napa can be reached by flying into the San Francisco or Oakland airports and then taking a scenic drive north over the Golden Gate bridge through Marin County and into the wine country.

Great food needs great wine. The Napa/Sonoma area has hundreds of wineries and if you don’t already have a list, here are some suggested wine trails. Besides touring the wineries, there are other things to explore, like the 150 year old Sonoma Plaza, which gives you a taste of Old California. The plaza is fun to walk around and has some nice shops, restaurants and a movie theater. Another place worth exploring in Napa is COPIA, which is a truly unique culinary museum with surrounding gardens. 

Just north of Napa is the Culinary Institute of America located in an old winery in St. Helena. At the Culinary Institute you can take week-long cooking courses, or just stop by for a one hour cooking demonstration by one of their chefs.  Napa Valley has some excellent restaurants - the French Laundry, Mustards Grill and Terra are a few (reservations fill up fast).  Part of what makes the Napa Valley special is its beautiful rural setting.  We loved seeing the bright yellow mustard fields in bloom (February and March), the rolling vineyards and the miniature donkeys.